Fresh protests as prophet cartoons fuel Muslim fury

PARIS, France – Fresh protests erupted in the Muslim world Wednesday, September 19, over an anti-Islam film as a French magazine added fuel to the fire with the publication of obscene cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

France braced for a backlash over the cartoons, stepping up security at its embassies and banning demonstrations on its own soil as senior officials and Muslim leaders appealed for calm.

More than 30 people have been killed in attacks or violent protests linked to the controversial US-made film “Innocence of Muslims”, including 12 people who died in an attack by a female suicide bomber in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

In Pakistan on Wednesday, around 1,000 students from the the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party took to the streets in the eastern city Lahore, chanting anti-US slogans and burning the American flag.

A similar number demonstrated in Karachi, burning an effigy of US President Barack Obama, while in Islamabad, around 500 lawyers burst into the capital’s diplomatic enclave, chanting anti-US slogans and castigating the government for not taking strong action against the film.

The Pakistan government declared Friday — the Muslim holy day — a national holiday in honour of Mohammed, in a sudden announcement made after religious parties called for a day of protest.

In neighbouring Afghanistan, about 1,000 protesters took to the streets in the east of the country, blocking a key road to Kabul and chanting “Death to America” and “Death to the enemies of Islam.”

Indonesia saw hundreds of protesters tear up the American flag and throw eggs at the US embassy in the capital Jakarta.

In Lebanon, gunmen opened fire on a KFC fast-food restaurant, just days after another outlet of the US chain was torched and a demonstrator killed in a protest over the film. No one was hurt in Wednesday’s attack.

The Shiite movement Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has called for a string of protests all week in Lebanon to denounce what he described as the “worst attack ever on Islam”.

Muslim men and women in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka also staged their first demonstration on Wednesday, with several hundred gathering in the capital Colombo near the US embassy to denounce the film.

“Innocence of Muslims,” a crudely made film produced by extremist Christians in the United States that depicts the Prophet as a thuggish womaniser, has triggered protests in at least 20 countries since excerpts were posted on the Internet.

In reaction to the uproar, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons mocking the film and caricaturing the Muslim prophet, including two showing him naked.

The left-wing, libertarian publication’s offices were firebombed last year after it published an edition “guest-edited by Mohammed” that it called Sharia Hebdo.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he feared a backlash over the cartoons and said embassies and other French institutions in around 20 countries will be closed Friday for fear of being targeted in protests after weekly prayers.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said anyone offended by the cartoons could take the matter to the courts but made it clear there would be no action against the weekly.

“We are in a country where freedom of expression is guaranteed, including the freedom to caricature,” he said.

Leaders of the Muslim community in France — the largest in western Europe — said an appeal for calm would be read out in mosques across the country on Friday but also condemned the magazine for publishing “insulting” images.

Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s highest authority, condemned the publication of cartoons, while the Vatican’s official daily Osservatore Romano said that the satirical images could throw “fuel on the fire”.

Washington has also moved to boost security in the wake of the protests, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying the US was taking “aggressive steps” to protect diplomatic missions worldwide.

Among those killed in the protests so far have been four US diplomatic staff in Libya, including ambassador Chris Stevens.

Pakistan, along with Afghanistan and Bangladesh, blocked video-sharing website YouTube this week after it failed to remove the offending film.

YouTube said Wednesday it had extended its restrictions on the video to Saudi Arabia, saying it is among countries where the film is considered illegal.

YouTube parent Google said in a statement that the “Innocence of Muslims” would be restricted “in countries where it is considered illegal by local authorities; that is, to date, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.”

The firm last week restricted access to the film in Egypt and Libya after unrest in those countries, and has been adding countries to the list.

The California-based maker of the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a 55-year-old Egyptian Copt and fraudster who was sentenced to 21 months in prison in the United States in June 2010, has not been seen since Saturday when he was questioned. – Agence-France Presse