Anti-Islam film: Thousands protest around Muslim world

Fresh protests are taking place around the Muslim world over an amateur anti-Islam video produced in the US.

At least one protester was killed in violent protests in Pakistan and thousands attended an angry rally in the Philippines city of Marawi.

Earlier, weapons were fired and police cars torched by protesters in the Afghan capital Kabul.

A large rally is taking place in Lebanon after Hezbollah’s Sheikh Nassan Hasrallah called further protests.

A trailer for the obscure, poorly made film at the centre of the row, entitled Innocence of Muslims, came to light in recent weeks and protests first erupted in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, last Tuesday.

More than a dozen people have died in protests since.

Flags burned

In Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the local press club was burnt down and government offices attacked in the Upper Dir district.

One protester was killed in an exchange of fire with police, following the death of another protester on Sunday.

A protest of thousands of students took place in the nearby city of Peshawar, reported AFP news agency.

In the biggest city, Karachi, police fired in the air to disperse a crowd heading for the US consulate, reported Reuters, and lawyers marched in Lahore.

In other developments:

• About 3,000 protesters burned US and Israeli flags in the southernPhilippines city of Marawi
• In Yemen, hundreds of students in the capital, Sanaa, called for the expulsion of the US ambassador, said AFP
• In Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, hundreds of protesters faced off with police, throwing stones and petrol bombs, while police retaliated with tear gas
• More protests were reported in Srinagar,Indian-administered Kashmir
• Hundreds of Palestinians staged a peaceful sit-in protest in the West Bankcity of Ramallah
• Angry demonstrators in the Afghancapital, Kabul, fired guns, torched police cars and shouted anti-US slogans
• A small protest was held outside the US embassy in Azerbaijan’scapital, Baku, AP reported.
• ‘Prosecute and boycott’A large protest is taking place in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, Lebanon, called by Sheikh Nasrallah, leader of the influential Shia Muslim militant group.

  Thousands of people could be seen on the streets, waving flags and chanting,”America, hear us – don’t insult our Prophet,” Reuters reports.

  On Sunday Sheikh Nasrallah had called for a week of protests – not only against American embassies, but also to press Muslim governments to express their own anger to the US.The world needed to know Muslims “would not be silent in the face of this insult”, which he called “unprecedented”.In a BBC interview, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the film was “wrong and offensive but also laughable as a piece of filmmaking – what is dangerous and wrong is the reaction to it”.

  Mr Blair, who now serves as a Middle East peace envoy, said the protests were ultimately about the “struggle of modernisation” under way in the region and not “some form of oppression by the West”.

  Arrest claim dismissed

  The exact origins of the film are shrouded in mystery, although US authorities say they believe the film was made by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a convicted fraudster living in California who has since been questioned over his role.A trailer of the film is available on YouTube and the company told the BBC it would not remove it as it was within its guidelines.But a spokesperson said YouTube had restricted access to the clip in countries where its content is illegal “such as India and Indonesia as well as in Libya and Egypt given the very sensitive situations in these two countries”.The eruption of anger has seen attacks on US consulates, embassies and business interests across the Middle East and north Africa. British, Swiss, German and Dutch properties have also been targeted.The US ambassador to Libya was among four Americans killed on the day protests first broke out.Libyan Interior Minister Fawzi Abdul Al has dismissed a claim on Sunday by the president of the national congress that 50 people have been arrested in connection with the deaths.He said only four people had been detained so far, although up to 50 could be under investigation.