Film protests break out across Muslim world
Protests have started breaking out in parts of the Muslim world against an anti-Islam film which prompted violent protests at US embassies in the Middle East earlier this week.
The US had put all of its diplomatic missions overseas on high alert amid fears of another attack after Friday’s weekly prayers – traditionally a time of protest in the Middle East and North Africa.
It comes after an attack against the US consulate in Libya killed the US ambassador and three other countrymen, and several Libyan security guards, on Tuesday.
Angry demonstrations over the video also broke out Egypt and Yemen earlier this week.
Today, hundreds of Afghans – some shouting “Death to America” – held a protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
It is unclear who organised the demonstration in the Marko area of Nangarhar province, between Jalalabad and the Pakistan border, but the crowd reportedly called on Afghan president Hamid Karzai to cut relations with the US.
In Indonesia, about 200 people chanted “Death to Jews” and “Death to America” in a largely peaceful protest outside the heavily guarded US Embassy.
They waved black flags and held signs that read: “America has to be responsible for Islamophobia worldwide” as they marched in Jakarta, capital of the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Indonesia’s government has been working to block access to clips of the film online, and a prominent cleric has urged calm, but others are calling for Muslims worldwide to defend the dignity of the Prophet.
Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a branch of the international network that advocates a worldwide Islamic state and the ones who organised the protest, on its website blamed the US government for allowing the film to be produced and released, calling it “an act of barbarism that cannot go unpunished”.
About 20 protesters outside the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, shouted “Allahu akbar” and handed reporters a letter addressed to the American ambassador in Malaysia that expressed their anger over the movie and called for greater respect for religions.
Authorities in the Muslim-majority region of Indian Kashmir have asked the government to block the video, the region’s senior police official, Ashok Prasad, said today.
The local government has also placed five leading separatist leaders under house arrest. They are routinely detained when protests or violence are expected.
Security forces in Yemen shot live rounds in the air and fired tear gas at a crowd of around 2,000 protesters trying to march to the US Embassy in the capital Sanaa.
The protest comes the day after hundreds of protesters chanting “Death to America” stormed the embassy compound and burned the American flag. The embassy said no one was harmed.
Yemen’s president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, quickly apologised to the United States and vowed to track down the culprits.
Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims burned US flags and called president Barack Obama a “terrorist”, while the senior government cleric reportedly demanded Americans leave the volatile Indian-controlled region immediately.
At least 15,000 people took part in more than two dozen protests across Kashmir, chanting “Down with America” and “Down with Israel” in some of the largest anti-American demonstrations against the film.
US and Israeli flags were burned at many of the protests across the Muslim-majority region. Hundreds of lawyers in the main city of Srinagar stopped work and marched out of court and into the streets in protest. One protester held a poster with Mr Obama’s picture and the words “real terrorist”.
“The US citizens visiting Kashmir should leave immediately as the sentiments of the Muslims have been hurt by these pictures,” Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, Kashmir’s state-appointed cleric, was quoted as telling the Kashmir Reader, an English-language daily paper.
In response, US Embassy officials sent out a message reiterating the call for citizens to stay away from Kashmir, a volatile territory where many oppose India’s rule. Police said they were investigating the cleric’s statement.
