PROTESTS ACROSS the Muslim world have been led by Egyptian youths rallying for the fourth day outside the US embassy in Cairo, hurling stones and petrol bombs at police who responded with clouds of tear-gas and jets of water from crowd control cannon.
Police yesterday installed cement blocks to close off one of the gates of the walled embassy compound and provide protection for themselves from protesters’ missiles.
The Muslim Brotherhood and the ultra-orthodox Salafi Noor party called and then cancelled a “million man march” to Tahrir Square, located close to the embassy, in favour of demonstrations outside mosques and a token rally in the square.
President Muhammed Morsi reiterated condemnation of the offensive film and, seeking to calm the situation, said: “We cannot accept the kiling of innocent people or attacks on embassies.”
In Jerusalem, Israeli police battled Palestinians at the gates of the walled city while in Gaza Palestinians burned Israeli and US flags.
Jordanian security personnel sealed off the US embassy to prevent 2,000 protesters from the Islamic Action Front and radical salafi groups from reaching the compound.
As Pope Benedict XVI landed at Beirut airport at the beginning of a three-day visit aimed at promoting Christian-Muslim reconciliation, a peaceful rally against the film was held in the southern Lebanese port of Sidon. In Tripoli protesters burnt a US fast food outlet. Two died and 30 were injured when they attempted to assault a security facility.
Syrians protested outside the US embassy in Damascus from which diplomats were withdrawn early this year. Iraqis in the capital Baghdad and Basra in the south staged demonstrations. US and Israeli flags were burnt.
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “Those who made this movie should be condemned in the harshest terms. But insulting religion cannot be an excuse to attack people.”
He called on Muslims to condemn the assault on the US consulate.
Police fired warning shots and water cannon to disperse Yemenis making for the US embassy in Sanaa.
In Doha, 1,000 Qataris answered the summons of popular television preacher Yousef al-Qaradawi to stage a government-sanctioned protest at the Omar Ibn al-Khattab mosque where they chanted, “Obama, Obama, we are all Osama!”
In Tehran demonstrators rallied after Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the influential Guardian Council, denounced the film in his Friday sermon.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed “evil Zionists” and the US for the film which he equated with Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel the Satanic Verses, Danish cartoons of the prophet and Koran-burning in the US.
In Islamabad 250 Pakistanis were stopped by police before reaching the US embassy. Lawyers confronted police in a protest in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Imams in Afghanistan condemned the film but warned against violence as Afghans protested in Jalalabad, a centre of religious conservatism and militancy.
A peaceful protest took place in Kuala Lumpur while in adjacent Singapore a foreign ministry spokesman condemned the film and the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi. Freedom of speech, he said, must be balanced with respect for religious sensitivities.
The US embassy in Jakarta was surrounded by police while Indonesians mounted demonstrations against the film.
Troops fired at Nigerian protesters at a mosque in the troubled city of Jos and stepped up security in other cities and towns where there have been clashes between Muslims and Christians.
