President Barack Obama used a Wednesday Rose Garden appearance to repeat his administration’s opposition to critics of Islam, as he denounced the Sept. 11 killing of four Americans during an Islamist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
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“Since our founding, the U.S. has been a nation that respects all faiths and rejects all effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others,” he said, adding that “there is absolutely no justification for this senseless violence.”
Obama ignored criticism of his outreach to Islamist advocates in Egypt, Syria and Libya, but did indirectly praise his foreign policy for bring “freedom and dignity” to Arabs in Libya and other countries, and said government fighters help protect the U.S. ambassador.
Instead, Obama portrayed the attack as a non-political criminal event. “We will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers,” he said, shortly before he walked back to the Oval Office while ignoring questions from reporters.
