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Blasphemy and the US Embassy in Libya

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Blasphemy and the US Embassy in Libya

September 14, 2012

Libyan authorities have accused elements of Qadafi's regime and Al-Qaeda of being behind the attack that killed the United States Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other American officials.

"This criminal act coincides with several attempts to disrupt the democratic experiment in our country and prevent the congress and government from carrying out their duties," said Mohammed Maqrif, the head of the Libyan National Assembly. Maqrif noted that the attack on Stevens took place on September 11.
"The American ambassador in Libya was an English teacher in Morocco. He loved the Middle East," tweeted @TheBigPharaoh.

While the Egyptian newspaper Moheet reported on outrage regarding the film that led to the violence. "In a dangerous precedent and what would be the first such incident of its kind, an Egyptian columnist has threatened to burn the Bible," it reported.

Abu Islam Ahmed Abdullah also threatened to urinate on the Bible during angry demonstrations in front of the American embassy in Cairo to protest the anti-Islam film made in the United States. One angry woman at the demonstration told Abu Islam, "You're playing with fitna (militant sectarianism) with your actions."

More blasphemy

Egyptian paper Al-Masry Al-Youm reports that an appeals court on Wednesday overturned a ruling sentencing the Arab world's most famous actor to three months in jail for blasphemy. Egyptian star Adel Imam had been convicted for mocking Islam and its traditions by making fun of men wearing traditional robes and women wearing all-encompassing veils.

Imam is no stranger to controversy. In one of his most well-known plays, almost always comedies, with jokes that are known throughout the region, Imam's character is called to testify as a witness.

Lawyer: "Are you an upstanding citizen?"
Imam: "Yes, sir."
Lawyer: "If you're a decent man, then how can you live in the apartment above a belly dancer?" (NOTE: "Belly dancer" is a euphemism for a loose woman.)
Imam: "If every Egyptian had to move because a dancer lived in the apartment beneath him, the entire country would be sleeping on the street."

Jordan in crisis

Labib Qamhawi, a well-known critic of the Jordanian regime, writes that Jordan is approaching a critical juncture. "The truth is that Jordan is now a state in crisis and its future and even its existence are in danger," Qamhawi writes in pan-Arab paper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

"The general feeling among Jordanians is one of anxiety, fear and uncertainty," Qamhawi writes, citing a lack of reform, skyrocketing fuel prices and a crippling debt.
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