More violent clashes erupt over anti-Islam film
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Rioting demonstrators battled with police outside a U.S. military base in Afghanistan and the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia Monday as violent protests over an anti-Islam film spread to Asia after a week of unrest in Muslim countries worldwide. In an appeal that could stoke more fury, the leader of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah called for sustained protests in a rare public appearance at a rally in Beirut.
The turmoil surrounding the low-budget movie that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad shows no sign of ebbing nearly a week after protesters first swarmed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya in the eastern city of Benghazi. At least 10 protesters have died in the riots, and the targeting of American missions has forced Washington to ramp up security in several countries.
Protests against the movie turned violent for the first time in Afghanistan on Monday as hundreds of people burned cars and threw rocks at a U.S. military base in the capital, Kabul. Many in the crowd shouted "Death to America!" and "Death to those people who have made a film and insulted our prophet." They also spiraled out of control in Indonesia and Pakistan, while several in the Middle East were calm.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah group, has rarely been seen in public since his Shiite Muslim group battled Israel in a month-long war in 2006, fearing Israeli assassination. Since then, he has communicated with his followers and gives news conference mostly via satellite link.
On Monday, he spoke for about 15 minutes before tens of thousands of cheering supporters, many of them with green and yellow headbands around their foreheads - the colors of Hezbollah - and the words "at your service God's prophet" written on them.
Nasrallah, who last appeared in public in December 2011 to mark the Shiite holy day of Ashoura, said the U.S. must ban the movie and have it removed from the Internet and called for his followers to maintain pressure on the world to act.
"This is the start of a serious movement that must continue all over the Muslim world in defense of the prophet of God," he said to roars of support. "As long as there's blood in us, we will not remain silent over insults against our prophet."
He called for a series of demonstrations this week to denounce the video.
Hezbollah's rallies seem aimed at keeping the issue alive by bringing out large crowds. But the group also appeared to be trying to ensure it did not spiral into violence, walking a careful line. Notably, Hezbollah held Monday's protest in its own mainly Shiite stronghold of Dahieh in south Beirut, far from the U.S. Embassy in the mountains north of the capital or other international diplomatic missions.
For the group, anger over the low-budget movie that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad provides a welcome diversion from the crisis in Syria, which has brought heavy criticism on Hezbollah for its support of President Bashar Assad. But stoking riots in Beirut could also bring a backlash in the tensely divided country.
The movie portrays Islam's Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. Protesters have directed their anger at the U.S. government, insisting it should do something to stop it, though the film was privately produced. American officials have criticized it for intentionally offending Muslims - and in one case, acted to prevent it being shown at a Florida church.
A number of Afghan religious leaders urged calm after protests broke out in several parts of Kabul.
"Our responsibility is to show a peaceful reaction, to hold peaceful protests. Do not harm people, their property or public property," said Karimullah Saqib, a cleric in Kabul.
On the main throroughfare through the city, demonstrators burned tires, shipping containers and at least one police vehicle before they were dispersed. Elsewhere in the city, police shot in the air to hold back a crowd of about 800 protesters and prevent them from pushing toward government buildings downtown, said Azizullah, a police officer at the site who, like many Afghans, only goes by one name.
More than 20 police officers were slightly injured, most by rocks, said Gen. Fahim Qaim, the commander of a city quick-reaction police force.
The rallies will continue "until the people who made the film go to trial," said one protester, Wahidullah Hotak, among several dozen people demonstrating in front of a Kabul mosque, demanding President Barack Obama bring those who have insulted the prophet to justice.
Several hundred demonstrators in Pakistan's northwest clashed with police Monday after setting fire to a press club and a government building, said police official Mukhtar Ahmed. The protesters apparently attacked the press club in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Upper Dir district because they were angry their rally wasn't getting more coverage, he said.
Police charged the crowd in the town of Wari, beating protesters back with batons, Ahmad said. The demonstrators then attacked the office of a senior government official and surrounded a local police station, said Ahmad, who locked himself inside with several other officers.
One protester died when police and demonstrators exchanged fire, and several others were wounded, police official Akhtar Hayat said.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, hundreds of protesters clashed with police for a second day in the southern city of Karachi as they tried to reach the U.S. Consulate. Police lobbed tear gas and fired in the air to disperse the protesters, who were from the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami party. Police arrested 40 students, but no injuries have been reported, said senior police officer Asif Ejaz Shaikh.
Pakistanis have also held many peaceful protests against the film, including one in the southwest town of Chaman on Monday attended by around 3,000 students and teachers.
In Jakarta, hundreds of Indonesians clashed with police outside the U.S. Embassy, hurling rocks and firebombs and setting tires alight, marking the first violence over the film seen in the world's most populous Muslim country.
