The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) issued a strong statement condemning the attack on U.S. embassies. According to the statement:
MPAC today strongly condemns the attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Cairo and Benghazi, Libya, and we grieve along with the rest of our nation over the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. These attacks were not just an attack on our embassies but on our nation as a whole. SEE: ‘Obama Condemns Killing of U.S. Ambassador to Libya’ (CNN) The attacks come after a low-budget movie on YouTube called ‘Muhammad’ incited anger by depicting Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a demeaning and degrading manner. MPAC condemns the film and its desecration of religious symbols. ‘This is a sad day for America as we mourn the deaths of four citizens who were living in a country to help Libyans achieve freedom,’ said Salam Al-Marayati, MPAC President. ‘It is deplorable and unfortunate that such an irrelevant film has succeeded in its objectives of causing violence and death in Egypt and Libya.’ Earlier today, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a press conference at the White House about the attacks. ‘No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation,’ he said. ‘Make no mistake: Justice will be done to those responsible for this attack.’ We call for the protection of all U.S. personnel throughout the world. We look to our Muslim leadership to reflect on how we have reached such an extreme point in our community.
However, the Investigative Project notes that that on his Facebook page, the MPAC president Salman Al-Marayati attempted to blame the rioting on Florida Pastor Terry Jones who has promoted the film:
When Salam al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) tried to deflect attention to Florida Pastor Terry Jones, who has promoted the film, a former MPAC intern smacked him down. Marayati posted a comment on his Facebook page noting that Jones’ past promises to burn a Quran led to other deadly rioting. “Rev. Terry Jones has now instigated rioting twice that resulted in American deaths,” he wrote. Credit Shammas Malik, a former MPAC intern, for challenging al-Marayati. “The blame cannot lie with [Jones],” Malik wrote. “The blame has to lie with the people whose response was to go and riot and burn things down and murder people.”
MPAC, headquartered in Southern California, was established initially in 1986 as the Political Action Committee of the Islamic Center of Southern California whose key leaders likely had their origins in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Since that time, MPAC has functioned as the political lobbying arm of the U.S. Brotherhood. MPAC has opposed virtually every count-terror initiative undertaken or proposed by the U.S. government. At times this opposition was said to be on civil-rights grounds but, just as often, MPAC claimed that U.S. counter-terror efforts were aimed at the U.S. Muslim community itself. MPAC has consistently supported and facilitated terrorism by supporting terrorist organizations and, more broadly, constructing an elaborate ideology defending the use of violence by Islamists and Islamist organizations. More than any other U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organization, MPAC has developed extensive relationships with the U.S. government which have included numerous meetings with the Department of Justice and the FBI.