In a statement from the Rose Garden of the White House (above), President Obama — joined by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — strongly condemned the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that took the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador John Christopher Stevens.
“Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths,” Obama said September 12. “We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None. The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal acts.”
“America’s commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation,” Clinton said in a September 12 statement from the State Department. “Violence like this is no way to honor religion or faith. And as long as there are those who would take innocent life in the name of God, the world will never know a true and lasting peace.”