'If you feed a scorpion, it will bite you'.": U.S. embassies attacked in Yemen, Egypt after Libya envoy killed: Democracy is the last thing on the minds of bearded Salafists and Islamic fundamentalists

Posted 07 September 2012 - 10:36 AM In Syria: only the tails of the feuding lions will be left intact! Air force General Hafez Al-Assad came to power in September1968 with the help of the CIA to topple the leftist government of Al-Attassi, Bachus, Y.Zain and Salah Jidid. At the time late King Hussein’s forces were attacking the Palestinians in Al-Baqaaa and the leftist Syrian government ordered the army to enter Jordan to assist them. This would have incited Israel to interfere, that was why Dr Kissinger asked the CIA to give a green light for Assad senior to be in control. Assad senior didn’t forget the CIA’s help and returned the favour and went to embrace US policies and plans. It was not a mere coincidence that Dr Madeline Albright, US secretary of state went to attend his funeral. Furthermore, Syria has rendered all assistance to the US and to the British in attacking Iraq in 1991 and in 2003. As it is usual, the Americans Use-and-Dump the ones they groom to serve their interests. Right now, Assad Jr is being castigated and the Americans insist that he must go the way Saddam and Gheddafi had gone under the force of the gun. Unlike Gheddafi and Saddam Syria has many friends and the opposition movement is made up exclusively of Sunni Arabs, Turks, and Kurds. This means that the Alawayites will fight to the end supported by Shiats from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. The money of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UK and US and the logistic and armed support from Turkey, Germany, Israel and France are trying to takeover the country, topple the Assad regime and to deny Iran a foot hold on the Israeli borders. While the Assad regime is being characterised as undemocratic, the opposition groups are labelled as being agents of foreign powers, not necessarily interested in the democracy or freedom of the Syrian people. So the lions will continue to fight it out until nothing is left except their tails. The country will be fragmented, the infrastructure will be destroyed, and democracy is the last thing on the minds of bearded Salafists and Islamic fundamentalists. One can’t help but laugh at the US governments and their European allies for embracing Saudi Arabia plans to democratise Syria. Some parties may profit from seeing the Middle East destroyed a country at a time. It must be part of an USraeli plan to redraw the Middle East map using local agents. Posted 05 September 2011 - 10:54 AM The US and most European governments, didn’t practice what they preached or what they had been announcing to their respective people; at least not when it comes to matters concerning Libya or the Geddafi regime. The documents uncovered in Libya so far have exposed many secret dealings and illegal activities in helping Geddafi punish his opponen while at the same revealing names of high US, French and British officials (e.g. Sir Mark Allen). Furthermore, it has shown that State Department and Pentagon officials visited Libya few months ago rendering advice in order to save Geddafi regime from further NATO attacks. As a result of such consultation, Libyan diplomats travelled to Israel to normalise relations with the National Zionist (NAZI) State as it is called by JEWWATCH.com. The Americans were right in being concerned as the collapse of Geddafi regime will lead to some embarassing exposures. Besides their part in the rendition and torture of terror suspects (e.g. Abdul Hakim Belhaj, the current military commander in Tripoli) there is a risk that the significant payments made to Tony Blair, to Sir. Mark Allen, to US officials and to Nikolas Sarkozi will be made public. In addition, the Israelis were unhappy to see Geddafi gone since many believe that he has a Jewish blood and wanted to compensate Jews with $US billions for the properties left behind when they immigrated out of the country in 1967, following the Israeli attack on Egypt, Jordan and Syria. So what has made the West rush to bombard Libya and to risk loosing Geddafi and the ensuing consequences? Squeezed between revolutions in Tunisa and Egypt, the US, UK, and France were aware that the Islamists will eventually take control of Libya and convert the North African state into another Iran. The present chaos in Libya is expected to continue long after Geddafi had left the scene. There is a Libyan saying, one doesn|t have to go out to know it is winter.The Islamist commander in Benghazi has already called on the head of the NTC (National Transitional Council) to resign for being too close to Geddafi in the past and for being too cosy with NATO. The same commander was involved in the killing of Rebel General Abdul Fattah Younis and the burning of his remains near Benghazi. While the Islamist commander of Tripoli has called on the US and the UK to apologise for helping Geddafi in kidnapping and torturing him at the notorious Bu Slim prison where he was held for seven years. One can say that Libya is not Iraq, but the US-led NATO chaos is familiar. Money in the hands of te crooks will not result in stable, secure or prosperous Libya. So far the US had spent over $two trillion on Iraq and Afghanistan. There re still $7 billion un accounted for in Iraq. Mr Paul Bremer, US-appointed first ruler of occupied Iraq, was accused of pocketing $300 million. The infrastrucre and services in Iraq are one million times worse than when criminal Saddam was in charge. Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times =========== Thu, Sep 13 11:18 AM EDT 1 of 18 By Mohammed Ghobari and Edmund Blair SANAA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Demonstrators attacked the U.S. embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday in protest at a film they consider blasphemous to Islam and American warships headed to Libya after the death of the U.S. ambassador there in related violence earlier in the week. Hundreds of Yemeni demonstrators broke through the main gate of the heavily fortified compound in eastern Sanaa, shouting "We sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God". Earlier they smashed windows of security offices outside the embassy and burned cars. "We can see a fire inside the compound and security forces are firing in the air. The demonstrators are fleeing and then charging back," one witness told Reuters. A security source said at least 15 people were wounded, some by bullets. An embassy spokesman said its personnel were reported to be safe. In Egypt, protesters hurled stones at a police cordon around the U.S. embassy in central Cairo after climbing into the embassy and tearing down the American flag. The state news agency said 13 people were injured in violence which erupted on Wednesday night after protests on Tuesday. Islamist gunmen staged a military-style assault on the U.S. consulate and a safe house refuge in Benghazi, eastern Libya on Tuesday. The U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died in the assault, carried out with guns, mortars and grenades. Eight Libyans were injured. U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to "bring to justice" those responsible and the U.S. military moved two navy destroyers towards the Libyan coast, in what a U.S. official said was a move to give the administration flexibility for any future action against Libyan targets. Obama said security was being increased at U.S. diplomatic posts around the globe and on Thursday the U.S. consulate in Berlin was partially evacuated after an employee fell ill on opening a suspicious envelope. About 1,000 Bangladeshi Islamists tried to march on the U.S. embassy in Dhaka after protests earlier in the week outside U.S. missions in Tunisia, Sudan and Morocco. The U.S. military dispatched a Marine Corps anti-terrorist team to boost security in Libya, whose leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in a U.S.-backed uprising last year. The attack, which U.S. officials said may have been planned in advance, came on the 11th anniversary of al Qaeda's attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. FILM The attackers were part of a mob blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad. Clips of the "Innocence of Muslims," had been circulating on the Internet for weeks before the protests erupted. They show an amateurish production portraying the Prophet Mohammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser. For many Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous and caricatures or other characterizations have in the past provoked protests all over the Muslim world. An actress in the California production said the video as it appeared bore no resemblance to the original filming. She had not been aware it was about the Prophet Mohammad. Among the assailants, Libyans identified units of a heavily armed local Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, which sympathizes with al Qaeda and derides Libya's U.S.-backed bid for democracy. Former Libya militant commander Noman Benotman, now president of Britain's Quilliam think-tank, said Western officials were investigating a possible link with a paramilitary training camp about 100 miles south of the eastern Libyan town of Darnah. U.S. officials said there were suggestions members of al Qaeda's north-Africa based affiliate may have been involved. Yemen, a key U.S. ally, is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), viewed by Washington as the most dangerous branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden. The attacks could alter U.S. attitudes towards the revolutions that toppled secularist authoritarian leaders in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and brought Islamists to power. The violence also could have an impact on the closely contested U.S. presidential race ahead of the November 6 election. Republican Mitt Romney, Obama's challenger, criticized the president's response to the crisis. He said the timing of a statement from the U.S. embassy in Cairo denouncing "efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims" made Obama look weak as protesters were attacking U.S. missions. Obama's campaign accused Romney of trying to score political points at a time of national tragedy. The attack raised questions about the future U.S. diplomatic presence in Libya, relations between Washington and Tripoli, and the unstable security situation after Gaddafi's overthrow. SAFE HOUSE Stevens, a 52-year-old California-born diplomat who spent a career operating in perilous places, became the first American ambassador killed in an attack since Adolph Dubs, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, died in a 1979 kidnapping attempt. A Libyan doctor pronounced him dead of smoke inhalation. U.S. information technology specialist Sean Smith and two other Americans who have not yet been identified also were killed when a squad of U.S. troops sent by helicopter from Tripoli to rescue the diplomats from the safe house came under mortar attack. "It was supposed to be a secret place and we were surprised the armed groups knew about it," Libyan Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif said of the safe house. Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief and Yemeni President Mansour Hadi both apologized to the United States over the attacks and Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi condemned them on television while also rejecting any "insult to the Prophet". Many Muslim states focused their condemnation on the film and will be concerned about preventing a repeat of the fallout seen after publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. This touched off riots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2006 in which at least 50 people died. Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the making of the movie a "devilish act" but said he was certain those involved in its production were a very small minority. The U.S. embassy in Kabul appealed to Afghan leaders for help in "maintaining calm" and Afghanistan ordered the YouTube site shut down so Afghans would not be able to see the film. (Additional reporting by Samia Nakhoul in Beirut, Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Hadeel Al Shalchi in Tripoli, Sami Aboudi in Dubai, Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi, Sarah N. Lynch, Arshad Mohammed, Andrew Quinn, Matt Spetalnick, Steve Holland and Mark Hosenball in Washington, William Maclean in London and Reuters reporters in Cairo and Benghazi; writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Ralph Boulton and Janet McBride) (This story was refiled to correct the attribution of quotation in paragraph 25) ============== 'Anti-US protests hit Kuwait, Saudi Arabia LAST UPDATE Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:25:13 GMT Anti-US protests have spilled over into Saudi Arabia and Kuwait days after the release of a US-made movie attacking the Islam's Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Protesters gathered on Thursday in front of the US Embassy in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and a similar protest was also held outside the American consulate in the port city of Jeddah. Activists have called for mass demonstrations in front of US diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia on Friday. Meanwhile, the US Embassy staff in Kuwait were evacuated amid reports of protests against the blasphemous film. The Muslim world is seething with anti-US sentiments over the release of the $5-million movie which -- financed by more than 100 Zionists -- insults the glorious religion's Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Angry protesters across the world have poured into the streets to condemn the blasphemous movie and demand the US government apologize to the Muslim world. MRS/JR === ‘US, Zionists prime anti-Islam suspects’ Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:12:29 GMT The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has slammed the antagonistic policies of Zionism and the US as the root cause of the recent production of an American movie desecrating Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Ayatollah Khamenei issued a message on Thursday following the anti-Islam move. The full text of the message follows: In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful Dear Iranian nation; the great Islamic ummah The filthy hand of the enemies of Islam once again revealed its deep-rooted malice by insulting the Grand Prophet [Mohammad] (PBUH) and with an insane and deplorable measure showed the fury of the evil Zionists at the daily-increasing radiance of Islam and Holy Qur’an in the present world. Regarding the disgrace of the agents of this crime and great sin it suffices to say that they have targeted the most sacred and luminous figure among the world sanctities with their disgusting nonsense. Behind this evil move lie the antagonistic policies of the Zionists and the US and other heads of the global arrogance, who in their vain delusions want to knock down the Islamic sanctities from their lofty position in the eyes of the young generations in the world of Islam and to extinguish their religious sentiments. Had they not backed the previous links in this evil chain, namely Salman Rushdie, the Danish cartoonist, and the US pastors who burned the Holy Qur’an and had they not made orders for [production of] tens of anti-Islam movies to companies affiliated to the Zionist capitalists, things would not have lead to this great and unforgivable sin today. The prime suspects in this crime are Zionism and the US government. If the US politicians are honest in their claim of not being involved [in production of this film], [they] must bring the perpetrators of this hideous crime and their financial backers, who have wrenched the hearts of Muslim nations, to face a punishment proportionate to this great crime. Muslim brothers and sisters must know that this desperate move by the enemies in the wake of the Islamic Awakening is a sign of the grandeur and importance of this uprising and heralds its increasing growth. Seyyed Ali Khamenei September 13, 2012 ============================================= Honoring dead from Libya, Obama vows to 'stand fast' Fri, Sep 14 17:01 PM EDT 1 of 4 By Margaret Chadbourn ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Maryland (Reuters) - President Barack Obama vowed on Friday to "stand fast" against violent anti-American protests sweeping the Muslim world as he honored the return of the remains of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans killed in an attack in Libya this week. Leading a somber ceremony with the flag-draped caskets of the Libya dead laid out beside him, Obama pledged to do everything possible to protect U.S. diplomats abroad and said he would hold foreign governments responsible for helping to safeguard them. "The United States will never retreat from the world," Obama told a crowd that included grieving family members, diplomatic personnel and military service members inside a vast aircraft hangar at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. Obama spoke as growing fury about a film that insults the Prophet Mohammad tore across the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world after weekly prayers on Friday, with protesters attacking U.S. embassies and burning American flags as the Pentagon rushed to bolster security at U.S. missions. The obscure California-made film triggered an attack on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on Tuesday, the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on the United States. The attack and the spread of anti-U.S. violence to other Muslim countries have raised questions about Obama's handling of the Arab Spring revolutions of the past year even as he seeks re-election in November in a closely contested race. The wave of attacks has reverberated into the presidential campaign, with Republican challenger Mitt Romney and his allies seizing the chance to reassert their accusations that Obama has weakened U.S. global leadership. U.S. RESOLVE Obama acknowledged "these are difficult days" but expressed firm resolve. "We will bring to justice those who took them from us. We will stand fast against the violence on our diplomatic missions," he said. "We will continue to do everything in our power to protect Americans serving overseas, whether that means increasing security at our diplomatic posts, working with host countries which have an obligation to provide security, and making it clear that justice will come to those who harm Americans," he said. The ceremony was held to honor the return to U.S. soil of the bodies of Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Smith and security personnel Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, both former Navy SEALS. Some U.S. officials believe the deadly attack could have been plotted in advance, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Friday he had no information suggesting the assault on the Benghazi consulate was "pre-planned." Clinton repeated that the U.S. government had nothing to do with the making of the inflammatory film, and she insisted the violent response was "totally unacceptable." She said countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, which had cast off authoritarian rulers, "did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of the mob." At the start of the ceremony, Marine pallbearers hoisted the caskets one by one from a military cargo plane and carried them into the hangar while a military band played somber music. As Obama spoke, he was flanked by four hearses. The remains were to be flown to a military mortuary at an air base in Dover, Delaware. (Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Lisa Lambert, writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Will Dunham) ======================================================\ Anti-American fury sweeps Middle East over film Fri, Sep 14 18:09 PM EDT 1 of 7 KHARTOUM/TUNIS (Reuters) - Fury about a film that insults the Prophet Mohammad tore across the Middle East after weekly prayers on Friday with protesters attacking U.S. embassies and burning American flags as the Pentagon rushed to bolster security at its missions. The obscure California-made film triggered an attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya's city of Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans on Tuesday, the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on the United States. In Tunis, at least three people were killed and more than two dozen wounded, state television said after police gunfire near the U.S. embassy in the city that was the cradle of last year's Arab Spring uprisings for democracy. At least one person died in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, a doctor said, after some of thousands of protesters had leaped into the U.S. embassy. As U.S. military drones faced Islamist anti-aircraft fire over Benghazi, about 50 marines landed in Yemen a day after the U.S. embassy there was stormed. For a second day in the capital Sanaa, police battled hundreds of young men around the mission. In Khartoum, wider anger at Western attitudes to Islam also saw the German embassy overrun, with police doing little to stop demonstrators who raised a black Islamist flag. Violence at the U.S. embassy followed protests against both Washington and the Sudanese government, which is broadly at odds with the West. The wave of indignation and rage over the film, which portrays Mohammad as a womanizer and a fool, coincided with Pope Benedict's arrival in Lebanon for a three-day visit. The protests present U.S. President Barack Obama with a new foreign policy crisis less than two months before seeking re-election and tests Washington's relations with democratic governments it helped to power across the Arab world. He was at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington to greet a flight bringing home remains of the four dead from Benghazi. It also emerged that Libya had closed its airspace over the second city's airport for a time because of heavy anti-aircraft fire by Islamists aiming at U.S. reconnaissance drones flying over the city; Obama vowed to bring the ambassador's killers to justice. The closure of the airport prompted speculation that the United States was deploying special forces in preparation for an attack against the militants who were involved in the attack. A Libyan official said the spy planes flew over the embassy compound and the city, taking photos and inspecting locations of radical militant groups who are believed to have planned and staged the attack on the U.S. consulate. There were protests in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. MARINES TO YEMEN The Pentagon said it had sent a "fast" platoon of Marines to Yemen to bolster U.S. embassy security after clashes in Sanaa. U.S. embassies were the main target of anger and protest but most embassy staff were not at work because Friday is the Muslim weekend across the Arab World. The frenzy erupted after traditional Muslim Friday prayers. Fury over the film has been stoked by Internet video footage, social networks, preachers and word-of-mouth. Protesters clashed