CFR Update: Protests of Anti-Islam Film Move to Yemen

Top of the Agenda: Protests over Anti-Islam Film Move to Yemen

Hundreds of demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy in Yemen today (NYT), two days after mobs attacked the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, killing the U.S. ambassador to Libya. The violent protests were triggered by a U.S.-made video denigrating Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that was circulated by far-right Christians. The protests in the Yemeni capital of Sana were set off at the urging of radical Muslim cleric Abdul Majid al-Zindani, a former mentor to Osama bin Laden. The protesters tore down and burned an American flag and replaced it with a pro-Islam banner, while setting fire to a building and two vehicles on the embassy's outer perimeter. There were no reports of U.S. casualties. Meanwhile, the United States deployed two warships (CNN) toward the Libyan coast, as President Barack Obama cited a commitment to "see that justice is done."

Analysis

"We are still in the midst of an immediate crisis in which there has been tremendous violence. This took place at a very emotional time for Americans, given that these attacks took place on 9/11. And it was an emotional time for many Muslims, given that what triggered the demonstrations were reports about a film made in the United States that is offensive to Muslims and to Islam. So this is a highly charged environment for both the United States and the Muslim world," says CFR's Robert M. Danin in this CFR Interview.

"Both attacks are utterly outrageous. But perhaps the United States shouldn't have been caught completely off guard. The rioters in both cases come from the region's burgeoning Salafi movement, and the Salafis have been in the headlines a lot lately. In Libya, over the past few months, they've been challenging the recently elected government by demolishing ancient Sufi shrines, which they deem to be insufficiently Islamic," writes Christian Caryl for ForeignPolicy.com.

"The Arab Spring replaced the harsh order of hated dictators with a flowering of neophyte democracies. But these governments--with weak mandates, ever shifting loyalties and poor security forces--have made the region a more chaotic and unstable place, a place more susceptible than ever to rogue provocateurs fomenting violent upheavals, usually in the name of faith," writes TIME's Bobby Ghosh.