Muslim Culture Still Not Compatible with Liberty, West: U. S. Embassy and Consulate in Egypt and Libya Attacked

Yesterday, on the 11th anniversary of September 11th, “Egyptian protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy . . . , tore down the American flag and burned it” (Reuters) and “U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed when Libyan militants stormed the U.S. consulate” (ABC News).  (Apparently three others were also killed.)  The first, and perhaps the second, was apparently prompted by the making of an independent film about Mohammed.  ABC:

The attack on the consulate in Benghazi came shortly after protesters in Cairo, Egypt, scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy and tore down the American flag in an angry demonstration against a movie about the life of the Prophet Muhammad, depicting the founder of Islam as a fraud and a womanizer.

. . .

The movie was made by Israeli producer Sam Bacile and has been promoted by controversial pastor Terry Jones, the Florida preacher whose Koran burning in March 2010 led to the deadly violence in Afghanistan.

Jones said Tuesday in a statement that the movie was actually titled “Innocence of Muslims” and was intended not to attack Muslims but to show the “destructive ideology of Islam.”

“The movie further reveals in a satirical fashion the life of Muhammad,” he said.

The U. S. embassy in Cairo, either in response to the attack or anticipating it, rushed to appeasement.  As of this writing, its press release is still available on its Web site; here is the text in its entirety:

U.S. Embassy Condemns Religious Incitement

September 11, 2012

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others

That is incorrect.  Official representatives of the United States should have said something more like this:

In our world, the government does not tell the people what movies they can make.  It does, however, kill their enemies.

In what has become a familiar pattern for those who offend Muslims, the filmmaker, Sam Bacile, has gone into hiding, in fear for his life—even in America.  God help us.

Here’s the Web site of Terry Jones, and here’s the fourteen-minute “trailer” for Bacile’s movie—not because either is any good (in my opinion, the movie looks awful, not to mention confusing, and certainly not G-rated—and I only watched half of this), but because we should all work to ensure that terrorism intended to silence speech instead results in more exposure for said speech:

As the South Park guys, of all people, point out (again, not G-rated), if we respond to terrorism by submissively changing our behavior and silencing speech, then terrorism works.

Incidentally, Mitt Romney got it right; here was his immediate statement yesterday:

I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi.

It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.

He also released a longer statement today.  Excerpt:

This attack on American individuals and embassies is outrageous, it’s disgusting. . . .

America will not tolerate attacks against our citizens and against our embassies. We will defend also our constitutional rights of speech and assembly and religion. We have confidence in our cause in America. We respect our Constitution. We stand for the principles our Constitution protects. We encourage other nations to understand and respect the principles of our Constitution because we recognize that these principles are the ultimate source of freedom for individuals around the world.

I also believe the Administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt instead of condemning their actions.

Hat tip to Jim Geraghty (free subscription in top-right corner of NRO main page).

Read more thoughts and information on yesterday’s events from Victor Davis Hanson, Elliott Abrams, Daniel Pipes, Andrew McCarthy, John Hood, Daniel Foster, and others at National Review Online, as well as Clare Lopez at Radical Islam .org.

Breitbart.com: “Obama Camp Condemns Romney Before Condemning Attacks In Egypt, Libya”

Hot Air indicates that Mr. Stevens might not have died if the Libyan security team whose job it was to protect him had not told the attackers where to find him.

More updates at Hot Air.

By the way, have you seen this video (hat tip to Disrupt the Narrative) from The United West?  Mob of Muslim children and teenagers persecutes Christians:

Notice where a policeman blames the Christians’ speech for the Muslims’ violence:  “. . . part of the reason that they throw things on someone is because you tell them stuff that enrages them.”

I won’t offer an opinion on whether this is the most helpful way to evangelize.  I will observe that whether you like the Muslim wrath and pride on display here or not, it seems clear that that culture cannot coexist with our culture.  This video is from America; perhaps this will always be what happens when an American city becomes something like one third Muslim.

Reuters observed after the attack on the American embassy in Egypt, “One slogan scrawled on the walls of the embassy . . . said: ‘If your freedom of speech has no limits, may you accept our freedom of action.'”  In other words, there can be no coexistence.

If there’s only room for one of the two cultures, I hope ours will have the will to be the one that survives the encounter.