Tuesday, May 21, 2013
   
Text Size
Place your banner here
Place your banner here

New protests erupt over anti-Islam film around Muslim world

Fresh protests are taking place around the Muslim world over an amateur anti-Islam video produced in the United States.

At least one protester was killed in violent protests in Pakistan and thousands attended an angry rally in the Philippines city of Marawi.

Weapons were fired and police cars torched in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah has said the US faces "very dangerous" repercussions if it allows the full video to be released.

In a rare public appearance, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told a rally in the capital Beirut that the world did not understand the "breadth of the humiliation" caused by the "worst attack ever on Islam".

Thousands of people were on the streets, waving flags and chanting: "America, hear us - don't insult our Prophet".

Sheikh Nasrallah, the influential leader of the Shia Muslim militant group, earlier called for a week of protests - not only against American embassies, but also to press Muslim governments to express their own anger to the US.

A trailer for the obscure, poorly made film at the centre of the row, entitled Innocence of Muslims, came to light in recent weeks and protests first erupted in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, last Tuesday.

More than a dozen people have died in protests since.In Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the local press club was burnt down and government offices attacked in the Upper Dir district.

One protester was killed in an exchange of fire with police, following the death of another protester on Sunday.

A protest of thousands of students took place in the nearby city of Peshawar, reported AFP news agency.

In the biggest city, Karachi, police fired in the air to disperse a crowd heading for the US consulate, reported Reuters, and lawyers marched in Lahore.

In other developments, about 3,000 protesters burned US and Israeli flags in the southern Philippines city of Marawi

In Yemen, hundreds of students in the capital, Sanaa, called for the expulsion of the US ambassador, said AFP.

In Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, hundreds of protesters faced off with police, throwing stones and petrol bombs, while police retaliated with tear gas
More protests were reported in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir.

Hundreds of Palestinians staged a peaceful sit-in protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah

Angry demonstrators in the Afghan capital, Kabul, fired guns, torched police cars and shouted anti-US slogans

A small protest was held outside the US embassy in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, AP reported.

In a BBC interview, former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair said the film was "wrong and offensive but also laughable as a piece of film-making - what is dangerous and wrong is the reaction to it".

Share

Translate this site

Opinion Poll

Should the local government be a federating unit in the Nigerian nation?

Nigerian Tribune