Douglas Kmiec , the former US ambassador to Malta, has recalled the brief stays in Malta of the ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and offered to help the US embassy in Libya in the wake of Mr Stevens's killing.
"Let's Get Back to the Promise of Inter-faith Diplomacy.
"Here I am, Barack: Send me back to continue the Inter-faith work which you inspire and for which Chris Stevens laid down his life," Kmiec wrote in the Huffington Post.
Douglas KmiecMr Kmiec served in Malta at the time of the uprising in Libya and was involved in the evacuation of Libyan nationals and in the US approaches to the Libyan opposition. Stevens was America's 'first man on the ground' in Libya.
Kmiec eventually resigned after the State Department took exception to his personal involvement in religious affairs.
Writing in the Malibu Times, Mr Kmiec said it was his privilege to get to know Stevens during the period of the Arab uprising as his transit to and from Benghazi several times meant a stop at the US embassy in Malta.
Mr Kmiec said that in view of Stevens's visits to Malta in his weeks as envoy to Libya in 2010, the embassy staff had adopted an almost regular routine at their morning meetings of inquiring of the latest cable or satellite phone communiction from Chris, "and of course, I ended each of those inquiries with a heartfelt prayer from our Malta country team for his safety, something, I can tell you, all in Embassy-Valletta had in mind given our own embassy’s role in rescuing United States personnel caught behind the line of fire during the revolt."
Throughout his service as envoy, the Defence attach/ and station chief in Malta fully briefed Chris on the dangers he faced as an envoy.
"Chris never once flinched."
"My lasting memory of Ambassador Stevens will be of him enjoying a brief moment of respite in my residence in Malta and exhibiting that infectious California smile of his. It was a smile of welcome, of optimism, of respect for the human rights and associated freedoms of all peoples. Those who mindlessly attacked and killed the Ambassador left us reason to grieve, but they should know and understand that the memory of Chris Stevens’ smile and the values that it represents in the service of United States diplomacy cannot be distinguished or diminished."
"Indeed, while I know this profound and sad loss of these American patriots will necessitate a review of our relationship with Libya, you and I both know what Chris Stevens would contribute to that review: an optimistic confidence in the prospect for democracy in Libya and all of North Africa. Please permit me to affirm that judgment by offering to be of any assistance to you in the embassy of Libya or otherwise in the region. My friendship and admiration for Ambassador Stevens could call for nothing less," Mr Kmiec said.
'LET ME GO BACK'
Mr Kmiec also wrote in the Huffington Post and was more blunt.
"Let's Get Back to the Promise of Inter-faith Diplomacy
"Here I am, Barack: Send me back to continue the Inter-faith work which you inspire and for which Chris Stevens laid down his life," he wrote.
"Before Chris reported for his important work in Benghazi during the "Arab spring" uprising, he and I visited in my home and his team camped out in my embassy. Being especially careful to honor the military neutrality of Malta (a neutrality which is valuable in a divided world that needs some common ground for negotiation); we spoke of the inter-faith diplomatic effort of President Obama. I am certain from his heartfelt remarks that the President appreciates how in many ways Chris gave his life practicing this inclusionary brand of diplomacy. President Obama was right in his well-received Cairo speech in June 2009 - we must achieve mutual understanding in order to secure mutual respect. Without mutual respect, we cannot expect a rule of law or democratic institutions to flourish," Mr Kmiec wrote.
Christopher Stevens."It is obvious in the mindlessly destructive melees of the present day that those rioting against the U.S. and the West have little conception of our scope of freedom, and thus, wrongly attribute to us speech - like that dealing with the insulting portrayal of the Prophet - to be the official view of the United States or even the perspective of all Americans. So too, it is obvious that the makers of the video either lack appreciation for how insulting it is to mock the central figure of faith, or irresponsibly, do not care.
"Of course, it is easy enough to say that the leaders of al Qaeda or like terrorist counterparts are beyond understanding. Their message of hate must be rejected by all people of every faith, and none at all. Theirs is a message that leads nowhere but to death, destruction, and the disappointment of legitimate hope for a good and decent life at peace with the neighbors they know and the strangers unknown to them across the globe.
