The United States ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, was killed along with three staff members in an overnight attack against the American Consolate in Benghazi. The attack was apparently sparked by outrage over an anti-Islamic video recently posted to YouTube.
The clip that sparked the controversy is a nearly 14-minute-long trailer for a film that critiques the life of the Prophet Mohammad. The producer, Sam Bacile, is an Israeli-American real estate developer living in California, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Bacile made the film to condemn the religion of Islam, and has been quoted as saying that "Islam is a cancer." He has since gone into hiding following Tuesday night's protests.
Bacile first uploaded the trailer two months ago. However, it got worldwide attention Tuesday when Florida pastor Terry Jones called the film an "American production, not designed to attack Muslims but to show the destructive ideology of Islam." Jones also declared Tuesday, the eleventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, to be "International Judge Mohammad Day."
Jones has become infamous for his anti-Islam views. He has previously threatened to burn and then later actually burned a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, sparking violent protests in Afghanistan that led to at least eleven deaths.
Protests over the video also occured at the American embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Demonstrations there were largely nonviolent, although some protestors did at one point scale the embassy walls and replace the American flag with a black flag depicting an Islamic profession of faith.
On Wednesday, Afghanistan's government blocked access to YouTube for a period of time in an apparent attempt to prevent outrage and violent protests from spreading to that country.
"We have been told to shut down YouTube to the Afghan public until the video is taken down," Aimal Marjan, general director of information technology at Afghanistan's Ministry of Communication, told Reuters.
Reports from the ground in Afghanistan thus far indicate that access to YouTube is blocked on some providers, but not on others.
#Afghanistan bans YouTube to prevent viewing of anti-Muslim film reuters.com/article/2012/0… Im still able to open it.— Ahmad Mukhtar (@AhMukhtar) September 12, 2012
@alexjamesfitz Im able to open it because my internet is from out side Afghanistan, ISPs who are belong to government have blocked it.— Ahmad Mukhtar (@AhMukhtar) September 12, 2012
YouTube.com blocked in #Afghanistan after #Karzai condemns controversial video | twitter.com/alibomaye/stat…— Ali M Latifi (@alibomaye) September 12, 2012
The most recent reports indicated that service was being restored:
It seems YouTube has been restored in #Afghanistan, after our story came out.— Amie Ferris-Rotman (@Amiefr_Reuters) September 12, 2012
#Youtube was closedfor only 2 hours in #Afghanistan, an official told me its back on— Emal Pasarly (@EmalPasarly) September 12, 2012
Initial reports indicated that Pakistan was also blocking YouTube, but reports from the capital city of Islamabad haven't yet substantiated those claims.
YouTube is accessible in Pakistan. RT @cmshehbaz RT @mattaikins: YouTube appears to be blocked in Pakistan.— Usama Khilji (@UsamaKhilji) September 12, 2012
It isn't blocked in Islamabad. I can confirm that for you. RT @mpoppel: RT @mattaikins: YouTube appears to be blocked in Pakistan.— Hisham Rana, MD (@hrana) September 12, 2012
Working for me in Islamabad RT @mattaikins: YouTube appears to be blocked in Pakistan.— Muneeb Ansari (@ansarim) September 12, 2012