Protests over "Innocence of Muslims" sweep through Arab and Muslim cities

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21-09-2012 | 12:30
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Protests over "Innocence of Muslims" sweep through Arab and Muslim cities
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Protests over "Innocence of Muslims" sweep through Arab and Muslim cities
At least 47 people, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, have so far been killed in violence linked to the protests over an amateurish anti-Muslim film produced in the United States and vulgar caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a French satirical weekly                  

Here's a look at protests and events across the world on Friday connected to the film, which has also renewed debate over freedom of expression in the U.S. and in Europe.                            

Pakistan:                      

Seventeen people were killed and dozens were injured as tens of thousands protested against the film around the country after the government encouraged peaceful protests and declared a national holiday "Love for the Prophet Day."                     

Demonstrations turned violent in several Pakistani cities. Among those killed was a driver for a Pakistani television station, who died after police opened fire on rioters torching a cinema in the northwest city of Peshawar during a protest.                              

Clashes between police and thousands of stone-throwing protesters also occurred in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.                            

Afghanistan:            

About 900 people have gathered for a protest against the film in the capital, Kabul, chanting "death to America" and burning an effigy of President Barack Obama and an American flag.  A few hundred demonstrators also protested inside a mosque in the eastern city of Ghazni. The protests were peaceful.    
                             
Indonesia:                                          

The United States closed its diplomatic missions across Indonesia due to continuing demonstrations over the anti-Islam film. Small and mostly orderly protests were held outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and in the cities of Surabaya and Medan, along with a couple other smaller towns. No violence was reported.                             

In addition to the embassy in Jakarta and consulate offices in Surabaya, Medan and Bali, the American mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also was shut.

                                
Iraq:

About 3,000 people, mostly followers of Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim groups, protested against the film and caricatures in the southern city of Basra. Demonstrators carried Iraqi flags and posters of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, chanting "death to America" and "no to America."                           

They burnt Israeli and American flags. One of the organizers, Qassim al-Moussawi, told AP that people gathered "to express our anger and resentment on the offenses made against our prophet."                              

Sri Lanka:                         

About 2,000 Muslims burned effigies of President Barack Obama and American flags at a protest after Friday prayers in the capital, Colombo, demanding that the United States ban the film.                                

Bangladesh:                           

Over 2,000 people marched through the streets of the capital, Dhaka, to protest the film. They burned a makeshift coffin draped in an American flag, and an effigy of Obama.                           

Kashmir:                         

Police enforced a daylong curfew in parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir's main city, Srinagar, and chased away protesters opposing the anti-Islam film. Authorities in the region also temporarily blocked mobile phone and Internet services to prevent viewing the film clips.                              

Germany:                      

Several hundred people gathered in the city of Freiburg in southwest of Germany to protest the film. Some carried banners saying: "The dignity of the Prophet Muhammad is our dignity." Police banned inflammatory slogans.                                

The Interior Ministry postponed a poster campaign aimed at countering radical Islam among young people due to tensions caused by the online video insulting Islam. Posters for the campaign in German, Turkish and Arabic were meant to go on display in German cities with large immigrant populations on Friday, but are being withheld because of the changed security situation. Germany is home to an estimated 4 million Muslims.               

France:                      

France banned protests on Friday against cartoons published by a satirical weekly denigrating Islam's Prophet Mohammad as part of a security clamp-down while prayers took place across the Muslim world.                

The country's Muslim population, drawn largely from ex-colonies in North and West Africa, shrugged off the controversy as imams in mosques denounced the pictures but urged their followers to remain calm.               

The drawings have stoked a furore over an anti-Islam film made in California that has provoked sometimes violent protests in several Muslim countries, including attacks on U.S. and other Western embassies, the killing of the U.S. envoy to Libya and a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.                    

Tunisia:                          

The government banned any Friday protests against the crude caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, published in satirical French weekly. Interior Minister Ali Larayedh said that authorities sensed some groups were planning to pillage and carry out violence after weekly communal prayers at mosques. Calls to protest in Tunisia against the caricatures have turned up in social media.                                    

The government of France   a former colonial ruler in Tunisia   had ordered its embassies and other official sites in about 20 countries across the Muslim world closed Friday as a precaution.            

AP/REUTERS/LBCI

To watch the full report, click on the VIDEO above
 

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"Innocence

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