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Friday, September 14, 2012

CFR Update: Anti-U.S. Protests Enter Fourth Day in Cairo

Daily News Brief
September 14, 2012

Top of the Agenda: Anti-U.S. Protests Enter Fourth Day in Cairo
Protests against the United States entered the fourth straight day in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Friday as demonstrators threw rocks and gasoline bombs (NYT) near the U.S. embassy. The violent protests, which also erupted in Benghazi on Tuesday, killing the U.S. ambassador to Libya, were incited by a video mocking Islam that was apparently circulated by right-wing Christians in the United States. Anti-American demonstrations spread to Yemen yesterday, while authorities throughout the Muslim world prepared for expected demonstrations following Friday noon prayers. In Bangladesh, thousands of protesters burned U.S. and Israeli flags, but were blocked from reaching the U.S. embassy by security officials.
Analysis
"The more important signifier, at the embassies in Benghazi, Cairo and Sana'a, is the ubiquitous black flag bearing an Arabic inscription of Islam's founding tenet, 'There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet.' That flag is an icon of political Salafism, having been used by al-Qaeda and also the Taliban, but also by a range of parties and movements across the Arab world that may share Osama bin Laden's austere brand of Islam but in many cases vehemently reject the terrorism that became his leitmotif," writes TIME's Tony Karon.
"Even if the deaths were not linked to al Qaeda or its dangerous North African affiliates, the event is still a major threat to Libya's chances of successful transition to stability, and could be a watershed of the worst kind. The nightmare scenario that Libya could go the way of Iraq in 2004 is still not likely, but no longer seems implausible," writes Christopher S. Chivvis for ForeignPolicy.com.
"Here is what now seems to be the case: the anti-Islam film wasn't made by an Israeli-American, wasn't funded by Jews, and probably had nothing to do with the American deaths, which seem to have resulted from a long-planned attack by a specific terrorist group, not spontaneous mob violence," writes the Atlantic's Robert Wright.

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