American Muslims speak out against violent protests in Libya, Yemen

By Tell Us USA Staff Writer

DEARBORN, MI (Tell Us USA) - Local Muslims have pushed back and respond to the violent protests spreading across the Middle East and Northern Africa which left four American Embassy employees dead last week. At least one arrest was made Thursday morning for suspected involvement in the Libyan attack, and at least three others were being pursued by Libyan authorities in the afternoon.

Protests by furious Muslims erupted in countries around the world in the past week over an anti-Islam video shot in California that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad. In places like Libya, Sudan and Tunisia, protesters stormed U.S. embassies, and an American fast food restaurant was burned in Lebanon.

Arab-American and Muslim leaders in metro Detroit condemned the attacks on U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya that resulted in the death of a U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three staffers.

"There is no justification for such wanton violence that led to the deaths of innocent Americans in Libya," said Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The attacks on the embassies may have been prompted by an anti-Islam film produced by Israeli filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula who is based in Southern California. Nakoula says he financed the movie with 100 Jewish donors, according to the Associated Press. The filmmaker told the Associated Press that "Islam is a cancer, period."

The movie negatively depicts Islam’s prophet, Mohammed; Muslims believe that any artistic depiction of Mohammed is wrong.

Regardless, Muslims should not react violently when Mohammed is attacked, Walid said. They should “return insults with righteousness, not with criminality,” said Walid, who often lectures about Islam across Michigan.

Islam’s holy book, the Quran, says that killing one innocent person is "like killing all of humankind," Walid added.

Imam Mohamed Almasmari of the Muslim Unity Center in Bloomfield Hills said he is not surprised that the film has caused protests, but he is surprised that the protesters attacked the embassy and the people who worked inside the embassy.

“I think protests are normal. I think people should protest in America, too. I just don’t think it should go to that level,” he said. “I’m against (the film). But I think they should protest peacefully. Nobody should be harmed ... The prophet (Muhammad) is our role model. He was known to be insulted, and it's recorded in our Holy Book that the prophet was called different names. And God never ordered the prophet to stand against those who called him those names.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the turmoil raging across the Muslim world is likely to continue into the days ahead, but he says the violence directed towards the U.S. appears to be leveling off.

He said the Pentagon has "deployed our forces to a number of areas in the region to be prepared to respond to any requests that we receive to be able to protect our personnel and our American property."

He declined to provide more details on reports that the military may be moving additional military forces so they can respond to unrest in any of a number of regions of concern.