by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Frontpage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n By obsessing over the 14-minute YouTube Muhammad video and its maker, the mainstream media ultimately exonerates the inexcusable and murderous response of the Islamic world.<\/p>\n There is only one question: did those who make this movie break any law? No, they did not \u2014 and so the matter should end there, and the media should move on. Focusing on those who did not break any American laws as a way to take the focus off those who murdered and initiated an act of war against the United States is not only misleading; it validates and gives Islamic blasphemy laws precedence over American freedoms.<\/p>\n Moreover, even if making movies deemed offensive to Muslims was illegal in the US, the fact is, these embassy attacks, which “coincidentally” began on September 11, have nothing to do with the movie. On September 10, I wrote an article titled “Jihadis Threaten to Burn US Embassy in Cairo<\/a>.” Then, the demand that the US release its imprisoned jihadis, including the Blind Sheikh, was behind these threats. There was no mention of “offensive movies.” My source,\u00a0El Fagr<\/a>, an Arabic website, reported all this on September 8.<\/p>\n In other words, several days before Muslims rioted about this movie they were threatening to burn down the US embassy in Cairo. I had even seen sporadic Arabic reports, from months back, talking about “extremist elements” threatening the embassy. The movie is just a pretext \u2014 aided and abetted by the media, not to mention the Obama administration: Hillary Clinton called the video “disgusting and reprehensible<\/a>,” wording which is more befitting for those who murdered (and possibly raped, see below) Americans; the US embassy itself apologized over those who “hurt the religious feelings of Muslims<\/a>“; and the administration\u00a0asked YouTube to remove<\/a>\u00a0the 14 minute trailer.<\/p>\n Thus the US administration validates Islam’s blasphemy laws and,\u00a0once again<\/a>, aligns itself with America’s jihadi enemies.<\/p>\n Seventy-year old, retiring Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) put it well, when he suggested that the administration’s response to the embassy attacks was akin to a court asking a rape victim for an apology: “It’s like the judge telling the woman who got raped, ‘You asked for it because of the way you dressed.'”<\/p>\n Nor is the rape analogy entirely allegorical. According to the Arabic website,Tayyar<\/a>, “the American ambassador in Libya [Christopher Stevens] was sexually raped before being killed by the gunmen who stormed the embassy building in Benghazi last night [Tuesday, September 11], in protestation of a film insulting to the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him.”<\/p>\n Sexual abuse and degradation is a common tactic used against non-Muslims, especially women, as the\u00a0repeatedly raped<\/a>\u00a0Lara Logan found. A\u00a0report in Arabic media<\/a>\u00a0that just appeared discusses how Christian women \u2014 identified by wearing crosses around their necks or simply not wearing a hijab \u2014 are subject to sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and even threats of rape on the streets of Egypt. This has only “become much more blatant and terrifying [after the embassy attacks] \u2014 and has even reached the point of\u00a0threats of genocide<\/a>and purging the land of Egypt of infidel Christians,” writes one female Christian in Egypt.<\/p>\n Nor are men immune from such rapes. In fact, the photos of Ambassador Steven \u2014 stripped clothes, bloodied and tortured right before he was killed \u2014 very much resemble the photos of Gaddafi right before he was killed. One US-supported “freedom-fighter,” for example,\u00a0can be seen<\/a>\u00a0sodomizing Gadaffi with a rod as others dragged him along.<\/p>\n The al-Qaeda affiliated men who sexually abused and killed Gaddafi are the same sort of men who sexually abused and killed America’s ambassador. We were told that the late Libyan dictator was killed because he was an evil oppressor of his people. Why was the American ambassador killed, who hadhailed the revolution<\/a>\u00a0and was there helping to “build a better Libya<\/a>“?<\/p>\n These are the questions the media and the Obama administration need to be answering \u2014 not obsessing over a second-rate YouTube video and questioning hard won American freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment. They should be explaining why it is that, after four years of appeasing the Islamic world in ways unprecedented, including by helping oust America’s longstanding allies like Egypt’s Mubarak to empower Islamists, all we have to show for it are dead and violated Americans, stormed embassies, burned US flags, and greater anti-American sentiment than ever before.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Raymond Ibrahim Frontpage Magazine By obsessing over the 14-minute YouTube Muhammad video and its maker, the mainstream media ultimately exonerates the inexcusable and murderous response of the Islamic world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[159,227,150],"tags":[233,1045,229,188,1017,1061,232],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-7a","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6138,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/libyan-intelligence-muslim-brotherhood-morsi-involved-in-u-s-consulate-attack\/","url_meta":{"origin":444,"position":0},"title":"Libyan Intelligence: Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi Involved in U.S. Consulate Attack","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim RaymondIbrahim.com According to a Libyan intelligence document, the Muslim Brotherhood, including Egyptian President Morsi, were involved in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where several Americans, including U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, were killed. On Wednesday, June 26, several Arabic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Muslim Brotherhood"","block_context":{"text":"Muslim Brotherhood","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/muslim-brotherhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":452,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islams-black-flag-flies-over-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":444,"position":1},"title":"Islam’s Black Flag Flies over Egypt","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPage Magazine The United States embassy of Egypt is under siege. According to\u00a0Fox News, Mainly ultraconservative Islamist protesters climbed the walls of the US Embassy in Egypt's capital Tuesday and brought down the flag, replacing it with a black flag with an Islamic inscription to protest a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6843,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/three-american-teacher-slaughtered-for-christian-faith-in-muslim-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":444,"position":2},"title":"Three American Teacher Slaughtered for Christian Faith in Muslim World","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0CBN News\u00a0 Why was Ronald Thomas Smith II, an American teaching at Benghazi\u2019s International School, shot to death last Thursday in Libya, even as he \u201cwas looking forward to his first Christmas in the United States with his wife and toddler son\u201d? Most Western media and analysts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/RonnieSmith_LG-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6219,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/crucified-again-venn-institute-interviews-raymond-ibrahim\/","url_meta":{"origin":444,"position":3},"title":"Crucified Again — Venn Institute Interviews Raymond Ibrahim","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Raymond Ibrahim [Note: The following interview was conducted by the\u00a0Venn Institute\u00a0with Raymond Ibrahim] Raymond Ibrahim is a widely published author, public speaker, and Middle East and Islam expert, and author most recently of\u00a0Crucified Again: Exposing Islam\u2019s New War on Christians. 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