US Ambassador murdered as extremists on all sides win, again
(Read article summary)The murder of the US Ambassador to Libya yesterday and a raucous protest in Cairo, all over a movie deemed offensive, recall the widespread violence during the Danish cartoon controversy.
The murder of US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens yesterday as an unopposed crowd ransacked and torched the consulate in Benghazi, along with a raucous protest at the US embassy in Cairo, are events that are going to reverberate for months to come. That the violence came on the anniversary of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington was not a coincidence.
Mr. Stevens was killed along with three other Americans in Libya's second-largest city, in protests that used as their pretext a hitherto unknown amateur film designed to insult the prophet Muhammad. Stevens was the first US ambassador murdered in the line of duty since Ambassador Adolph Dubs was assassinated in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1979. Early unconfirmed reports from Benghazi indicated the other dead Americans were Marines assigned to diplomatic security.
The ginned-up controversy over the film, which was propelled to violence by a rabble-rousing Egyptian television channel that presented the film as the work of the US government, recalls the protests over cartoons depicting Muhammad published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005.
Page 1 of 5
-
As Memorial Day arrives, Americans plan 'chill' vacations
- Dave Valle plays on a new field: microloans that help to end poverty
- How cockroaches evolved so as to bypass 'roach motels'
- Hezbollah leader vows victory in Syria for Assad
- Boy Scouts: Will anti-gay troops emerge?
- The Vote Clinton leads 2016 poll in Iowa, but Rand Paul is close
- Obama, Hagel tell young officers: You must lead in ridding US military of sexual assault
- In Pictures Facing the devastation of the Oklahoma tornadoes
- May 24, 2013 Photos of the Day
- The Monitor's View Obama reaches for moral high ground on drones, Gitmo
- Gallery Monitor Political Cartoons
- Opinion Time for food aid reform that helps hungry countries – and the US
- Cover storySouth Korea: The little dynamo that sneaked up on the world
-
Skagit River bridge collapse: Looking for a temporary fix (+video)
- Fired for word: 'Negro' in Spanish class
- Why did our ancestors start walking upright? Ancient terrain may hold clue.
- Court smacks down Joe Arpaio: Turning point for 'America's toughest sheriff?' (+video)
- 40 iPhone tips and tricks everyone should know
© The Christian Science Monitor. All Rights Reserved.