with police near the U.S. embassy in Cairo. Two Islamist preachers in Egypt told worshippers that those who made the movie deserved to die under Islamic law but they urged protesters not to take their anger out on diplomats. In the restive Sinai peninsula, militants opened fire on an international observer base near El Gorah, close to the borders of Israel and the Gaza Strip, and burned tires blocking a road to the camp, a witness and a security source reported. The source said two members of the force were wounded. The Sudanese who broke into the German embassy in Khartoum and hoisted an Islamic flag, while one person was killed in protests in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. Police in the Sudanese capital had fired tear gas to try to disperse 5,000 protesters who had ringed the German embassy and nearby British mission. A Reuters witness said police stood by as a crowd forced its way into Germany's mission. Demonstrators hoisted a black Islamic flag saying in white letters "there is no God but God and Mohammed is his Prophet". They smashed windows, cameras and furniture in the building and then started a fire. Staff at Germany's embassy were safe "for the moment", Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Berlin. He also told Khartoum's envoy to Berlin that Sudan must protect diplomatic missions on its soil. Sudan's Foreign Ministry had criticized Germany for allowing a protest last month by right-wing activists carrying caricatures of the Prophet and for Chancellor Angela Merkel giving an award in 2010 to a Danish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet in 2005 triggering protests across the Islamic world. BASHIR UNDER PRESSURE President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is under pressure from Islamists who feel the government has given up the religious values of his 1989 Islamist coup. The official body of Sudan's Islamic scholars called for the faithful to defend the Prophet peacefully, but at a meeting of Islamists, some leaders had said they would march on the German and U.S. embassies and demanded the ambassadors be expelled. The Foreign Ministry said in its statement: "The German chancellor unfortunately welcomed this offence to Islam in a clear violation of all meanings of religious co-existence and tolerance between religions." Sudan used to host prominent militants in the 1990s, such as Osama bin Laden, but the government has sought to distance itself from radicals to improve ties with the West. A Lebanese security source said a man was killed in Tripoli as protesters tried to storm a government building. Earlier, a U.S. fast food restaurant was set alight. Twelve members of the security forces were wounded by stones thrown by protesters, the source said. Protesters also clashed with police in Yemen, where one person died and 15 were injured on Thursday when the U.S. embassy compound was stormed. U.S. and other Western embassies in other Muslim countries had tightened security, fearing anger at the film may prompt attacks on their compounds after the weekly worship. Obama has promised to bring those responsible for the Benghazi attack to justice, and the United States also sent warships towards Libya which one official said was to give flexibility for any future action. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington had nothing to do with the crudely made film posted on the Internet, which she called "disgusting and reprehensible", and the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff called a Christian pastor in Florida to ask him to withdraw his support for it. Palestinians staged demonstrations in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli police, some on horseback, used stun grenades and made a number of arrests outside Jerusalem's Old City as a few dozen demonstrators tried to march on the nearby U.S. consulate. "Israeli police prevented an illegal demonstration from reaching the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem and used stun grenades after rocks and bottles were thrown at them," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. In Nablus, in the northern West Bank, several hundred people protested and burned an American flag, witnesses said. AMERICAN FLAGS BURNED The largest protests were in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Islamist group Hamas, with at least 30,000 Palestinians staging rallies across the coastal territory. Some 25,000 took to the streets of Gaza City, answering a call by Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad faction and waving the green and black flags of the two factions. American and Israeli flags were set alight, along with an effigy of the film's producer. Protesters in Afghanistan set fire to an effigy of Obama and burned a U.S. flag after Friday prayers in the eastern province of Nangarhar. Directing their anger against the U.S. pastor who supported the film, tribal leaders also agreed to put a $100,000 bounty on his head. About 10,000 people held a noisy protest in the Bangladeshi capital. They burned U.S. flags, chanted anti-U.S. slogans and demanded punishment for the offenders, but were stopped from marching to the U.S. embassy. There was no violence. Thousands of Iranians held nationwide protests. There were also rallies in Malaysia, Nigeria, Jordan, Kenya, Bahrain, Qatar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Iraq. (Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa, Samia Nakhoul in Beirut, Ulf Laessing and Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum, Gareth Jones in Berlin, Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Benghazi, Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Libya, Sami Aboudi in Dubai, Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi, Aref Mohammed in Basra, Iraq, Siva Sithraputhran in Kuala Lumpur, Anis Ahmed in Bangladesh, Regan Doherty in Doha, Roberto Landucci in Italy and Mirwais Harooni in Kabul; Writing by Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Peter Millership and Alastair Macdonald) ============================= Google rejects White House request to pull Mohammad film clip Fri, Sep 14 18:04 PM EDT By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc rejected a request by the White House on Friday to reconsider its decision to keep online a controversial YouTube movie clip that has ignited anti-American protests in the Middle East. The Internet company said it was censoring the video in India and Indonesia after blocking it on Wednesday in Egypt and Libya, where U.S. embassies have been stormed by protestors enraged over depiction of the Prophet Mohammad as a fraud and philanderer. On Tuesday, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in a fiery siege on the embassy in Benghazi. Google said was further restricting the clip to comply with local law rather than as a response to political pressure. "We've restricted access to it in countries where it is illegal such as India and Indonesia, as well as in Libya and Egypt, given the very sensitive situations in these two countries," the company said. "This approach is entirely consistent with principles we first laid out in 2007." White House officials had asked Google earlier on Friday to reconsider whether the video had violated YouTube's terms of service. The guidelines can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines. Google said on Wednesday that the video was within its guidelines. U.S. authorities said on Friday that they were investigating whether the film's producer, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a 55-year old Egyptian Coptic Christian living in Southern California, had violated terms of his prison release. Basseley was convicted in 2010 for bank fraud and released from prison on probation last June. (Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Toni Reinhold)============ Lebanon Protesters Destroy Kentucky Fried Chicken And Hardee's Over 'Muslim Innocence' Film [PHOTOS] By Eric Brown: Subscribe to Eric Brown's RSS feed September 14, 2012 6:22 PM EDT Lebanon Protesters Destroy Kentucky Fried Chicken And Hardee's Over 'Muslim Innocence' Film [PHOTOS] In the wake of anti-American demonstrations over the incendiary film "Muslim Innocence," protesters in Tripoli, Lebanon, have taken to attacking not an American consulate, but an American fast-food restaurant, according to Reuters. Rioters were seen burning down a combination Hardee's and Kentucky Fried Chicken in the northern Lebanon city. Many demonstrators were also enraged about Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Lebanon, shouting, "We don't want the pope" and "No more insults (to Islam)." The film "Muslim Innocence" was filmed in California as an inflammatory piece of anti-Islamic propaganda by Egyptian Nakoula Basseley Nakoula under the pseudonym "Sam Bacile," according to the Associated Press. "Federal court papers filed against Nakoula in a 2010 criminal prosecution noted that Nakoula had used numerous aliases, including Nicola Bacily and Robert Bacily," AP reported. Nakoula allegedly hired a cast and crew under the pretense that they were making a film called "Desert Warriors" about the life of an ancient Egyptian. In post-processing, Nakoula overdubbed lines in the film to make specific derogatory comments about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, referring to him as a "child molester," among other things. Nakoula, in the guise of "Sam Bacile," publicly referred to Islam as a "cancer" while attempting to drum up publicity for the self-produced film. After Middle Eastern audiences became aware of the film's existence, "Muslim Innocence" sparked outrage across the Muslim world, leading to anti-American protests over the film's content. One attack killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. American officials such as Hilary Clinton have roundly criticized both the film and the violence it incited, as the protesting continues. ============================= 'Innocence of Muslims': Sound Expert Says Islamophobic Dialogue Definitely Dubbed [Exclusive Transcript] By Christopher Zara: Subscribe to Christopher's RSS feed September 13, 2012 1:17 PM EDT Most actors have virtually no control over the direction of a movie once it reaches the editing room, so it's not uncommon to hear a few of them moan and groan (quietly, if they want to get hired again) after they see the final cut. (Photo: Youtube) A 13-minute clip of the movie that has sparked protests throughout the Middle East contains several instances of overdubbed dialogue, according to a sound-recording expert. But few actors in Hollywood or elsewhere have more of a reason to be outraged over post-production than the ones who appeared in "Innocence of Muslims" -- that is, if we are to believe a joint statement released by the 80 cast and crewmembers who supposedly worked on the low-budget project (to call it a film would be an insult to celluloid). The statement, posted on Wednesday by CNN, said this: "The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer. We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic re-writes of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred." The actors claim they responded to a casting call for a film called "Dessert Warrior." That movie, which they say they shot with a filmmaker who called himself Sam Bacile, had nothing to do with religion, according to one actress quoted Wednesday by Gawker. Instead, the director said the movie was simply about life in Biblical times. According to the actors, they were just as surprised as everyone to see the blatantly anti-Muslim sentiments in the clips, which sparked riots in Egypt and Libya and may have resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. As of Thursday, the rioting has spread to Yemen and Iran, according to several reports. The actors say that significant portions of their dialogue were re-dubbed during post production to give the storyline an anti-Muslim context that had not appeared in the original script. Judging from the 13-minute clip posted on YouTube by someone with the username Sam Bacile, the actors' explanation is certainly plausible. Much of the dialogue does not synch up with the actors' mouths, and the sound quality varies drastically from one line to the next. Although the sound quality of the entire clip is poor, many instances of overdubbing appear to be more than just a case of slapdash editing. "You can totally tell it's two different voices," said Marshall Grupp, a sound engineer at Sound Lounge, an audio post-production house based in New York. "It's so obvious they did that. The question is why." Grupp, who has 30 years of experience in sound editing, went through the one of the clips of the movie that first showed up YouTube -- 13.57 minutes of footage posted on July 2. (The title of the clip is called "Muhammad Movie Trailer," but it's more a sequence of scenes than a trailer.) The low-budget clip appears to be set in the modern-day Middle East as well as in Biblical times. Grupp said all the instances of overdubbing are references to Islam and the Muslim faith. Grupp emailed his notes to the International Business Times on Thursday. One of the most obvious examples of overdubbing, he said, takes place at 6:31, when a sword-wielding character yells in anger, "Mohammed is our messenger and the Koran is our constitution!" The dialogue in that scene does not even remotely synch up with the character's mouth, Grupp said. Grupp's transcription of the overdubbing instances follows below, along with his notes on each instance. 1:34- "protect Islamic crime"- sounds similar to actor but seems over-dubbed 1:56- "Islamic terrorist"- definitely over-dubbed, but again sounds like actor 2:54- "his name is Mohammed, we can call him the father unknown"- definitely over-dubbed by another actor 3:07- "Mohammed, Mohammed the bastard, your lady summons you"- definitely over-dubbed 3:42- "come in Mohammed"-sounds like actress but over-dubbed 6:31- "Mohammed is our messenger and the Koran is our constitution"- definitely over-dubbed 7:09- "have you heard what god has said in the Koran" - over-dubbed 8:32- "now go and read the Koran"- over-dubbed 9:04- "is your Mohammed a child molester"- over dubbed 10:11- "Islamic nation forbids adoption because of......" over-dubbed 10:16- "that is the next version of the koran"- seems like it is over-dubbed 10:32- "i have not seen such a murderous thug as Mohammed"- over-dubbed with another actress 13:37- "every non-Muslim"- over dubbed The movie's original dialogue in these instances remains unclear, but if the reaction from the actress quoted by Gawker is any indication, the original context was far less inflammatory: "Now we have people dead because of a movie I was in," she told the website. "It makes me sick." To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: c.zara@ibtimes.com To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com ====================== Sep. 16, 2012 5:13 PM ET Clashes over prophet film; Hezbollah urges demos By ADIL JAWAD and BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press AIM Share A Pakistani protester holds stone as others hang a flag at the entry of the gate of the U.S. consulate during a demonstration in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012. Hundreds of Pakistanis protesting an anti-Islam video produced in the United States clashed with police Sunday as they tried to march toward the U.S. Consulate in the southern city of Karachi, while thousands of others held peaceful demonstrations in other parts of the country. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan) 1 of 5 More News Video Latest developments on anti-Islam film protests Sep. 16, 20122:28 PM ET Paris prosecutor to probe protest at US Embassy Sep. 16, 201212:53 PM ET China aims at Japan's economy in island protests Sep. 16, 201210:03 AM ET Panetta: violence leveling off; protests to go on Sep. 16, 20126:33 AM ET Al-Qaida calls for more attacks on embassies Sep. 15, 20125:43 PM ET Advertisement Advertisement Buy AP Photo Reprints KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Hundreds of Pakistanis protesting an anti-Islam film broke through a barricade near the U.S. Consulate in the southern city of Karachi on Sunday, sparking clashes with police in which one demonstrator was killed and more than a dozen injured. In a move that could escalate tensions around the Arab world, the leader of the Hezbollah militant group called for protests against the movie, saying protesters should not only 'express our anger' at U.S. embassies but urge leaders to act. The film, which denigrates Islam's Prophet Muhammad, has sparked violent protests in many Muslim countries in recent days, including one in Libya in which the U.S. ambassador was killed. The U.S. has responded by deploying additional military forces to increase security in certain hotspots. In a televised speech, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the U.S. must be held accountable for the film, which was produced in the United States. The U.S. government has condemned the film. "The ones who should be held accountable and boycotted are those who support and protect the producers, namely the U.S. administration," Nasrallah said. He called for protests on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He urged protesters to call on their leaders to express their anger too. "We should not only express our anger at an American embassy here or there. We should tell our rulers in the Arab and Muslim world that it is 'your responsibility in the first place' and since you officially represent the governments and states of the Muslim world you should impose on the United States, Europe and the whole world that our prophet, our Quran and our holy places and honor of our Prophet be respected," he told his followers in a televised speech. Nasrallah said he waited to speak out about the film until Sunday, when Pope Benedict XVI ended his three-day trip to Lebanon. In Pakistan, police fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters in Karachi after they broke through the barricade and reached the outer wall of the U.S. Consulate, police officer Mohammad Ranjha said. The protesters threw stones and bricks, prompting the police to beat back the crowd with their batons. The police and private security guards outside the consulate also fired in the air to disperse the crowd. One protester was killed during the clash, said Ali Ahmar, spokesman for the Shiite Muslim group that organized the rally. An official with the main ambulance service in the city, Khurram Ahmad, confirmed they carried away one dead protester and 18 others who were injured. All Americans who work at the consulate, which is located in the heart of Karachi, were safe, Rian Harris, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, said. Thousands more held peaceful demonstrations against the film in other parts of the country, including the eastern city of Lahore and the northwest city of Dera Ismail Khan. The demonstration in Lahore was organized by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, believed to be a front organization for a powerful militant group blamed for attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 that killed over 160 people. The protesters shouted anti-U.S. slogans and burned an American flag. "Our war will continue until America is destroyed!" shouted some of the protesters. "Dog, dog, America is a dog!" chanted others. The head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, addressed the crowd and demanded the Pakistani government shut down the U.S. Embassy and all consulates in the country until the filmmakers are punished. The protests were set off by a low-budget, crudely produced film called "Innocence of Muslims," which portrays Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. A 14-minute excerpt of the film, which is both in English and dubbed into Arabic, has been available on YouTube, although some countries have cut access to the site. The violence began Tuesday when mainly Islamist protesters climbed the U.S. Embassy walls in the Egyptian capital of Cairo and tore down the American flag from a pole in the courtyard. Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, also was killed Tuesday along with three other Americans, as violent protesters stormed the consulate in Benghazi. President Barack Obama has vowed that the attackers would be brought to justice but also stressed that the U.S. respects religious freedom. In a security shake-up following the attack on the consulate, the Libyan interior minister has fired three security officials in the eastern city, including the head of the Benghazi security sector, and the deputy interior minister in Benghazi, said senior security official Adel Rajouba. The decisions came following a government meeting and the three were fired because of "the lawlessness," Rajouba said. The intensity of the anti-American fervor initially caught U.S. leaders by surprise, but in the last several days the Obama administration has called for calm and urged foreign governments to protect American interests in their countries. "I think that we have to continue to be very vigilant because I suspect that ... these demonstrations are likely to continue over the next few days, if not longer," U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters Sunday. It has been unclear how much of the violence was spontaneously triggered by the film and how much of it was spurred on by anti-American militants using it as a tool to grow and enrage the crowds. Libya's Interim President Mohammed el-Megarif said Sunday that the attackers who killed the U.S. ambassador in the country appeared to have spent months preparing and carefully choosing their date — the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He pointed to a second raid on a safe house. "All this indicates clearly that the attackers are well trained and well prepared and have planned this in advance," he said in an interview. But the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, brushed aside his assessment, saying evidence gathered so far indicated it was a spontaneous reaction to the anti-Islam video and not a premeditated or coordinated strike. "It seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons," said Rice, referring to the mortars and rocket-propelled grenades used in the attack. Whether the attackers had ties to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups has yet to be determined, Rice said, noting that the FBI has yet to complete its investigation. It wouldn't be the first time that Western works critical of Islam have triggered spontaneous unrest throughout the Middle East, she said, pointing to the novel "Satanic Verses" by British author Salman Rushdie and the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by a Danish newspaper in 2006. A semiofficial religious foundation in Iran increased a reward it had offered for killing Rushdie to $3.3 million from $2.8 million, a hard-line Iranian newspaper reported Sunday, a move that appeared to be linked to the protests against the video. ___ Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Zaheer Babar in Lahore, Pakistan; Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan; and Esam Mohamed in Tripoli, Libya, contributed to this report. Associated Press ===================== Monday 