Slaughter in Benghazi

The murder of the U.S. ambassador reflects growing fundamentalist violence in Libya

The murder of the American ambassador to Libya and three other embassy personnel in the attack on the Benghazi consulate is difficult to pass off as nothing more than an angry protest in reaction to a film considered by Muslims to be blasphemous, and which has also provoked disturbances in Cairo. Details of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the American diplomatic personnel are unclear, suggesting that the perpetrators were far more than just an out-of-control mob. Whether or not they are linked to al-Qaida — as indicated in initial statements issued by the Libyan authorities blaming the militant jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia — the perpetrators of the deadly attack belong to one of the many armed groups ruling post-Gadhafi Libya while the government stands passively by.

Benghazi, cradle of the revolt that ended 42 years of tyranny, is confronting Barack Obama with a first sudden, major international crisis on the homestretch of the presidential race. It is unlikely that what has happened will have an effect on the Americans’ presence in the oil-rich North African country, but it could act as a trigger and usher in a wave of violent anti-U.S. protests throughout the Muslim world, with unforeseeable consequences that in the past have proved grievous.

The murder of Ambassador Stevens, a man committed to the democratization of the country in which he served, is a call to action on Libyan instability. Tripoli’s promise to find and punish those responsible is not enough. The moderate Islamic government produced by the July elections is showing itself to be extraordinarily weak in the face of growing political violence, the consolidation of a plethora of territorial militias and the increase in radical Islamic fundamentalism. This alarming situation has given rise to incidents like the car bomb attacks in Tripoli in August and the recent destruction of rival holy sites by fanatical Salafis — followers of the most far-right version of Islam.

What has become clear in Benghazi is not only the ineffectiveness of the security forces, which are incapable of repelling an organized attack, but also that of the interim government currently in office until a new constitution is passed next year. Libya will not emerge as a state governed by the rule of law unless it can eliminate rule by armed groups and the outright persecution of violent fundamentalism.