On Friday, protests against the movie, titled "Innocence of Muslims"
spread dramatically, breaking out in 20 nations in the Middle East and
Southeast Asia.
While peaceful in most places, the protests turned into
assaults on U.S. and other Western embassies in Sudan and Tunis and
violent clashes with police in several countries.
Tunisia:
Tunisia's governing moderate
Islamist party condemned the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tunis and the
neighboring American school, saying Saturday that such violence threatens the
country's progress toward democracy after decades of dictatorship.
Four demonstrators died,
including two following operations in the hospital, and 49 people were injured,
according to Brahim Labassi, spokesman for the Ministry of Health.
The embassy building itself a
fort-like structure was untouched, but a gym and parking lot within the
compound were ransacked and set alight as was the neighboring American school.
The windows of the small building at the complex's entrance used to screen
visitors were smashed.
The attack was part of a wave of
demonstrations across the Muslim world on Friday the Muslim day of prayer to
protest the film, which was made in the United States.
But the degree of violence in Tunisia
surprised many and raised new questions about the direction of the country,
where an uprising last year forced out its longtime president and set off
pro-democracy revolts across the Arab world.
Afghanistan:
The Afghan parliament on Saturday
condemned the release of a YouTube video trailer for a film that denigrated the
Prophet Muhammad.
The members of Parliament issued
a press release asking the US government to prevent the release of the
anti-Islamic film and put the people who made the film on public trial.
The Afghan government has
indefinitely blocked YouTube to prevent Afghans from viewing a video clip of
the film that was posted on the internet site, said a spokesman for the
Ministry of Communication.
Yemen:
An elite US Marine rapid response
team arrived in Yemen's capital of Saana on Saturday.
A day earlier, local security
forces shot live rounds in the air and fired tear gas at a crowd estimated at
2,000 protesters who were kept about a block away from the embassy.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula
said the killing this week of Ambassador Chris Stevens in an attack on the US
Consulate in Benghazi was "the best example" for those attacking
embassies.
Pakistan:
Hundreds took to the streets of
Pakistan on Saturday as part of global demonstrations against an anti-Muslim
film produced in the United States.
In Karachi, about 200 supporters
of the conservative Jamiat-e-Ulame Islam party burned US flags, an effigy of US
President Barack Obama and chanted slogans calling for "Holy War."
There were similar scenes in
Islamabad where around 200 people, mostly local traders, staged a peaceful
protest to condemn the film.
KSA:
Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, the
highest religious authority in the birthplace of Islam, on Saturday denounced
attacks on diplomats and embassies as un-Islamic after deadly protests against
a U.S.-made film mocking Islam's founder.
"It is forbidden to punish
the innocent for the wicked crimes of the guilty, or to attack those who have
been granted protection of their lives and property, or to expose public
buildings to fire or destruction," he said in a speech carried by state
news agency SPA.
There have been no reports of
anti-American demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, a key Arab ally of the United
States and country that holds significant influence over the world's 1.6
billion Muslims via its guardianship of Mecca and Medina.
Sudan:
Sudan has rejected a U.S. request to send a platoon of Marines to bolster security at the U.S. embassy in Khartoum, the state news agency SUNA said on Saturday.
On Friday, a U.S. official told Reuters that Washington would send Marines to Sudan to improve security at the embassy after protesters entered the mission in a demonstration against a film that insults the Prophet Mohammad.
"Sudan is able to protect the diplomatic missions in Khartoum and the state is committed to protecting its guests in the diplomatic corps," Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti told SUNA
AP/REUTERS