17 September 2012 Robert Fisk: Al-Qa'ida cashes in as the scorpion gets in among the good guys A Damascus friend of mine called this weekend and was pretty chipper. "You know, we're all sorry about Christopher Stevens. This kind of thing is terrible and he was a good friend to Syria – he understood the Arabs." I let him get away with this, though I knew what was coming. "But we have an expression in Syria: 'If you feed a scorpion, it will bite you'." His message couldn't have been clearer. The United States supported the opposition against Libya's Colonel Gaddafi, helped Saudi Arabia and Qatar pour cash and weapons to the militias and had now reaped the whirlwind. America's Libyan "friends" had turned against them, murdered US ambassador Stevens and his colleagues in Benghazi and started an al-Qa'ida-led anti-American protest movement that had consumed the Muslim world. The US had fed the al-Qa'ida scorpion and now it had bitten America. And so Washington now supports the opposition against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was helping Saudi Arabia and Qatar pour cash and weapons to the militias (including Salafists and al-Qa'ida) and would, inevitably, be bitten by the same "scorpion" if Assad was overthrown. My friend's sermon was not quite in line with Syrian government policy. Assad's argument is that Syria is not Libya, and that Syrians, with their history, culture, love of Arabism, etc, did not want a revolution. But the Arab fury at Hollywood's obscene little anti-prophet video has occasioned almost as much rewriting of history in the West. The US media has already invented a new story in which America supported the Arab Spring saved the city of Benghazi when its people were about to be destroyed by Gaddafi's monstrous thugs – and has now been stabbed in the back by those treacherous Arabs in the very city rescued by the US. The real narrative, however, is different. Washington propped up and armed Arab dictatorships for decades, Saddam being one of our favourites. We loved Mubarak of Egypt, we adored Ben Ali of Tunisia, we are still passionately in love with the autocratic Gulf states, the gas stations now bankrolling the revolutions we choose to support – and we did, for at least two decades, smile upon Hafez al-Assad; even, briefly, his son Bashar. So we saved Benghazi with our air power and expected the Arab world to love us. We ignored the composition of the Libyan militias we supported – just as Clinton and Hague don't dwell on the make-up of the Free Syrian Army today. We pay no attention to Assad's warnings of "foreign fighters", just as we largely ignored the Salafists who were moving among the brave men who fought Gaddafi. Go back further, and we did pretty much the same in Afghanistan after 1980. We backed the mujahedin against the Soviets without paying attention to their theology and we used Pakistan to funnel weapons to these men. And when some of them transmogrified into the Taliban and nurtured Osama bin Laden and the scorpion bit on 9/11, we cried "terrorism" and wondered why the Afghans "betrayed" us. Same story yesterday, when four US Special Forces were murdered by their ungrateful Afghan police "trainees". The tragedy of this pathetic cycle of events is that the Assad regime is horrible and its secret police thugs have tortured and murdered thousands of innocents, its personnel have committed war crimes and Syria's civil war is consuming a generation who should be building a nation rather than destroying it. And Turkey has now taken on Pakistan's role as an arms funnel and rest-and-recreation centre for Syria's mujahedin. Will Turkey turn out to be the Pakistan of the Middle East? Syria's war is now taking on the carapace of Lebanon's 1975-90 conflict: sympathise with Palestinians and you were anti-Christian – express Christian fears and you were pro-Israeli. In Syria, the government's brutal snipers are killers of children. On the other side of the front line, the Free Syrian Army sniper is romantic; he gets married to a frontline nurse, only too sorry the family can't attend their nuptials. The mere suggestion that the opposition might be committing the occasional atrocity, and a reporter is asked – as I was – how much he is being paid by the Syrian mukhabarat intelligence service. So over to the Department of Home Truths. When he was murdered, Osama bin Laden was a has-been. No Arab revolutionary carried his picture. But this wretched organisation has now decided to cash in. Hence this weekend's al-Qa'ida call to Egyptians to continue their protests against the anti-Muslim video. Hence Benghazi. The scorpion has got in among the good guys. All you need then is a Hollywood crackpot. And a bit of hypocrisy. For Washington reluctantly says it can't ban the video since this would endanger free speech – the same free speech which America's dictators forbad their Arab people for so many decades ===================== Bank of America website slows; Prophet film threat made Tue, Sep 18 16:33 PM EDT By Rick Rothacker and Jim Finkle (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp's online banking site suffered intermittent problems on Tuesday amid threats on the Internet that a group was planning to launch cyber attacks on the bank and other U.S. targets to protest a film that has stirred unrest in the Middle East. Someone claiming to represent "cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam" said it would attack the Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange as a "first step" in a campaign against properties of "American-Zionist Capitalists." "This attack will continue until the Erasing of that nasty movie. Beware this attack can vary in type," said the statement on an internet bulletin board known as pastebin.com, where hackers often post such threats. It was not possible to verify the identity of the person who posted the statement. A short film mocking the Prophet Mohammad, made with private funds in the United States and posted on the Internet, has ignited days of demonstrations in the Arab world, Africa, Asia and in some Western countries. Bank of America said its website is available but some customers may experience occasional slowness. "We are working to ensure full availability," bank spokesman Mark Pipitone said. Asked whether the website was the victim of a denial-of-service attack, he said: "I can tell you that we continuously take proactive measures to secure our systems." The New York Stock Exchange, operated by NYSE Euronext, declined to comment. Bank of America customers reached by Reuters in New York, Georgia, Ohio and Michigan said they could not access the website. Last year, the No. 2 U.S. bank experienced six days of problems with its website, which it blamed on heavy traffic and an upgrade of its systems. The site allows customers to check balances, transfer money and make payments. (Reporting By Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina and Jim Finkle in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Tim Dobbyn) =============== U.S. official says Benghazi consulate was "terrorist attack" Wed, Sep 19 13:03 PM EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last week in which four Americans died was a "terrorist attack" that may have had an al Qaeda connection, a top U.S. counterterrorism official told Congress on Wednesday. Rocket-propelled grenades and mortars struck the consulate on September 11, the anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the United States. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died. "They were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy," Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said in response to a question at a Senate hearing. Olsen said whether the attack was planned for September 11 was under investigation, but the information so far indicated it was "an opportunistic attack" that "began and evolved, and escalated over several hours." There were well-armed militants in the area, he said. "What we don't have at this point is specific intelligence that there was a significant advance planning or coordination for this attack." Whether or not the attack was planned well in advance has become a point of dispute between the Obama administration and Republican lawmakers who say it bears the hallmarks of a premeditated assault. Senior Libyan officials have said the attack was planned in advance. At the same hearing, Republican Senator Susan Collins said she agreed with Libyan officials that the attack was premeditated, planned and associated with the September 11 anniversary. She expressed concern about the security at the consulate, where no Marines were present and security was handled by foreign nationals. Olsen told lawmakers U.S. authorities are investigating who was responsible for the attack, and it appeared that a "number of different elements" were involved, including individuals connected to militant groups. "As well, we are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda affiliates, particularly Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," he said. "The picture that is emerging is one where a number of different individuals were involved, so it's not necessarily an either-or proposition," Olsen said. (Reporting by Susan Cornwell, Tabassum Zakaria and Donna Smith; Editing by Warren Strobel) ============================================== ..Obama: Libya attack ‘wasn’t just a mob action’ . .By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News White House Correspondent .Posts .By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 1 hr 6 mins ago....Email Share0Print...... President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama appear on the ABC Television show “The View” in New York (Pablo …President Barack Obama said Monday that the Sept. 11 attack that claimed the life of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans "wasn't just a mob action," but he stopped short of explicitly labeling the assault as an act of terrorism. Obama's comments came as he taped an interview with "The View" during a brief trip to New York to address the annual United National General Assembly. He had been asked whether the attack on the U.S. Consulate compound in the city of Benghazi was a terrorist act. "There's no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault, that it wasn't just a mob action," the president said. "What's clear is that, around the world, there are still a lot of threats out there." Obama's remarks were collected by pool reporter David Boyer of the Washington Times. The head of the National Counterterrorism Center has called the attack an act of terrorism. White House spokesman Jay Carney said it's "self-evident" that that is the case. But Obama did not explicitly do so. Still, his remarks reflected a day-by-day shift in how his administration has described the attack. At first, the White House described it as a spontaneous act resulting from demonstrations against an anti-Islam video on the Internet. That video has led to angry anti-U.S. protests throughout the Muslim world. Obama noted that, but he underlined that "there's never an excuse for violence." And he said the best response to the video would be to "ignore it"--even though aides said he would discuss the film in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. The incident has raised questions about whether the slain ambassador, Chris Stevens, should have had more protection. And Republicans led by Mitt Romney have pointed to the demonstrations across the region as a sign that the president has botched his response to the so-called "Arab Spring" uprisings that have swept authoritarian regimes from power. ...==============

