Forces, Western missions on high alert across Arab world

by Antoine Lambroschini

TUNIS, Sept 21, 2012 (AFP)

Tunisia banned all demonstrations on Friday and security forces mobilised across the Arab world to quell any violence as Muslims protested over a US-made film mocking Islam and obscene cartoons of
the Prophet Mohammed in a French magazine.

Western missions were on high alert, and France closed its missions, schools and cultural centres in 20 countries for the day. Schools in Tunisia were ordered shut from Wednesday, and those in Egypt from Thursday.

Protests erupted in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and in Jerusalem’s Old City, but security forces were on alert to thwart any violence after the main weekly Muslim prayers at noon — a traditional focal point for protest.

In Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon, Sunni clerics called “a day of rage” against insults to the Prophet Mohammed but urged followers to contain their anger to inside mosques.

Separately, thousands of supporters of the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah protested after Friday prayers in Lebanon’ eastern city of Baalbek, an AFP correspondent said.

The Sunni authority for Sidon and several clerics in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli called for Saudi Arabia and Egypt’s Al-Azhar — the highest authorities in Sunni Islam — to issue a fatwa condoning the murder of anyone associated with the film and for those who denigrate Islam or its prophet.

“He who dares to insult Islam and the Prophet Mohammed shall not live. There are things that cannot be tolerated and insulting the Prophet Mohammed is one of them,” Sheikh Maher Hammoud, imam of the Quds mosque, said in his sermon.

“Every one of these should be killed.”

In Iraq’s southern city of Basra, thousands of people burned American and Israeli flags and carried pictures of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

They shouted slogans such as “No, no America, no, no Israel” and “Yes, yes for the Messenger, we sacrifice for you, O Messenger of God,” referring to Mohammed.

Hundreds of Yemenis also protested, chanting “Death to America, death to Israel,” as they tried to march on the US embassy in Sanaa, but security forces used armoured vehicles and water cannon to stop them.

The protesters demanded “the departure of the US ambassador and foreign forces in Yemen,” in reference to 50 Marines sent last week to protect the embassy.

On September 13, four people were killed when angry mob tried to storm the US embassy and clashed with security forces.

Around 100 Palestinians marched to the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, chanting anti-US slogans before ending their march without incident.

In Libya’s second city Benghazi, where US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were murdered last week in what Washington says was a terrorist attack, rival demonstrations were planned amid fears of clashes.

The hardline Salafist group Ansar al-Sharia, which denied any link to the Stevens killing, called for supporters to rally around Al-Kish Square, a key battleground in the uprising that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi last year.

The demonstration was set for 1500 GMT — the same time a “Save Benghazi” march organised by militia opponents was due to head for the square.

— Tunisia ‘learnt the lesson’ —
——————————

Tunisia said it was invoking emergency powers to impose the nationwide demonstration ban after tip-offs of preparations for violence.

“The interior ministry, using its powers under the state of emergency and in order to maintain public order, announces that it is outlawing any form of demonstration anywhere in Tunisian territory on Friday,” it said.

“The ministry notes that it has received information suggesting the protests would be exploited for the purpose of committing acts of violence and causing unrest.”

Calls for Friday protests circulated on social networks following the publication by French weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday of cartoons featuring obscene images of the founder of Islam.

The interior ministry urged citizens “not to follow the call” to protest.

In an exclusive AFP interview, the veteran leader of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party that heads Tunisia’s governing coalition said the authorities had “learnt the lesson” of deadly disturbances outside the US embassy on September 14 and said he expected no repetition of such violence.

“Each time that parties or groups overstep our freedoms in a flagrant manner, we have to be tough, clamp down and insist on public order,” Rached Ghannouchi told AFP.

“These people pose a threat not only to Ennahda but to the country’s freedoms and security.”
Four people were killed and dozens wounded when last week’s demonstration outside the US embassy and adjacent American School turned violent.

In Tehran on Friday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the repeated insistence of US officials that the administration had nothing to do with the low-budget movie “Innocence of Muslims” produced by an extremist Christian group.