The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three American members of his staff were reportedly killed Tuesday in riots sparked by outrage at a film backed by Gainesville pastor Terry Jones, the Gainesville pastor whose burning of Korans last year led to days of rioting in Afghanistan.
The deaths were reported by Libyan officials after attacks on U.S. diplomatic compounds in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, and Cairo, Egypt. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged the film, which conservative Muslims said denigrated Islam and its holiest figure, Muhammad, as the likely cause, although she made it clear she felt "there is never any justification for violent acts of this kind."
Jones and other backers of the film, Muhammad, were unapologetic about the role they may have had in triggering the violence.
"The fact that angry protesters climbed the wall at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo today, ripped down the American flag and tore it apart further indicates the lack of respect that Islam has for any other religion, any other flag, any freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of religion," Jones said Tuesday in a statement released before the death in Benghazi was confirmed. "It further illustrates that they have no tolerance for anything outside of Muhammad."
TVNL Comment: The film, which portrays Muhammed as a fraud, a pedophile, and a womanizer, was directed by Sam Bacile of California, who describes himself as an Israeli Jew, and allegedly financed by 100 other Jews. All should be held responsible for the deaths at the Libyan Embassy. None will be.