Tennessee mosque opens after fight, with message of forgiveness

Fri, Aug 10 22:46 PM EDT By Tim Ghianni MURFREESBORO, Tenn (Reuters) - The imam and worshipers at a new Tennessee mosque that hosted its first prayers on Friday after fighting for two years to open said they forgive those who have been enemies of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. "Love your neighbor is a concept in every religion," Imam Ossama Bahloul told more than 200 men and women in attendance during his sermon in the mosque that replaces one where the congregation worshiped for 30 years. To those who opposed the mosque, Bahloul said, "We forgive you all and we welcome you to our facility." Opponents of the mosque about 30 miles south of Nashville sued to stop it from opening, claiming that not enough notice had been given before a building permit was issued. Residents opposed to the mosque have made allegations that Islam was not a faith protected by the Constitution, and that the mosque sought to impose Islamic law, or Sharia, in the U.S. legal system. Opposition to the mosque also became an unlikely issue in a Tennessee Republican Congressional primary, with the challenger complaining that freshman Representative Diane Black, who later went on to win the primary, had not been forceful enough in her opposition to the mosque. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has characterized the campaign against the mosque as a "viciously anti-Muslim groundswell" that included accusations of treason and disloyalty along with insinuations that Muslims were predisposed to violence. Bahloul addressed opponents' allegations in his sermon, saying that the new facility was simply a place for people to pray and children to play. And he said his congregation does abide by the U.S. Constitution. "You can be a good Muslim and a good American," he said. Despite the opposition, the mosque was finally able to open this week, in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, and ahead of the Eid al-Fitr feasting holiday that marks Ramadan's end. The congregation had expected protesters on Friday, but only one showed up. Dan J. Qualls, a Murfreesboro resident who works at a nearby factory, said he felt compelled to carry a message to those at the gleaming new mosque. "Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven," he said. "I'm here to promise that." Essam Fathy, chairman of the mosque board, said that the center's opening is "a dream come true." "We hope the people will get to know the real us," Fathy said. (Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Lisa Shumaker)

20 dead in UN compound attack

Adnan Darwash

Group: Guests

Posted 09 September 2011 - 06:21 AM

During Bill Clinton campaign in 1992 against G.H.W.Bush, the slogan was ‘It’s the economy, stupid’. It seems that the Republicans may use the slogan ‘It’s the jobs, stupid’ in their campaign to defeat Obama in 2012 election. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the biggest attack on Mainland USA few Americans dare to discuss the motives behind Al-Qaeda attacks or those who have profited* from it, mainly because it may expose security failures or to touch the interests of certain entrenched power centres.
According to Bin Laden, the attacks were in response to the US unlimited support for Israeli atrocities against Arabs and specifically, the Israel massacres of Lebanese following their invasion of the country in 1982. It was also reported that targeting the WTC in NY, the Jewish Financial Mafia HQ, because it raised funds for Israeli development and weapon purchases. Similarly, the Pentagon was targeted because it armed Israel with the latest weapons that killed Arabs with impunity. But the Americans refused to pay attention to the real causes of terror in the world and went to terrorise others with wars; which created more anger and frustrations in Muslim countries from Nigeria to Indonesia. And instead of asking Israel to implement 39 UN Security Council Resolutions they are in breach of and limiting American support for Israeli atrocities, Jewish consultants are allowed to infest the corridor of powers in Washington D.C.and to influence major foreign policy decisions. It was not a mere coincidence that the Americans had marched on Baghdad to Israeli drums in 2003 in order to remove a threat to Israel. Furthermore, American foreign policy has been ignoring US interests in the Far-East or in Latin America and is concentrating on implanting a Jewish agenda in the Middle East; which may end with another costly war on Iran. It is for this reason that the US is at high alert on the eve of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 that is despite all the killings and expenditures in Bush-Obama wars on terror. In conclusion, one must tell the Americans ‘It’s Palestine stupid’
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times

*One of the main beneficiaries of the 9/11 attacks was Israel. It used the war on terror to justify its killing and assassination of Palestinians who are resisting the illegal Israeli occupation of their lands. Furthermore, the war on terror enabled Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to challenge and to embarrass President Obama on a number of issues. To add insult to injury, Netanyahu's speech to the joint session of the house and senate was received with standing ovations, despite being a Prime minister of a rogue state in breach of 39 UN Security Council Resolutions and despite being being saved from being denounced as a terrost by US Veto after blowing up 10 civilian Lebanese aircrafts in 1978.


======

The heavily-manipulated US political system is neither democratic nor free. US democracy is in fact a government by the Lobbyists, of the Lobbyists for the Lobbyists.
US Freedom: It is unpatriotic to crtiticise the president while the country is at war. But the country has always been at war. Uninfluential people can write or say what they want. Do you remember what has happened to Ambassador Wilson when he said that Iraq didn't attempt to acquire Uranium Ore from Niger? He was castigated an his wife was outed as CIA agent by no other than Dick Cheney. Here is a question for you:
What will happen if a strong Taiwanese lobby made America to launch a war against China? So where is the people's interest in US democratic system. It is rather unfortunate that the same US Jewish lobby started to corrupt European democracies in order to serve Israeli agendas.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times


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'Hold Islam accountable': U.S. pastor defiant after his Koran-burning publicity stunt led to two UN staff being beheaded and five others murdered

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:59 AM on 2nd April 2011
Comments (551) Add to My Stories

U.N. sources say final death toll could rise as high as 20
Taliban behind attacks, reports suggest
Demonstrators at the burnings take place across the Middle East
One of the dead is a 53-year-old female Norwegian pilot
Mastermind behind attacks - a known militant - arrested say Afghan police
Afghan authorities suspect insurgents blended into protesters
Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish and Nepalese nationals among those killed Victim: The first named victim is 53-year-old Norwegian pilot Lt. Col Siri Skare who was working as a UN military advisor in the country


Florida pastor Terry Jones has not apologised for a Koran burning stunt last month that led to the murders of up to 20 people in northern Afghanistan yesterday.
Indeed the head of the Dove World Outreach Center, the man whom many hold responsible for instigating the wave of protests, remained defiant over his decision to hold the Koran burning - saying it was time for 'Islam to be held accountable'.
At least seven United Nations staff were murdered - two by beheading - after extremists stormed their compound in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
The mob beheaded two U.N. guards, seized their weapons and began shooting those inside the compound after a demonstration against Koran burnings in the U.S. turned violent.

Mr Jones, who ignored international warnings that his actions would undoubtedly lead to violent reprisals, said the blame laid at the feet of the attackers.
He said:

'We must hold these countries and people accountable for what they have done as well as for any excuses they may use to promote their terrorist activities. The time has come to hold Islam accountable.
'Our United States government and our President must take a close, realistic look at the radical element Islam. Islam is not a religion of peace.
'We demand action from the United Nations. Muslim dominated countries can no longer be allowed to spread their hate against Christians and minorities.'
Mr Jones, a former furniture salesman, was quick to respond to accusations that blood was on his hands over the killings.
he said: 'They must alter the laws that govern their countries to allow for individual freedoms and rights, such as the right to worship, free speech, and to move freely without fear of being attacked or killed.'

The Taliban has reportedly claimed responsibility for the killings, saying they were part of a campaign of violence in the run up to presidential elections.

Enlarge Protest: Thousands of protectors flooded the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif chanting anti-American slogans before the violence broke out
Attack: Smoke billows from the UN headquarters after protesters attacked the compound in Mazar-i-Sharif

The bloodshed is the worst attack on the U.N. in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.
At least four Afghan workers were also killed and officials fear the total death toll could rise to 20.
The rampage began when more than 1,000 protesters flooded into the streets after Friday prayers, where they heard reports about the Koran burnings in America last month.
After slaying the guards, the armed mob scaled the compound's blast walls before setting fire to a guard tower and several other buildings.
An Afghan police source, who asked not to be named, said the chief of the mission in the city was wounded but survived.

Firebrand: Pastor Terry Jones threatened to burn a koran last year and carried the threat out last month
Among those murdered were Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish and Nepalese nationals. Two were decapitated, it is understood.



The Afghan protests were in direct response to to Mr Jones's ceremonial burning of a copy of the Koran at a church in Florida on March 20.
The controversial pastor triggered international outrage last year when he urged Americans to burn the Koran on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
He relented following an intervention by President Obama but on March 20 he and pastor Wayne Sapp finally carried out their threat.

After Sapp set fire to the text, he let it burn for ten minutes.
More...Death of Sunday newspaper reporter killed in Afghanistan explosion 'was not preventable'
Donald Rumsfeld labels 'Kill Team' Afghan photos as 'much worse' than Iraq's Abu Ghraib

Mohammad Azim, a businessman in Mazer-i-Sharif, said that before the violence, clerics with loudspeakers had driven around the city in two cars to invite residents to the protest.
As the violent mobs dissipated this evening, reports of the UN dead began to trickle in.
The Norwegian Defence Ministry said one of the victims was Lt. Col Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot.
Fight: It appears guards at the U.N. compound fought back injuring Afghan's who attacked the base
Suspects: Afghan officials suspect those who attacked the base were insurgents who had blended into the angry crowd before carrying out the violence
Hysteria: Preachers rode around after Friday prayers encouraging the population to join protests directed against foreign forces in the country

A Swede and four U.N, guards from Nepal were also killed. The nationality of the seventh victim has not been released.

