The proximate cause of the violence is such as to warrant anxiety in Washington about the efficacy of its policy toward Islamic countries
The killing of America’s ambassador to post-Gaddafi Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three others is condemnable. The proximate cause of the violence is such as to warrant anxiety in Washington about the efficacy of its policy toward Islamic countries, in particular those in West Asia whose “Arab Spring” was a matter of celebration until just the other day.
Given the religious nature of the cause cited, Muslim societies elsewhere are also apt to be agitated. As such, the Indian authorities have done well to strengthen the security of American diplomatic facilities and other interests in this country.
It is noteworthy that the US ambassador was personally not the target. It appears that he lost his life when an armed mob attacked the US consulate in Benghazi. It is said the mob was enraged on account of an insulting video of the Prophet Mohammed which was produced and uploaded by a private US citizen on YouTube. The offending video was first noticed in Cairo, where a spontaneous crowd (fortunately not armed) — unlike the one in Benghazi — surrounded the American embassy in angry protest.
The nature of the armed attack in Benghazi suggests premeditation. As such, the video denigrating the Prophet may only be a convenient trigger. The fact of the attack occurring on the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America may also turn out to be just a coincidence. Indeed, given the nature of the social forces unleashed in the wake of the Arab Spring across West Asia and North Africa, it is far from improbable that armed remnants of the Gaddafi regime combined tactically with Islamist factions left out of the power deal brokered by the Americans and the Europeans in the new Libya to stage a spectacular attack against a prominent American target. It is baffling how — sheltering behind the Enlightenment idea of free expression — individual Americans time and again are seen to wilfully hurl religious insults at Islamic societies, although religious freedom of all is the declared credo of the American nation. There is a price to pay in such cases, as was seen in the anti-American rioting in Afghanistan last year when a Florida pastor, Terry Jones, burnt a copy of the Quran in his church. The same irresponsible man is also linked with the current controversy.
All such incidents give boost to Islamist ideologues and terrorist operatives worldwide. India too should worry about the fallout, especially if religio-political elements in Pakistan get going. But the real question that arises is whether by sending anti-West authoritarian regimes packing in the Arab world (and not pro-West ones), the US has not helped Al Qaeda affiliates entrench themselves. Where are the democrats, one wonders.