Hundreds of Afghans protest near US military base, protests continue in Pakistan and Indonesia

KABUL, Afghanistan –  Hundreds of Afghans burned cars and threw rocks at a U.S. military base as a demonstration against an anti-Islam film that ridicules the Prophet Muhammad turned violent in the Afghan capital early Monday.

And in Jakarta, Indonesians angered over the film clashed with police outside the U.S. Embassy, hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails and burning tires outside the mission. At least one police officer was seen bleeding from the head and being carried to safety by fellow officers.

The low-budget film, privately produced in the United States, portrays Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. It sparked violent protests in many Muslim countries in recent days, many of them outside U.S. diplomatic posts around the world.

The U.S. Ambassador to Libya was killed during an attack on the consulate in Benghazi last week; protesters have also stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tunis and held violent demonstrations outside posts in Egypt and Sudan. The U.S. has responded by deploying additional military forces to increase security in certain hotspots.

In Kabul on Monday, the air was thick with smoke on Jalalabad road -- a main thoroughfare into the city center where the crowd burned shipping containers and tires. At least one police vehicle was burned by the mob before they finally dispersed around midday, according Daoud Amin, the deputy police chief for Kabul province.

Earlier in the morning, men lobbed rocks from the pavement and lobbed them at Camp Phoenix, a U.S. military base that lies along the road. More than 20 police officers were slightly injured -- all from being hit by rocks, said Gen. Fahim Qaim, the commander of a city quick-reaction police force.

"Death to America!" and "Death to those people who have made a film and insulted our prophet," shouted the crowd. Police officers shot into the air to hold back about 800 people and prevent them from pushing toward government buildings downtown, said Azizullah, a police officer at the site who, like many Afghans, only goes by one name.

As the Jalalabad rally was broken up, demonstrations picked up elsewhere in the city. In the southeastern part of Kabul, about 50 protesters gathered in front of a mosque, shouting "Death to America," said police officer Ahmad Shafiq but there were no signs of violence.

Protester Mohammad Humayun, 28, called on President Barack Obama to bring those who have insulted the prophet to justice.

"People around the world are angry," he added. "It is the responsibility of all Muslims to show reaction whenever they hear any disregard and disrespect."

Wahidullah Hotak, another protester, said the rallies will continue "until the people who made the film go to trial."

A number of Afghan religious leaders urged calm.

"Our responsibility is to show a peaceful reaction, to hold peaceful protests. Do not harm people, their property or public property," said Karimullah Saqib, a cleric in Kabul.

Outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, people also tried to ignite a fire truck as Molotov cocktails exploded against a fence surrounding the embassy compound. Police used a bullhorn to call for calm.

The demonstration started off peacefully as the group of several hundred protesters, many dressed in white, marched toward the mission. The U.S. Embassy has issued an emergency message to American citizens, saying about 1,000 people were expected to demonstrate in front of the mission with about 1,500 police on hand.

Demonstrations were also held Monday in the Indonesian cities of Medan and Bandung. Over the weekend in the central Java town of Solo, protesters stormed KFC and McDonald's restaurants, forcing customers to leave and management to close the stores.

In neighboring Pakistan, around 3,000 students and teachers rallied Monday against the film in the town of Chaman in southwestern Baluchistan province. The crowd burned an American flag and an effigy of Obama, said officer Mohammad Shahid.

Teacher Abdul Malik said it was an obligation of all Muslims to protest the video, while Abdul Waris, a 12-year-old student who attended the rally, said his teachers told him the U.S. and Israel produced the film. The teachers canceled classes and told the students to go protest

Hundreds of people set fire to a press club and a government office in northwest Pakistan, sparking clashes with police that killed one demonstrator.

Police official Mukhtar Ahmad says the protesters first attacked the press club in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Upper Dir district Monday, apparently angered because their demonstration wasn't getting more coverage.

Ahmad says police charged the crowd, beating protesters with batons. The protesters then attacked a government office and set it ablaze. Ahmad says the protesters, many of them armed, have now surrounded a local police station.

The Afghan government has blocked video-sharing web site YouTube to prevent Afghans from viewing a clip of the anti-Muslim film. Officials have said it will remain blocked until the video is taken down. Other Google services, including Gmail, were also blocked in Afghanistan during much of the weekend and the block continued on some providers Monday.

The wave of international violence began Tuesday when mainly Islamist protesters climbed the U.S. Embassy walls in the Egyptian capital of Cairo and tore down the American flag from a pole in the courtyard.

Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was killed Tuesday along with three other Americans, as violent protesters stormed the consulate in Benghazi. Obama has vowed that the attackers would be brought to justice but also stressed that the U.S. respects religious freedom.

Source : foxnews[dot]com Read More

State Department officer killed in attack on US Consulate in Libya, following Egyptian protest at US embassy

Protesters angered over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad fired gunshots and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing one American diplomat, witnesses and the State Department said. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner.

It was the first such assaults on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country, at a time when both Libya and Egypt are struggling to overcome the turmoil following the ouster of their longtime leaders, Muammar Qaddafi and Hosni Mubarak in uprisings last year.

The protests in both countries were sparked by outrage over a film ridiculing Muhammad produced by an American in California and being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States. Excerpts from the film dubbed into Arabic were posted on YouTube.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed that one State Department officer had been killed in the protest at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. She strongly condemned the attack and said she had called Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif "to coordinate additional support to protect Americans in Libya."

Clinton expressed concern that the protests might spread to other countries. She said the U.S. is working with "partner countries around the world to protect our personnel, our missions, and American citizens worldwide."

"Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet," Clinton said in a statement released by the State Department. "The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind. "

In Benghazi, a large mob stormed the U.S. consulate, with gunmen firing their weapons, said Wanis al-Sharef, an Interior Ministry official in Benghazi. A witness said attackers fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at the consulate as they clashed with Libyans hired to guard the facility.

Outnumbered by the crowd, Libyan security forces did little to stop them, al-Sharef said.

The crowd overwhelmed the facility and set fire to it, burning most of it and looting the contents, witnesses said.

One American was shot to death and a second was wounded in the hand, al-Sharef said. He did not give further details.

The violence at the consulate lasted for about three hours, but the situation has now quieted down, said another witness.

"I heard nearly 10 explosions and all kinds of weapons. It was a terrifying day," said the witness who refused to give his name because he feared retribution.

Hours before the Benghazi attack, hundreds of mainly ultraconservative Islamist protesters in Egypt marched to the U.S. Embassy in downtown Cairo, gathering outside its walls and chanting against the movie and the U.S. Most of the embassy staff had left the compound earlier because of warnings of the upcoming demonstration.

"Say it, don't fear: Their ambassador must leave," the crowd chanted.

Dozens of protesters then scaled the embassy walls, and several went into the courtyard and took down the American flag from a pole. They brought it back to the crowd outside, which tried to burn it, but failing that tore it apart.

The protesters on the wall then raised on the flagpole a black flag with a Muslim declaration of faith, "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet." The flag, similar to the banner used by al-Qaida, is commonly used by ultraconservatives around the region.

The crowd grew throughout the evening with thousands standing outside the embassy. Dozens of riot police lined up along the embassy walls but did not stop protesters as they continued to climb and stand on the wall - though it appeared no more went into the compound.

The crowd chanted, "Islamic, Islamic. The right of our prophet will not die." Some shouted, "We are all Usama," referring to Al Qaeda leader bin Laden. Young men, some in masks, sprayed graffiti on the walls. Some grumbled that Islamist President Mohammed Morsi had not spoken out about the movie.

A group of women in black veils and robes that left only their eyes exposed chanted, "Worshippers of the Cross, leave the Prophet Muhammad alone."

By midnight, the crowd had dwindled. The U.S. Embassy said on its Twitter account that there will be no visa services on Wednesday because of the protests.

A senior Egyptian security official at the embassy area said authorities allowed the protest because it was "peaceful." When they started climbing the walls, he said he called for more troops, denying that the protesters stormed the embassy. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

The Cairo embassy is in a diplomatic area in Garden City, where the British and Italian embassies are located, only a few blocks away from Tahrir Square, the center of last year's uprising that led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. The U.S. Embassy is built like a fortress, with a wall several meters (yards) high. But security has been scaled back in recent months, with several roadblocks leading to the facility removed after legal court cases by residents.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry promised in a statement to provide the necessary security for diplomatic missions and embassies and warned that "such incidents will negatively impact the image of stability in Egypt, which will have consequences on the life of its citizens."

One protester, Hossam Ahmed, said he was among those who entered the embassy compound and replaced the American flag with the black one. He said the group has now removed the black flag from the pole and laid it instead on a ladder on top of the wall.

"This is a very simple reaction to harming our prophet," said another, bearded young protester, Abdel-Hamid Ibrahim.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Egyptian police had removed the demonstrators who entered the embassy grounds.

Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any fashion, much less in an insulting way. The 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper triggered riots in many Muslim countries.

A 14-minute trailer of the movie that sparked the protests, posted on the website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.

A YouTube spokesperson said the website would not take down the video at this point. The website's guidelines call for removing videos that include a threat of violence, but not those only expressing opinions. YouTube's practice is not to comment on a specific videos.

"We take great care when we enforce our policies and try to allow as much content as possible while ensuring that our Community Guidelines are followed," the YouTube spokesperson said. "Flagged content that does not violate our Guidelines will remain on the site."

Sam Bacile, an American citizen who said he produced, directed and wrote the two-hour film, said he had not anticipated such a furious reaction.

"I feel sorry for the embassy. I am mad," Bacile said.

Speaking from a telephone with a California number, Bacile said he is Jewish and familiar with the region. Bacile said the film was produced in English and he doesn't know who dubbed it in Arabic. The full film has not been shown yet, he said, and he said he has declined distribution offers for now.

"My plan is to make a series of 200 hours" about the same subject, he said.

Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Christian in the U.S. known for his anti-Islam views, told The Associated Press from Washington that he was promoting the video on his website and on certain TV stations, which he did not identify.

Both depicted the film as showing how Coptic Christians are oppressed in Egypt, though it goes well beyond that to ridicule Muhammad - a reflection of their contention that Islam as a religion is inherently oppressive.

"The main problem is I am the first one to put on the screen someone who is (portraying) Muhammad. It makes them mad," Bacile said. "But we have to open the door. After 9/11 everybody should be in front of the judge, even Jesus, even Muhammad."

For several days, Egyptian media have been reporting on the video, playing some excerpts from it and blaming Sadek for it, with ultraconservative clerics going on air to denounce it.

Medhat Klada, a representative of Coptic Christian organizations in Europe, said Sadek's views are not representative of expatriate Copts.

"He is an extremist ... We don't go down this road. He has incited the people (in Egypt) against Copts," he said, speaking from Switzerland. "We refuse any attacks on religions because of a moral position."

But he said he was concerned about the backlash from angry Islamists, saying their protest only promotes the movie. "They don't know dialogue and they think that Islam will be offended from a movie."

Source : foxnews[dot]com Read More