According to Afghan officials it looks increasingly likely that the attacks were carried out by insurgents who had blended into the angry crowds.
Last night Afghan police said they had arrested the suspected mastermind behind the attack.
BLOODY DAY FOR UN AS 10 DIE
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan was established on 28 March, 2002 and is headed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura.
The mission has 23 field offices throughout Afghanistan - split into eight regional offices and 15 provincial offices.
Of the 1,500 staff attached to the mission, around 80 per cent are Afghan nationals.
There are two key elements to the UN mission, the Political element, which among other duties oversees elections in the country and the Relief, Recovery and Reconstruction element which looks after re-building the country's infrastructure.
Rawof Taj, deputy police chief in Balkh province, said this evening he was one of more than 20 people arrested after the violence.

Taj said the suspected mastermind was from Kapisa province, a hotbed of the insurgency about 250 miles south east of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Staffan De Mistura, the top UN representative in Afghanistan, was heading to Mazar-i-Sharif to handle the matter personally.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Nairobi that the attack was 'outrageous and cowardly'.
The worst previous attack was in 2009 in an insurgent assault on a guesthouse where UN staff were staying. Five UN staffers were killed and nine others wounded.
In October 2010, several militants were killed when they attempted to ambush the UN compound in Herat dressed in burkas worn by women.

General Daud Daud, commander of Afghan National Police in several northern provinces, said those killed included five Nepalese guards who were working for the UN and two other foreigners employed at the complex.A UN spokesman confirmed that workers had been killed at the mission, but he said the situation on the ground was still confusing and it was difficult to 'ascertain facts'.
Wounded: Afghans carry a man wounded by security guards when protesters attacked the UN headquarters in Mazar-i-Sharif
Outrage: Pakistani women shout slogans during a protest against the controversial US Pastor Terry Jones, in Karachi, Pakistan today
The deaths are a major setback for the U.N. and international forces who want the Afghan government to take control of its own security by 2014.
Only last week President Hamid Karzai said the city of Mazar-i-Sharif would be one of the first areas handed over to Afghan control this year.

Simmering anger at the burnings finally erupted across the Middle East today.
Enlarge Thousands of demonstrators marched through the western Afghan city of Herat.

There, protesters burned a U.S. flag at a sports stadium and chanted 'Death to the US' and 'They broke the heart of Islam'.

Around 200 also protested near the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Both protests remained relatively peaceful.

Demonstrations against the Koran burning also took place in Pakistan today.
Women representing the Working Women Welfare Trust marched through the streets of Karachi voicing their anger against Pastor Jones.

Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement calling the burning a 'crime against a religion'.
He denounced it as a 'disrespectful and abhorrent act' and called on the U.S. and the UN to bring to justice those who burned the holy book and issue a response to Muslims around the world.
He also said Mazar-i-Sharif would be one of the first parts of the war-torn country that Afghan security would take from Nato forces.



The man behind Burn a Koran Day: Pastor Terry Jones
The shocking killings in Afghanistan were triggered by anger at the burning of a copy of the Koran at a church in Florida.
The controversial ceremony was carried out by pastor Wayne Sapp and preacher Terry Jones.

Mr Jones first came to worldwide attention when he started a Facebook campaign calling for people around the world to set fire to copies of the Koran on last year's ninth anniversary of 9/11.
He dubbed it International Burn a Koran Day.
Controversy: U.S. Pastor Terry Jones, pictured last September, gained worldwide attention after he planned to burn a Koran
It was only after the intervention of President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates that he went back on his vow to burn the Koran.
He said later that he planned to burn 'a few hundred Korans' in a bonfire on church property and that he was expecting a crowd of 'several hundred' but believed others would burn the books on their own.
On March 20 this year, he finally carried out his threat. A copy of the Koran was burned in front of a crowd of 30 people outside his church. Beforehand, he held a bizarre mock trial and execution of the Holy Book before fellow pastor Wayne Sapp doused it in gasoline and set fire to it.
He claimed he went back on his word because he has been trying to give the 'Muslim world an opportunity to defend their book' but received no response from them.
A former hotel manager, Jones worked as a missionary in Europe for 30 years before he took over as head of the Dove World Outreach Center, a fundamentalist Christian church in Gainesville, Florida.
He and his wife Sylvia were asked to leave Germany, where they had set up a 100-strong congregation in Cologne.
One of his three children accused them of 'financial and labour abuses' and said that 'the workforce was comprised of the Jones' disciples, who work for no wages and live cost-free in tatty properties owned by the couple'.
His daughter Emma still lives in Germany and has no contact with her father but it was reported she emailed him at the time of the Koran burning threats to ask him to stop.
A protestant church official in Cologne said he had a 'delusional personality'.
He also runs an antique and used furniture store on the grounds of the church.
A former employee who was sacked and expelled from the church later revealed that punishments for disobedience in the church included carrying a life-size wooden cross or writing out all of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible as well as cleaning the barnacles off his boat in Tampa.
He penned the book Islam Is The Devil and the phrase is frequently used on billboards around the church's property.
In August 2009, two children, a ten-year-old and a 15-year-old, who belong to Jones' church, were sent to school wearing T-shirts that read 'Islam Is of the Devil'. They were sent home for dress code violations.
Jones believes Islam promotes violence and that Muslims want to impose Sharia law in the United States.
He and his wife allegedly learned what they know about Sharia law by watching videos on YouTube and he admitted in the past he had never actually spoken to a Muslim person before.
He calls himself a doctor and claims he was awarded an honorary doctorate of theology degree from the California Graduate School of Theology in Rosemead in 1983 but the university has never confirmed this.
According to ABC, he is often seen on the church's 20-acre compound with a pistol strapped to his hip.


Explore more:Places: Germany, Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, America, Europe, Middle East

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372442/Two-UN-staff-beheaded-murdered-protest-U-S-pastor-burnt-Koran.html#ixzz1IMz3npzG


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Afghans angry at Quran burning kill 7 at UN office


By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Deb Riechmann, Associated Press – 2 hrs 22 mins ago
KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghans angry over the burning of a Quran at a small Florida church stormed a U.N. compound in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing seven foreigners, including four Nepalese guards.

Afghan authorities suspect insurgents melded into the mob and they announced the arrest of more than 20 people, including a militant they suspect was the ringleader of the assault in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh province. The suspect was an insurgent from Kapisa province, a hotbed of militancy about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of the city, said Rawof Taj, deputy provincial police chief.

The topic of Quran burning stirred outrage among millions of Muslims and others worldwide after the Rev. Terry Jones' small church, Dove Outreach Center, threatened to destroy a copy of the holy book last year. The pastor backed down but the church in Gainesville, Florida, went through with the burning last month.

Four protesters also died in the violence in Mazar-i-Sharif, which is on a list of the first seven areas of the country where Afghan security forces are slated to take over from the U.S.-led coalition starting in July. Other demonstrations, which were peaceful, were held in Kabul and Herat in western Afghanistan, fueling resentment against the West at a critical moment in the Afghan war.

Protesters burned a U.S. flag at a sports stadium in Herat and chanted "Death to the U.S." and "They broke the heart of Islam." About 100 people gathered at a traffic circle near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. One protester carried a sign that said: "We want these bloody bastard Americans with all their forces to leave Afghanistan."
U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain LeRoy said the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, Staffan De Mistura, who is in Mazar-i-Sharif, believes "the U.N. was not the target."

"They wanted to find an international target and the U.N. was the one there in Mazar-i-Sharif," LeRoy told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Initially, Afghan police reported that eight foreigners had been killed in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Late on Friday, Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in Kabul, revised the death toll to seven — four foreign security guards and three other foreigners.

The guards were from Nepal, according to Gen. Daud Daud, commander of Afghan National Police in several northern provinces.

Sweden Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Joakim Dungel, a 33-year-old Swede who worked at the U.N. office, was among those killed.

Norwegian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Maj. Heidi Langvik-Hansen said Lt. Col. Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot working for the U.N., died in the attack.
LeRoy said the other victim was a citizen of Romania and that a number of U.N. personnel were injured and were being evacuated.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the head of the mission in Mazar-i-Sharif, a Russian citizen, was injured in the attack, but not seriously.

Police who went to investigate, said the U.N. compound was littered with broken glass and bullet casings.

Abdul Karim, a police officer in the city, said he saw the bullet-riddled bodies of three Nepalese guards lying in the yard and a fourth on the first floor.

He said another victim with a serious head wound died on a stairway to the basement of the compound. A man who was killed inside a room had severe wounds to his face and body, Karim said.

Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman in Balkh province, said the protest began peacefully when several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the U.N. mission's compound, choosing an obvious symbol of the international community's involvement in Afghanistan to denounce the Quran's desecration. It turned violent when some protesters seized the guards' weapons and started shooting, then the crowds stormed the building and set fires that sent plumes of black smoke into the air, he said.

One protester, Ahmad Gul, a 32-year-old teacher in the city, gave a different account. He said the protesters disarmed three guards to prevent any violence from breaking out. Associated Press video showed protesters banging AK-47 rifles on the curb, breaking them into pieces. He said the protesters were killed and wounded by Afghan security forces.

