Lebanon Muslims Protest insulting Film, Cartoons
Lebanese Muslims, Sunnis and Shias, took to the streets on Friday to vent their anger over a U.S.-made film and French cartoons mocking Islam.
In the southern port city of Sidon, Sunni clerics called "A Day of Rage" against insults to the Prophet Muhammad but urged followers to contain their anger to inside their mosques.
French schools were closed and the army was deployed at French institutions in Sidon, Beirut and the northern city of Tripoli, in anticipation of a backlash against the publication of obscene cartoons
of the Prophet Muhammad in a French satirical magazine.
Separately, thousands of supporters of the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah took to the streets after Friday prayers in the eastern city of Baalbek.
The Sunni authority for Sidon and several clerics in 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.
About 300 people gathered at the mosque and that, after Friday's weekly Muslim prayers, protesters burned U.S. and Israeli flags while chanting "Death to America, Death to Israel!"
Outside Tripoli, Sheikh Mustafa Malas decried the silence of Arab and Muslim officials toward their American and French counterparts.
"Arab and Islamic countries must take a decisive stand against the United States and France after the insults to our Prophet, and boycott their goods," he said during his Friday sermon.
"They have repeated these offensive behaviors ... Their actions amount to a war declared on Islam and they must not be surprised by reactions of reprisal."
Protesters also burned American and Israeli flags outside a Beirut mosque, where troops were on guard nearby.
By Sadroddin Musawi
Other links:
Analyst: Anti-Islam Film, Zionist False-Flag Operation
Analyst: Prophet Muhammad, Muslims’ Red Line
Iran’s Leader: Enemies’ Chagrin behind blasphemous movie
