US AMBASSADOR TO LIBYA, KILLED IN BENGHAZI ATTACK

U.S. AMBASSADOR TO LIBYA AND 3 OTHER
AMERICANS KILLED AS ISLAMISTS ATTACK

http://dailycaller.com - The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three American members of his staff were killed in the attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, Libyan officials said Wednesday. They said Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob with guns and rocket propelled grenades. The three Libyan officials who confirmed the deaths were deputy interior minister for eastern Libya Wanis al-Sharaf; Benghazi security chief Abdel-Basit Haroun; and Benghazi city council and security official Ahmed Bousinia. The State Department said Tuesday that one American was killed in the attack. It has not confirmed the other deaths. A statement from President Obama “condemned the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens”. The president added: “Chris was a courageous and exemplary representative of the United States.”

The attack on the Benghazi consulate took place as hundreds of protesters in neighboring Egypt scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and tore down and replaced the American flag with a black Islamic banner. The attacks in Benghazi and Cairo were the first such assaults on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country, at a time when both Libya and Egypt are struggling to overcome the turmoil following the ouster of their longtime authoritarian leaders, Muammar Qadhafi and Hosni Mubarak, in uprisings last year. The protests in both countries were sparked by outrage over a film ridiculing Muhammad produced by an Israeli filmmaker living in California and being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States. Excerpts from the film dubbed into Arabic were posted on YouTube. Stevens, 52, was a career diplomat who spoke Arabic and French and had already served two tours in Libya, including running the office in Benghazi during the revolt against Qadhafi. He was confirmed as ambassador to Libya by the Senate earlier this year. Before Tuesday, five U.S. ambassadors had been killed in the line of duty, the last being Adolph Dubs in Afghanistan in 1979, according to the State Department historian’s office.

The US ambassador in Libya and three other embassy staff were killed in a rocket attack after the diplomat's car was targeted in the eastern city of Benghazi. They had been killed by a mob incensed by a US film that they deemed blasphemous to the prophet Muhammad. This attack has many similar antecedents. On April 2011, 20 United Nations staffers were killed in the Afghan city of Mazir-e-Sharif after a compound was overrun by Afghans angry at Florida preacher Terry Jones's first publicized Quran burning. In February and March of this year, six US soldiers were killed by Afghan soldiers and police in the aftermath of US soldiers dumping Qurans into a burn pit at Baghram airbase. Two weeks ago Salafists used a bulldozer to destroy a key Sufi Islamic shrine in central Tripoli. When followers of any religion perform cruel acts against others is due to their fanaticism and narrow-mindedness.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

People who show their love for their own religion by hating all others will spiritually stagnate and cause disharmony and quarrels between those of their religion and those of others. Someone may be a kind, generous, and devout person amongst those of his own culture, while ready to howl, insult, hate, and do injury to those of another. ... Only those individuals and dry forms of religion that are bereft of real spiritual knowledge look at all others with hate and suspicion. Only when one’s consciousness becomes mature does this form of fanaticism or immature enthusiasm subside. Then real love and respect for all will naturally emanate from that person. As one becomes closer to the all-loving Supreme Being by the development of his own love for God, no longer can he be an instrument of hatred or prejudice because he sees everyone equally with spiritual vision. Thus, he walks away from the animalistic quarrels and wars that others take so seriously due to their ignorance of spiritual reality.

Stephen Knapp (Śrīpad Nandanandana dasa) :
“Toward World Peace: Seeing the Unity Between Us All”
“Breaking Down The Cultural Distinctions”
http://www.stephen-knapp.com  -  http://www.stephenknapp.info/
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/toward_world_peace_ebook.htm

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/