Saudi Arabia, Qatar finance terrorism in Arab world: Libya politician
Outrage is growing across the Muslim world over a blasphemous movie that insults Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
On Wednesday, angry protesters in Libya and Egypt continued their demonstrations for the second consecutive day following the release of the sacrilegious movie.
Similar protests were also held in several other countries including Tunisia, Morocco, and Sudan to condemn the film.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza City burnt US flags and expressed outrage at the anti-Islam film.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Sabri Malek, a spokesperson for the Libyan Democratic Party, from London, to further discuss the issue.
The video offers the opinions of two additional guests: Marwan al-Ashaal, an international lawyer from Cairo, and Stephen Lendman, a writer and radio host from Chicago. What follows is a rough transcription of the interview with Malek.
Press TV: Good question there that [previous guest speaker] Stephen Lendman is asking; can you answer it? What about the millions that have been killed from some of these wars that the US has been at the forefront?
Malek: Well, let’s put this very clearly at the outset. The film in America was extremely provocative. It was designed to provoke a violent reaction in the Muslim world.
We condemn it. This is not the way for better relations between the West and the Muslim world.
However, the violent reaction in Libya, the destruction of the consulate in Benghazi, the killing of the ambassador and the colleagues is an act of murder. It’s not justified by the film in any way.
We Muslims mustn’t behave in this way. We must respect international law. Indeed, we must respect Islam itself.
Mr. Christopher Stephens was the ambassador who was killed, was a friend of the Arab world. He was a friend of Islam. Indeed, he was a Muslim himself. He followed the spiritual Islam. He was a Sufi. He was a spokesman for democracy in the Arab world in the US State Department. We really have lost a great friend of ours.
What happened in Benghazi yesterday must be condemned by the whole world. We Muslims condemn it. We in the Democratic Party condemn it.
Press TV: I’d like to examine and get your views on the circumstances behind this film which was made by this person, Mr. Bacile, who is an American Jew.
Don’t you find it ironic that this has come out on 9/11? Don’t you find it ironic that this is a movie that is two hours in length? Aside from that, knowing that it’s going to insult Muslims to the deepest, almost, level, the reaction that came from Hillary Clinton and from the US President Barack Obama, they’re going to tighten security for American embassies around the world. Neither of them mentioned anything using the words “Islam” or “Muslim” or even to blame this anti-Islam movie for the cause of what happened in Libya and, of course, then relating this to 9/11 and saying it’s further proof that the US needs to pursue their so-called war on terror.
Give us your analysis on that and tell us, does that tie in with what is going on in the Middle East in terms of how the US and its Western allies have talked about redrawing the map, etcetera and, of course, we’re seeing what’s happening there?
Malek: Libya, unlike Tunisia and Egypt, is becoming a democracy. This is upsetting the Saudis and the Qataris, badly.
We all know that the Wahhabi movement in the Arab world and indeed in the Islamic world -- the Salafi movement -- is controlled by Saudi intelligence both ideologically and financially.
Now, the Wahhabis are the people who attacked the American consulate yesterday and killed the ambassador and his colleagues. These people do not want to see a democratic Libya.
They get their support from the Saudis and they get their support from the Qataris. The Saudis and Qataris want to ensure that the Arab Spring revolutions will not spread to the Arab peninsula.
There is another element to this conspiracy and that is Gaddafi’s son, Saadi, who is now in Niger, he is a Salafi himself and he’s colluding with Saudi intelligence.
I would like to say that there is no way of defeating Wahhabism and Salafism in the Muslim world without cutting off the head of the snake which is there in Riyadh. The Saudi regime must go otherwise, we will never have peace in the Middle East and we will never have democracy.
It’s about time that the Americans have a word with the Qataris and the Saudis and make them stop financing terrorism in the Arab world.
In Libya, we want democracy. We don’t want to go the fundamentalist way.
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