Anti-Muslim film ignites fury across Muslim world

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Anti-Muslim film ignites fury across Muslim world

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Protests started in Muslim countries Thursday over film that mocks Islam.

13 September,2012 08:37 pm

In Yemen, hundreds stormed the grounds of the U.S. embassy in Sanaa.The mob torched a number of diplomatic vehicles as security guards used water cannons and warning shots in a bid to drive them out of the heavily fortified compound. A number of people were reportedly injured.Protests against the amateur film made in the U.S. and mocking the Prophet Muhammad also took place in Cairo, Tehran, Baghdad and Dhaka. Demonstrators in Baghdad chanted “no to Israel” and “no to America” while burning an American flag.Protests continued outside the U.S. embassy in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, as police used tear gas against a crowd of about 200 youth.Egypts Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, on an official visit to Brussels Thursday, slammed “attacks” on the Muslim prophet in the film, while also condemning the violence. He pledged to protect foreigners in Egypt.Ronald E. Neumann, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Yemen, told VOA that protesters are not separating the production of the amateur movie from the American government.“This movie is not United States. It is not the United States government. It is a few crazy people that want to take shelter in our country to make trouble for our relations with the Muslim world.”The U.S. and Libyan authorities are investigating the circumstance of the deaths of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three of his staff after suspected Islamist militants stormed the American consulate Tuesday in Benghazi.Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told VOA that while the film was “objectionable and wrong,” mob violence is not acceptable.“That does not in of itself justify, however, taking life and becoming violent and thats a different issue altogether. So I think linking the two is not right.”Pakistan’s parliament has also passed a resolution against the said film.The U.S. has been tightening security worldwide at its diplomatic installations.Saudi Arabia on Thursday condemned the release of an amateur movie mocking Islam and the deadly attacks against US missions over the film.The kingdom condemned the violent reactions in several countries against US interests, the official news agency SPA said, and the production by an irresponsible group in the United States of a film insulting the Prophet Mohammed.Protests have erupted since Tuesday outside US diplomatic missions in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and other Arab states by demonstrators who deem the low-budget movie Innocence of Muslims made in the United States as offensive to Islam.The US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed when heavily-armed extremists launched a sustained four-hour attack on the US consulate in Benghazi late Tuesday.