What does Petraeus testimony reveal about the Benghazi attacks?

Former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus, who recently resigned because of an extramarital affair, testified to the US Congress and clarified that the attacks which led to deaths at the US consulate in Benghazi, including that of US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, had nothing to do with the anti-Islam movie the “Innocence of Muslims.”

It is definitely a fact that almost nobody had heard anything about the anti-Islam movie before the attacks in Libya. The reason this movie became so well known throughout the world was actually due to the statements of US officials who did not hesitate to claim that the attacks in Benghazi were motivated by the movie.

Therefore, Muslims were portrayed as violent and intolerant, who are capable of murdering innocent people just because of a movie. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for example, said the film is “disgusting and reprehensible.” She added that the US would never stop Americans from expressing their views and that this film cannot be used as justification for violence or to kill innocent people.

And here is what US President Barack Obama said when he addressed the UN on Sept. 25: “There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents. There's no video that justifies an attack on an embassy.”

There are still many unanswered questions about this movie, but the main focus of this article is not to find answers to these questions. What I want to indicate is actually how Muslims were portrayed after the allegation that the anti-Islam movie triggered the Benghazi attacks.

Let's remember “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” that aired on Sept. 17 for example. Stewart, recalling an Egyptian movie based on the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” aired by an Egyptian TV station, said: “Did the Jews gain revenge by burning embassies? No! We got our revenge the old-fashioned way: a bad review in the Times. That is how we do it.”

I can find lots of example like this.

The allegation that the anti-Islam movie triggered the Benghazi attacks also caused a defensive mood among Muslim scholars and intellectuals. Muslim leaders and officials issued harsh condemnations of the attack in Benghazi and emphasized that killing innocent people to protest the controversial film had nothing to do with Islam.

For example Fethullah Gülen, a well-known and respected Muslim scholar who lives in Pennsylvania, wrote an op-ed for the Financial Times which read:

“What is the rationale behind attacking an American consulate in Libya, killing an ambassador and consulate officers, who have nothing to do with this wretched movie? If it is Muslims who are carrying out these attacks, it means that they are entirely unaware of what Islam is all about and are committing the biggest crime in the name of Islam.”

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, officials in Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya and even some Salafi elements criticized the Benghazi attacks. Some Muslim scholars even issued fatwas forbidding attacks on diplomatic missions and harming innocent people because of the movie. The head of the International Union of Muslims Scholars (IUMS), Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradhawi, the leaders of the Gulf states and the mufti of Saudi Arabia condemned the Benghazi attack, which at the time was believed to have been caused by the anti-Muslim movie.

After the testimony of former CIA Director Petraeus, we now understand that the Benghazi attack did not arise out of a protest against an anti-Islam movie. On the contrary, there was not even a single protest until the Benghazi attack and the allegation that it was motivated by the anti-Islam movie. It is that it was actually US officials who modified the CIA's initial findings and helped the anti-Islam movie gain even more recognition, leading to the riots in the Muslim world.

Author: Aydoğan Vatandaş 
Source: Sunday's Zaman, 18 November 2012

Posted in: Anti-Muslim Movie, Islamophobia, Libya, United States