Saturday, September 22, 2012

Thank You, Benghazi We Support YOU TOO

One of my posts on the attack in Benghazi was reposted elsewhere, where a discussion took place that referred to all Muslims as 'psychotic masses' and to Islam as a cancer.  It reflected some of the most hateful and extreme right Islamophobia and bigotry.

Not everyone felt that way; those who did were of the "I don't need to know nuthin' bout Muslims to hate them, because x-y-z is obvious' that is part of the larger embrace of ignorance on the right, replacing information and intellect with gullible ideology that believes stupid and implausible things.

I refer to these people as those who don't know the difference between Wasabi and Wahabi.

They don't know geogrpahy, history (ours or anyone else's), comparative religion, or cross-cultural cuisine.

These fools wanted to believe that the protests in Cairo were monolithi, reflecting all Egyptians, not just a few where someone with money and an internal domestic political axe to grind against the current Egyptian government PAID people to show up and attack the U.S. embassy.

People like our right wing commenter here, Joe Doakes, simply ignores any facts that do not fit their preconceived notions of reality in favor of an ugly fantasy.

In that context, Juan Cole's excellent and objectively better informed observations about al Quaeda being and militant fundies being thrown out of Benghazi should be applauded.  The demonstrations by tens of thousands of Muslims in Libya should have gotten FAR more attention than it did. 

It is a testament to the intelligence and success of Obama's foreign policy. We have Juan Cole on our blog roll; I encourage people who read here to visit it regularly.  It is erudite and well informed; Professor Cole is insightful and has exceptional depth of knowledge.  For those who haven't seen what they are missing by reading him, I'm bringing him here today.  Despite the coverage by French news, the video clip is in English (saving you all from my translation - my French is a bit rusty).

From Informed Comment:

‘Free Libya’ Crowds in Benghazi rally against Militias, Drive al-Qaeda out of City

Posted on 09/22/2012 by Juan
The attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 was seen by many observers as a sign of Libyan radicalism or instability rather than the work of a small, violent and unrepresentative group.
It is a little hard to understand this point of view, since Libyans had just voted in what observers felt were free and fair, transparent elections, and they had elected moderate, mainstream politicians. Even the Muslim Brotherhood lost in the elections. When I was in Benghazi in late May, I found people enormously proud of their municipal and then-planned national elections, and relieved finally to have escaped the nightmare of Qaddafi rule. The US ambassador killed in the consulate attack, Chris Stevens, was wildly popular among Libyans, and I, as an American, was warmly greeted wherever I went.
On Friday during the day, the people of Benghazi demonstrated in their tens of thousands for peace and against al-Qaeda-style radicalism. Many placards called Chris Stevens “a friend,” though sources on the ground cautioned that the rally was not primarily about foreign affairs. The crowds were angered by continued poor security, and by the affront to the honor of their city, the leading municipality in the revolution against Muammar Qaddafi (Gaddafi) in 2011, committed by radical Muslim groups when they attacked the US consulate. The demonstrations were an affirmation of Free Libya and a signal that the people did not overthrow the mercurial Qaddafi just to be dominated by pro-al-Qaeda thugs.
Then on Friday night, their frustration with the militiamen of the “Ansar al-Shariah” and other lawless groups boiled over, and they attacked three of their headquarters and drove them out of the city. One of the groups they attacked, the Rafullah Sahati Brigade, has Muslim fundamentalist tendencies and is rumored to be connected somehow to hard line fundamentalist elements in the Libyan Ministry of the interior, according to al-Hayat the attackers had some armed men among them. The battle lasted two hours, and in the end the militia decided to withdraw from the city.
The rumored connection of the Sahati Brigade, headquartered 15 km outside the city at a farm, to the Ministry of the Interior, suggests that Friday night’s events may in part have been a power struggle within the Libyan government. Regular army troops occupied the militia’s camp in the aftermath of the crowd action. (I.e. did a more secular Ministry of Defense strike at a fundamentalist-leaning Interior Ministry, using the angered Benghazi crowds?)
Earlier, crowds had also driven the Ansar al-Shariah, a hard line fundamentalist group, out of Benghazi. Ansar al-Shariah is alleged to be the group behind the consulate attack, though its leaders deny it.
Four were killed in the clashes, and a dozen wounded.
France 24 reports:

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