The foolishness of mob justice

The rubble of the U.S. consulate is still burning in Benghazi. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other diplomats in the consulate have died in the attack on the consulate. Christopher Stevens who was the envoy to the rebels after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, likely died of asphyxiation after the consulate was breached by a heavily armed mob protesting supposedly inflammatory material posted online concerning the Prophet Muhammad.  Amidst the outrage of such a brazen act of violence the politics of such an action is playing out in two folds: domestically and internationally.

Internationally this sort of incident illustrates the challenges a post-revolutionary government faces going through the teething pains of democratization. It further highlights the problem of religious fundamentalism mixed with emboldened hardliners, who after a revolution are hard to rein in and become more and more disenchanted with the prevailing order and tries to install their version of what is acceptable and what is not.

The attack on the embassy in Cairo and the death of the American ambassador in Benghazi will test the limit of American desire to stay involved and Libya's ability to deter Islamic militants in taking advantage of the lawlessness. The Islamist group Ansar El Sharia, (which is a salafist organization) who attacked the consulate in Benghazi using rocket-propelled grenades, have been taking advantage of the security vacuum after the collapse of the previous regime. Like-minded hardline Islamists have repeatedly attacked shrines belonging to the Sufi sect, whom they consider as heretical. This time they have taken full advantage of the angry mob, which attacked the consulate. It is worth noting that the militant hardline groups in Libya are a small faction of the country as opposed to being in the thousands (like Iraq). But that does not excuse the inability of the Libyan government to rein in these groups.

If we are to dissect what exactly prompted such a reaction from the Islamists, we will find that there is an immense amount of absurdity concerning this over the top hooliganism. Sam Bacile and Morris Sadek made the offending 'documentary' piece, which inflamed the sentimentalities of these hardliners. Mr. Bacille is an Israeli filmmaker and Mr. Sadek is an Egyptian Coptic living in California. So it is not quite clear why in the minds of the Ansar Al Sharia, America would be held responsible for offending the sensibilities of their version of faith, which is apparently not strong enough to fend off any miniscule ridicule from other hardliners with equally imbecilic understanding of reality. It is safe to say that hardliners from one side inflamed hardliners from the other side and induced such a violent reaction. Manufactured outrage is the new holy book for these fringe extremists.

The irony deepens further if you consider that without the help of the Americans, Libya would still be under the Gaddafi regime and fundamentalists would remain checked under the oppression of a military dictatorship. So a freer Libya is also a more dangerous Libya. That being said this is not the first time Libya has seen a surge in religious violence. In February 2006, a mob attacked the Italian consulate in Benghazi as a reaction to the Muhammad cartoons. Events in Benghazi are a reminder that gratefulness in international politics is a short-lived phenomenon and the process of democratization will need to go a long way before violence does not become the first reaction to idiocy.

Domestically this poses a rather large problem for Obama during an election year.
As soon as the news broke of the death of the ambassador, the republican candidate Mitt Romney went on the offensive suggesting Obama was sending 'mixed signals' to the world about American foreign policy and he should have been sterner in his response. The timing of Romney's attack may very well be in poor taste and seem opportunistic, but expected nonetheless. And this issue will play out in the coming months as both Obama and Romney try to address the issue to their own benefit. Obama's foreign policy would be under scrutiny, which may help shift the focus from the economy. But regardless of what happens it is worth remembering that the families of J. Christopher Stephen and his colleagues will be missing their husbands, fathers and brothers. Any untimely death is unfortunate but death induced by the senselessness of others, is hardest to accept.

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Jyoti Omi Chowdhury is a War Theorist and a Visiting Researcher at Center for Sustainable Development.