"But how committed have we been to this inter-faith diplomatic effort? How much do we really understand about Islam or any faith other than our own? My experience in the Obama administration suggests that our knowledge is incomplete and our actions prone toward mixed or inconsistent signal. In this, our diplomatic initiative has yet to match the clarion voice and great discernment of President Obama as exhibited at the Al-Azhar or center of Islamic learning that for centuries has compatibly informed and guided the progress inspired by Cairo University. President Obama's Cairo sentiments both honored America's longstanding commitment to religious liberty while at the same time outlining the difficult challenge observance of that liberty can sometimes pose for competing freedoms, like that of speech, or that can be understood to undermine necessary principles of equality, especially toward women," Kmiec wrote.
He said he was perhaps, especially sensitive to this topic when in appointing him Ambassador to the Republic of Malta ('a democratic nation, but a neutral, non-aligned one that has demonstrated a special gift for interacting with all nations, including its nearest neighbor to its South, Libya'), the President and his delegates in The White House gave him a special portfolio to pursue inter-faith or faith-based diplomacy through writing, speaking and international conference devoted to de-fusing the hatreds spiked by ignorance of another's faith.
DIG AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT
"President Obama and Secretary Clinton attracted a number of us specially committed to advancing faith-based diplomacy. Unfortunately, it was hard for the State Department bureaucracy to, as the kids say, "get it." Because my guidance on the inter-faith initiative was shaped outside the "Foggy Bottom," and because some parts of the bureaucracy, aided by a few lawyers in something of a fog themselves - or the type of lawyer that can spot only problem when the point of law practice is the resolution of problem without abandoning the essential objective -- much of my faith-based writing was censored or impeded in ways that, ironically, these same lawyers would understand such obstruction could not constitutionally be extended to the expression of hate-filled Koran-burners or Mohammed-defilers could not be.
"As an academic, I first learned of our President when he shared the lot of a fellow con law professor. Still conceiving of him in those terms, I was certain that he would (or could) easily see the importance of not just having political, cultural, and economic officers in embassies, but diplomatic specialists in opening and maintaining inter-faith channels of communication and inter-action as well. Alas, the cooperation of the bureaucracy was frustratingly resistant to the President's objective and my implementation. Tendering my resignation after several years of such obstruction, I naively thought my principal friend in the Obama administration: i.e., Obama, would just say, "nonsense, Doug, you're doing exactly what we announced at your swearing in as the "special presidential logic" for your appointment, and I - that is, the President, sort of like a big brother ready to kick the ass of school yard bullies picking on his brother, would straighten out the matter, and I would get back to work implementing his Cairo message in earnest.
"Okay, I admit I have watched "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" one too many times, and I vastly underestimated the difficulty of borrowing a presidential moment in the midst of budget limit crises and other seemingly larger issues. When the opponents of exploring the utility of faith-based means of conflict resolution managed to mix in the inspector general, they cleverly outmaneuvered this old professor, but as I write, I am haunted by the question: at what cost? No one can say had the initiative gone full-throttle that Chris Stevens and other embassies would not be victimized, but this much is certain: there would have been established faith-sensitive channels of communication as sane alternatives to the Molotov cocktail and AK-47."
"The learning and outreach for these alternative channels do not exist today. Chris Stevens would not be discouraged, nor am I. The President and the Secretary of State know and discern the essence of religious freedom and with that discernment have striven in a genuine fashion to support in North Africa and the Middle East governmental structures and territorial allocations that are at long last accountable to the people. Democracy? Yes, but not necessarily the template, democratic form of the United States, but a governmental structure that is compatible with the people of each nation determining for itself how faith is permitted to influence public decision. There is only one key premise or precondition to this variegated freedom: that no single faith may use coercion to compel a prescribed religion or proscribe the religious practices to which a Muslim, Christian or Jew or anyone else has voluntarily given consent."
Mr Kmiec said there was much to be done, and much would depend upon the courageous efforts of a person like Christopher Stevens to accomplish.
"Secretary Clinton captured the spirit of Chris in her remarks honoring the return of his remains when she referenced his ever-present California smile, which she endearingly called a "goofy, irreverent California smile." Yes, it was that because Chris never took himself too seriously, except when through those welcoming, still youthful dentures he was articulating in Arabic and English a message that said to persons of every faith - "we know the things that really matter in this life" and by means both conventional and unconventional, we will help you re-make this world into a peaceful place where you and those you love may enjoy them.
"It is on this basis - with my own "goofy" California smile -- that I am reporting for duty, Mr. President and Madame Secretary."