Global media is reporting that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi held a press conference where he condemned the attacks on U.S. embassies but said that he told President Obama “it was necessary to put in place ‘legal measures which will discourage those seeking to damage relations… between the Egyptian and American people.’ ” According to an Ahram Online report:
Ahram Online , Thursday 13 Sep 2012 President Mohamed Morsi condemned Tuesday’s attacks on US diplomatic missions in Cairo and Benghazi during a press conference in Brussels on Thursday. He went on to condemn the anti-Islam film that sparked the attacks, describing any insult against the Prophet Mohamed as a ‘red line.’m ‘We Egyptians reject any kind of assault or insult against our prophet. I condemn and oppose all who… insult our prophet,’ Morsi said. He offered his condolences on the death of Christopher Stevens, the US Ambassador to Libya, and three other embassy staff, who were killed late Tuesday during an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. Morsi went on to say that Islam strongly condemns the killing of innocent people. ‘Whoever kills a soul, it is as if he had slain mankind entirely,’ he said, quoting the Quran. He asserted that people had the right to protest peacefully and that Egypt was strong enough to protect foreign missions and envoys on its soil, as well as public and private property. He warned against further attacks on foreign missions that would violate Egyptian and international law. Morsi said that he had spoken with US President Barack Obama and told him that it was necessary to put in place ‘legal measures which will discourage those seeking to damage relations… between the Egyptian and American people.’ “
Meanwhile the website of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood issued a much more threatening statement which said that while the Brotherhood condemned the violence, “we cannot ignore the fact that these countries never made a move regarding the abuse until after the strong reaction seen across the Muslim world.” The Brotherhood statement also said that unless blasphemy laws were enacted “such acts will continue to cause devout Muslims across the world to suspect and even loathe the West, especially the USA, for allowing their citizens to violate the sanctity of what they hold dear and holy.” The statement begins:
One and a half billion Muslims are subjected to humiliation and abuse in the person of their leader, Mohammed, the Messenger of God, the Prophet of Islam, of mercy and good tidings for the whole world. With the message of God, Islam, Prophet Mohammed pulled peoples out of the abyss of backwardness and barbarism to the heights of sophistication and honorable humanity. He lit the pathways of progress and human thought for all mankind, with pure faith in the one God, belief in all Messengers without distinction or discrimination, full respect and reverence for all Prophets. The Messenger of God gave the world Islam, which guarantees all people freedoms of belief and worship as well as respect and protection for places of worship, freedom of opinion and expression, human equality and public justice, dignity and solidarity and cooperation among all human beings. He gave us Islam, which recognized human rights even before anyone in the whole world knew what human rights were. Islam even recognized the sanctity of a human’s blood, honor and money, which must not be violated. The repeated abuse of the Messenger of God indicate the presence of hatred and bigotry in those who stand behind it, with ignorance, connivance and indulgence in those who permit such persistent abuse.
Read the rest here.
President Morsi appears to be playing a double game- appearing to act as a statesman while the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood continues to agitate and threaten the U.S. A post from yesterday reported that the Brotherhood calling for nationwide protest over the film.