"I disarmed three guards myself and we took out the bullets," Gul said, sternly shaking his finger as he shouted. "With my eyes, I saw them (Afghan security forces) kill two and wound 10." As he talked, he became increasingly indignant and he started shouting: "Death to America!" "We are going to fight."

LeRoy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief, said the security guards, all Gurkhas, "tried their best" but were unable to prevent the large number of demonstrators, some armed, from storming the U.N. compound.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting late Friday and condemned the attack "in the strongest terms."

The U.N.'s most powerful body also condemned "all incitement to and acts of violence" and called on the Afghan government to bring those responsible to justice and take steps to protect U.N. personnel and premises.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is in Nairobi, said it was "an outrageous and cowardly attack against U.N. staff, which cannot be justified under any circumstances and I condemn in the strongest possible terms."

He instructed De Mistura to assess the situation and take any "necessary measures to ensure the safety of all U.N. staff."

LeRoy said U.N. officials would be reviewing security for U.N. personnel in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama condemned the attack and underscored the importance of the U.N.'s work in Afghanistan.

"We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to reject violence and resolve differences through dialogue," Obama said.

At the U.S. State Department, spokesman Mark Toner said the burning of a Quran in Florida was contrary to Americans' respect for Islam and religious tolerance. "This is an isolated act done by a small group of people and ... does not reflect the respect the people of the United States have toward Islam," he said.

The church's website stated that after a five-hour trial on March 20, the Quran "was found guilty and a copy was burned inside the building." A picture on the website shows a book in flames in a small portable fire pit. The church on Friday confirmed that the Quran had been burned.

In a statement, Jones did not comment on whether the church's act had led to the deaths. Instead he said it was time to "hold Islam accountable" and called on the United States and the U.N. to hold "these countries and people accountable for what they have done as well as for any excuses they may use to promote their terrorist activities."

Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement calling the burning a "crime against a religion." He denounced the U.N. attack as a "disrespectful and abhorrent act" and called on the U.S. and the United Nations to bring to justice those who burned the holy book. Karzai issued a statement late Friday calling the killings an "inhumane act" that was "against the values of Islam and Afghans." He said he planned to call officials at U.N. headquarters to express his regret and condolences from the people of Afghanistan.

The U.N. has been the target of previous attacks.

In October 2010, a suicide car bomber and three armed militants wearing explosives vests and dressed as women attacked a U.N. compound in Herat in western Afghanistan. Afghan security forces killed the attackers and no U.N. employees were harmed. In October 2009, Taliban militants attacked a guesthouse used by United Nations workers in central Kabul. Eight people were killed, including five foreigners working for the U.N.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that six U.S. Army soldiers were killed in separate incidents in fighting against insurgents during an operation in eastern Kunar province, which neighbors Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. Insurgents have slowly been filtering back into Afghanistan from safe havens in Pakistan as the spring fighting season gets under way.

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Associated Press writers Amir Shah in Kabul, Edith M. Lederer at the U.N. and Mitch Stacy in Tampa, Florida, contributed to this report.





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By Reuters
Published: April 2, 2011
Afghans chant anti-American slogans during a demonstration in Mazar-i-Sharif. PHOTO: REUTERS
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN:
Afghan protesters angered by the burning of a copy of the Holy Quran by an obscure US pastor killed up to 20 people including seven UN staff members and security guards, beheading two foreigners, when they overran a compound in a normally peaceful northern city on Friday in the worst ever attack on the UN in Afghanistan.

At least eight foreigners were among the dead after attackers took out security guards, burned parts of the compound and climbed up blast walls to topple a guard tower, said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a police spokesman for the northern region. Five protesters were also killed and around 20 wounded.

The governor of Balkh province said insurgents had used the march as cover to attack the compound, in a battle that raged for several hours and raises serious questions about plans to make the city a pilot for security transfer to national forces.

“The insurgents have taken advantage of the situation to attack the UN compound,” said Governor Ata Mohammad Noor. He told a news conference that many in the crowd of protesters had been carrying guns. Some 27 people have already been detained over the attack, he added.

Afghan police and army, who the United Nations rely on for their first line of defence, were apparently unable to control the crowd. German troops are also stationed in Balkh, and the Nato-led coalition said they had received a request for help.

“Eight foreigners were killed, and two were beheaded,” said Ahmadzai.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Nairobi that the attack was “outrageous and cowardly.”

A United Nations spokesman confirmed employees had been killed but declined to comment on numbers of dead or their nationalities. He said the attack would not push the United Nations out of Afghanistan.

“We need to secure our colleagues in Mazar-i-Sharif. It’s not a question of us pulling out. The UN is here to stay,” said spokesman Kieran Dwyer. Staffan De Mistura, the top UN diplomat in Afghanistan, has flown to Mazar-i-Sharif to handle the situation personally.

The Russian chief of the mission in the city, Pavel Yershov, was injured in the attack but is now in hospital, Russian state television said, quoting an embassy spokesman.

Russia called on the Afghan government and international forces to “take all necessary measures” to protect UN workers in a statement issued by the foreign ministry after the attack.

Romania’s foreign ministry said preliminary information suggested a Romanian citizen was among the dead, and condemned the attack. US President Barack Obama and Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also condemned the attack.

If the death toll is correct, it would make it the deadliest attack on the United Nations in Afghanistan, and one of the worst on the organisation in years.

Thousands of demonstrators marched through Herat and Kabul to protest against the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 02nd, 2011.


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Quran burning and US inconsistency

Why does the US government think burning Qurans is less civilised than drone attacks on civilian populations?

The plan to burn Qurans has served to confirm perceptions that US wars are driven by hostility towards Muslims [EPA]Barack Obama, the US president, has warned that threats to burn the Quran are a sure and effective way to swell the ranks of al-Qaeda. This may be true, but largely because such symbolic acts of 'Islamophobia' are widely viewed as verifying the perception that the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with its backing of Israel, are motivated by its hostility towards Muslims.

The previously unheard of pastor of a small Florida church may have scrapped his plan to publicly burn hundreds of Qurans on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but the threat alone has done untold damage to the already troubled relationship between the Muslim world and the West.

The US government's reaction to the plan will not have gone unnoticed. But no matter how strong the words of condemnation, those on the receiving end of US occupation or air raids will be struck by the apparent inconsistency.

General David Petraeus, the US commander in Afghanistan, warned that burning the Quran could endanger the lives of US troops who might become the target of retribution. But why do Obama and Petraeus think that burning the Quran is any less civilised or more dangerous than their use of unmanned drones to target suspected Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters and the subsequent civilian casualties these attacks often entail?

Terry Jones, the pastor behind the planned Quran bonfire, may be insane, as some, including his own daughter, have suggested. But what excuse do sane and sophisticated people like Obama, Petraeus, and Robert Gates, the US secretary of defence, have?

Dehumanisation

In his Cairo speech, Obama attributed the blame for some of the misunderstanding between the West and the Muslim world to the acts of terrorism carried out by a minority of Muslims. "The attacks of September 11, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights," he said. But he totally glossed over the fact that before - just as after - 9/11, the US engaged in unjust wars against mainly Muslim countries - a threat that is more potent than any plan to burn Qurans.

If it were not for these wars and a history of US support for the Israeli occupation and dictators in the region, the threat to burn Qurans - as ugly and offensive as it clearly is - would not have been anything more than the act of a small-time minister searching for attention and obsessed with his own prejudices.

But in an atmosphere of 'Islamophobia' - fed by a mistrust and ignorance of Islam - and US wars against Muslim countries, the suggestion of a Quran-burning day becomes something much more significant.

It also reflects the general dehumanisation of Muslims and Arabs - particularly those who have been the victims of American and Israeli bombings - that has taken root, allowing some of the US public to become immune to the crimes committed by their own government or with their government's backing.

Today, as Americans grieve the victims of the 9/11 attacks, it is important to recognise that sorrow is a shared universal sentiment that does not exclude religions or races.

In the weeks following 9/11, the American press devoted pages and air time to giving a human face to the victims of the attacks. It is not realistic or even right to expect the American media to give the exact same treatment to the victims of US wars. But, until very recently, the US media rarely even questioned the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and when it did, the questions asked rarely centred on the civilian deaths, which were at best seen as inevitable incidents of war and, at worst, as necessary collateral damage.

Such a mentality is more damaging in the long run than any individual threatening to burn the Quran, because it plants the seeds of dehumanisation.

In the words of Kathy Kelly, an American peace activist who is currently facing trial for 'trespassing' in a drone-manufacturing plant during an anti-war protest, the mainstream media "does little to help ordinary [Americans] ... understand that the drones which hover over potential targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen create small "ground zeroes" in multiple locales on an everyday basis".

Lamis Andoni is an analyst and commentator on Middle Eastern and Palestinian affairs.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera
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