A breakdown of events around the Muslim world since the diffusion of the film considered offensive to Islam.
1.
Kabul: A female suicide bomber killed 12 people on Monday in the deadliest single attack apparently to avenge the film that has sparked a week of deadly protests across the Muslim world. Security officials said nine foreigners were among those killed on a major highway leading to Kabul airport and close to a wedding hall when the bomber blew her vehicle up alongside a minivan carrying foreign workers. An AFP photographer saw at least six bodies lying among the wreckage of the destroyed minivan, and another vehicle engulfed in flames in the middle of the highway, with debris flung all around.
Hezb-i-Islami, the second largest insurgent group after the Taliban who have been fighting US-led troops and the government for 10 years, claimed the attack.
2
Srinagar, India: Hundreds of Muslim protesters in Indian Kashmir clashed with security forces and burnt a police vehicle during angry demonstrations. All shops and businesses were shut in the restive region by a strike called to protest against the film. Clashes erupted in central Srinagar, the biggest city of Indian Kashmir, when a group of about 300 protesters attempted to march to the local United Nations building but were stopped by police.
3
Moscow: A controversial new Russian media law could be used to block YouTube, the communications minister warned on Tuesday.
“It sounds like a joke, but because of this video... all of YouTube could be blocked throughout Russia,” minister Nikolai Nikiforov wrote on Twitter. He pointed to sections of the law, which goes into effect on November 1 and is designed to protect minors from extremist and other dangerous material, allowing the government to block an entire site over the content of a single page.
4
Medan, Indonesia: Protesters torched an American flag and burned tyres outside a US diplomatic mission in Indonesia. About 100 supporters of the Islamic People’s Forum unfurled banners saying “Expel America” and “Death to the filmmaker”. “Under Islamic law the filmmaker who insulted the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) must be punished by death,” one of the protesters told the crowd outside the US mission in the city in North Sumatra province.
5
Bangkok: Police say 400 people protested peacefully outside the US Embassy. About 700 police were on hand on Tuesday to maintain order for the demonstration, organised by a group called the International Al Quds Federation of Thailand. The group had called for a peaceful protest on its facebook page. Protesters carried signs and banners saying “We love Prophet Mohammad” (PBUH) and “Stop insulting our religion,” and chanted “Down with America” and “Down with Israel.”
6
Los Angeles: California Coptic Christian and Muslim leaders denounced the movie. In a show of unity, a Muslim leader and a Coptic orthodox bishop held a news conference on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall to condemn the film and attacks against any religions. Maher Hathout, senior adviser for the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, said the reaction in the Middle East has been unwarranted and irrational for such an “insignificant production.” He said the filmmakers are “psychologically diseased with hearts full of hate and minds full of ignorance.”
7
Beiut: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah made a rare public appearance on Monday night to address tens of thousands of supporters who took to the streets of southern Beirut to denounce the film. “O Prophet, we die for you, my soul and my blood are for you,” the leader of the powerful Lebanese Shia movement said, urging the crowd to repeat the words after him for the whole world to hear.
Nasrallah has called for a week of protests across the country over the low-budget, American-made film, describing it as the “worst attack ever on Islam.”
8
Dhaka: Muslim-majority Bangladesh blocked access to the YouTube website, an official said on Monday. “We have blocked the website for indefinite period as per the government decision,” the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said. The decision came after Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina Wazed called for a ban on the film. “We will never tolerate such an insult,” she said.
9
London: Salman Rushdie on Monday published his account of the decade he spent in hiding while under a fatwa for his book The Satanic Verses. With at least 31 people killed in a week of furious protests over the film, Rushdie’s candid memoir of the years spent on the run after he too was accused of mocking Islam, entitled Joseph Anton, has an added resonance. “A book which was critical of Islam would be difficult to be published now,” the Indian-born writer, 65, told BBC television.
10
Islamabad: Pakistan blocked Google’s video-sharing website YouTube to prevent people watching the movie. Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said YouTube had ignored a request to remove the video and that the website would remain inaccessible until it does so. Ashraf said that “blasphemous material would not be tolerated.”
— Compiled from agencies
