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Anti-American protests seen as "tip of the Islamist Iceberg"
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snip
In the wake of the deadly attacks on Americans in Libya and disappointment in Washington with Egypt, experts say it’s just the tip of the iceberg of unrest across the Muslim world.
Anti-American protests have spread since Tuesday night when mobs swarmed the U.S. embassy in Cairo and the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and they show no signs of abating. Protesters say they object to a U.S.-made film that denigrates the Islamic Prophet Mohammed but, behind the lines, a much larger motive has propelled the organizers to take action.
“Make no mistake,” said Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Israel, “this is a war, not a misunderstanding. It is a battle of ideologies and a struggle for control of state power, not hurt feelings over some obscure video.”
Sunni Islamic extremists in both Libya and Egypt are looking to take control, using the post-revolutionary chaos in both countries to their advantage.
These Islamists, broadly known as Salafi jihadists, did not contest seats in parliamentary elections in July, believing, as they do, that there is only one law, that of God as recorded by Mohammed, and no need for any parliament passing other laws.
“They see Americans as patrons of a regime they don’t like,” the American-born Mr. Rubin said. “They don’t want to thank us for helping liberate them; they want to run us out of the region entirely.”
The protests that now threaten to spread across the Muslim world are the tip of an iceberg, says Alastair Crooke, a former MI6 analyst and specialist in the Islamic world.
Read more here:
[link to www.theglobeandmail.com]
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