Benghazi Background: Shadows of a Greater Tyranny

Mike Scruggs

 

  Here is a short one, leading into Obama's increasingly bold anti-Christian actions.

     Was Obama’s emphasis on the anti-Muslim YouTube video as the cause of the embassy attack related to Obama and Clinton plans for prosecuting “Islamophobia” as a Hate Crime in U.S.?

      The Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a 56-nation political powerhouse often operating under UN auspices, initiated a resolution in 2005 calling for a ten-year plan to counter “Islamophobia,” a propaganda term invented by the Muslim Brotherhood. The plan called for all UN states to enact legislation to punish any criticism of Islam.

     In March 2011, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia succeeded in getting the United Nations to pass a resolution condemning “Islamophobia,” but he made it clear that his aim was much more ambitious. He wanted Islamophobia—essentially any criticism of Islam or its Prophet, Muhammad—to be a UN Hate Crime enforceable in the United States and other Western countries.

     This plan had the sympathy of U.S. President Barack Obama, whose agenda during his term of office has been hostile to any orthodox form of Christianity and has favored Islam at every opportunity, including a plan to build a Mosque near the 9-11 site in New York City. Obama’s record, particularly since his November 2012 reelection can be shown to be increasingly anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, and anti-Israel. Most recently, the Obama Administration has released prospective regulations to severely limit any religious expression in the Armed Forces, making it very difficult for military chaplains to speak freely in ministering to American military personnel. 

     In December 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was working with the OIC to implement corresponding Hate Crimes Laws in the United States and other Western countries to criminalize criticism of Islam and exact punishment against those who violate them.

     Meanwhile, Coptic Christians in Egypt—about 10 percent of the population—were undergoing increasing persecution. In July 2012, a short 14 minute YouTube video, really a trailer for a longer two-hour movie, was produced by Coptic Christians in Los Angeles. The video showed the present Coptic persecution in Egypt and scenes from the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad was portrayed accurately according to the Koran and teachings of Muhammad, although the video was very amateurish. The two-hour movie was screened only once by 10 people in Los Angeles and never again. The 14-minute video was uploaded to the Internet in early September 2012. Muslim clerics in Egypt and the Muslim world considered the Coptic Christian portrayal of Muhammad blasphemy—punishable by death in Islamic Law (Sharia).

     On September 11, the anniversary of the 9-11-2001 attack on the United States, a protest riot against the video—probably organized rather than spontaneous—broke out at the U.S Diplomatic Mission in Cairo, Egypt. Shortly thereafter, on the same day, there was an organized terrorist attack on the U.S diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and the American Ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed. Meanwhile protests against the video, The Innocence of the Muslim People, began to spread around the Muslim world.

     State Department emails indicate that high-level State Department personnel watered down the mention of Islamist terrorist organizations involved in the attack and emphasized probable connections to the YouTube video protest.  This has been confirmed by State Department Whistleblower Gregory Hicks.
    
     UN Ambassador Susan Rice began on September 16 to make media appearances blaming the embassy attack on the video. The Obama Administration continued this line through September 25.

     President Obama and Secretary Clinton undoubtedly hoped the video issue would mask their foreign policy failures in Libya and Egypt during the election, but they probably also hoped to use the video issue as both a cause of the embassy attack and a convenient public relations tool to push through “Islamophobic” Hate Crime Laws in the United States, further suppressing Christian, and Jewish free speech.