SURABAYA, Indonesia, Sept 15, 2012 (AFP)
SURABAYA, Indonesia, Sept 15, 2012 (AFP)
Hundreds of men, women and children from an Islamic group protested on Saturday in Indonesia against the United States over a film that mocked the Prophet Mohammed.
About 500 protesters from the Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation gathered in Surabaya and Malang, two cities in East Java province.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
“We must be united to safeguard the dignity of the Prophet Mohammed, the Allah messenger,” a demonstrator told 400 protesters in Surabaya city centre, while dozens of policemen stood guard.
“We must not stay quiet when the Prophet Mohammed is insulted. This is a cruel insult,” he told the crowd via loudspeaker. They responded with shouts of “Allahu akbar!” (God is greater).
In Malang, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) south, more than one hundred protesters from the group gathered in the city centre, carrying banners reading “When Islam is insulted, Jihad must be the solution” and “Crush America”.
“The film director must be punished by death,” one of the protesters shouted while others chanted the Koranic verse “There is no God but Allah”.
More than 350 protesters from the group staged a similar rally on Friday outside the US embassy in the capital Jakarta, saying that Americans must be expelled from the country.
Demonstrations, some of them violent, have erupted worldwide over the low-budget US-made film.
On Tuesday the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed when a mob torched the consulate in Benghazi.
