Barack Obama
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Obama "sent a message - a personal message - to the leader of Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan, asking for his assistance to speak out against the violence."
US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other US officials were killed on Tuesday when a mob of protestors and gunmen angry about a US-made film attacked the US Consulate in Benghazi. A 13-minute trailer of the movie, called the “Innocence of Muslims,” mocks Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.
As fury against the film raged, demonstrators clashed with police near the US embassies in Egypt and Yemen on Friday. Crowds also gathered to protest the California-made film in Malaysia, Bangladesh and Iraq. In Nigeria, where radical Islamist sect Boko Haram has killed hundreds this year in an insurgency, the government put police on alert and stepped up security around foreign missions, while in Sudan, a mass protest was held after Muslim prayers on Friday.
Following through on Obama's request, Erdogan condemned the attack on the US Consulate during a speech he made in Ukraine while also criticizing the movie, saying insulting the sacred values of Islam cannot be justified as exercising freedom of expression.
“No one can justify acts of terror and violence, the latest example of which was the attack on the US diplomatic mission in Libya, saying that they are acting in the name of Islam,” Erdogan added on Friday at a conference in Yalta.
“Those who carry out such actions by exploiting Islamic rhetoric and symbols harm Muslims the most. Therefore, both those who are behind this movie and those who carry out terrorist acts should be condemned,” the Turkish prime minister said.
The prime minister also warned the populations in Muslim countries against provocative calls for violence.
Carney said Obama had also called the leaders of Egypt and Libya to ask for their help in protecting American diplomats and installations.
"And I think you saw that the prime minister did that, and the president is very appreciative of these statements and the actions these leaders have taken personally," Carney said.
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