State Dept. Sorry for Tweet
Deletes link to hostile Muslim cleric.
Awkward… The State Department learned its lesson that hashtag diplomacy comes with its own diplomatic minefield. The Counter Terrorism Bureau was tweeting out against Boko Haram and the kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls Friday, and it posted a link to a press release by Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah condemning the kidnapping. But Bin Bayyah is not the average Muslim cleric. One of the controversial opinions he has, Bin Bayyah advocated for the killing of American troops in Iraq saying a Muslim’s “duty” is “resisting occupation troops.” The State Department reacted by deleting the tweet and saying it “was wrong and should not have been tweeted.” How in the world did anyone in the State Department think that message was okay? This is why the old kind of diplomacy was better. More…