At least 10 police were rushed to the hospital after being pelted with rocks and attacked with bamboo sticks, said Jakarta Police Chief Maj. Gen. Untung Rajad. He said four protesters were arrested and one was hospitalized.
Demonstrators burned a picture of Obama and also tried to ignite a fire truck parked outside the embassy after ripping a water hose off the vehicle and torching it, sending plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky. Police used a bullhorn to appeal for calm and deployed water cannons and tear gas to try to disperse the crowd as the protesters shouted "Allah Akbar," or God is great.
"We will destroy America like this flag!" a protester screamed while burning a U.S. flag. "We will chase away the American ambassador from the country!"
Demonstrations were also held Monday in the Indonesian cities of Medan and Bandung. Over the weekend in the central Java town of Solo, protesters stormed KFC and McDonald's restaurants, forcing customers to leave and management to close the stores.
German authorities are considering whether to ban the public screening of the film, titled "Innocence of Muslims" because it could endanger public security, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday. A fringe far-right political party says it plans to show the film in Berlin in November.
Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the West to block the film Monday to prove they are not "accomplices" in a "big crime," according to Iranian state TV.
Such an appeal falls into the major cultural divides over the film. U.S. officials say they cannot limit free speech and Google Inc. refuses to do a blanket ban on the YouTube video clip. This leaves individual countries putting up their own blocks.
The turmoil surrounding the low-budget movie that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad shows no sign of ebbing nearly a week after protesters first swarmed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya in the eastern city of Benghazi. At least 10 protesters have died in the riots, and the targeting of American missions has forced Washington to ramp up security in several countries.
Protests against the movie turned violent for the first time in Afghanistan on Monday as hundreds of people burned cars and threw rocks at a U.S. military base in the capital, Kabul. Many in the crowd shouted "Death to America!" and "Death to those people who have made a film and insulted our prophet." They also spiraled out of control in Indonesia and Pakistan, while several in the Middle East were calm.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah group, has rarely been seen in public since his Shiite Muslim group battled Israel in a month-long war in 2006, fearing Israeli assassination. Since then, he has communicated with his followers and gives news conference mostly via satellite link.
On Monday, he spoke for about 15 minutes before tens of thousands of cheering supporters, many of them with green and yellow headbands around their foreheads - the colors of Hezbollah - and the words "at your service God's prophet" written on them.
Nasrallah, who last appeared in public in December 2011 to mark the Shiite holy day of Ashoura, said the U.S. must ban the movie and have it removed from the Internet and called for his followers to maintain pressure on the world to act.
"This is the start of a serious movement that must continue all over the Muslim world in defense of the prophet of God," he said to roars of support. "As long as there's blood in us, we will not remain silent over insults against our prophet."
He called for a series of demonstrations this week to denounce the video.
Hezbollah's rallies seem aimed at keeping the issue alive by bringing out large crowds. But the group also appeared to be trying to ensure it did not spiral into violence, walking a careful line. Notably, Hezbollah held Monday's protest in its own mainly Shiite stronghold of Dahieh in south Beirut, far from the U.S. Embassy in the mountains north of the capital or other international diplomatic missions.
For the group, anger over the low-budget movie that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad provides a welcome diversion from the crisis in Syria, which has brought heavy criticism on Hezbollah for its support of President Bashar Assad. But stoking riots in Beirut could also bring a backlash in the tensely divided country.
The movie portrays Islam's Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. Protesters have directed their anger at the U.S. government, insisting it should do something to stop it, though the film was privately produced. American officials have criticized it for intentionally offending Muslims - and in one case, acted to prevent it being shown at a Florida church.
A number of Afghan religious leaders urged calm after protests broke out in several parts of Kabul.
"Our responsibility is to show a peaceful reaction, to hold peaceful protests. Do not harm people, their property or public property," said Karimullah Saqib, a cleric in Kabul.
On the main throroughfare through the city, demonstrators burned tires, shipping containers and at least one police vehicle before they were dispersed. Elsewhere in the city, police shot in the air to hold back a crowd of about 800 protesters and prevent them from pushing toward government buildings downtown, said Azizullah, a police officer at the site who, like many Afghans, only goes by one name.
More than 20 police officers were slightly injured, most by rocks, said Gen. Fahim Qaim, the commander of a city quick-reaction police force.
The rallies will continue "until the people who made the film go to trial," said one protester, Wahidullah Hotak, among several dozen people demonstrating in front of a Kabul mosque, demanding President Barack Obama bring those who have insulted the prophet to justice.
Several hundred demonstrators in Pakistan's northwest clashed with police Monday after setting fire to a press club and a government building, said police official Mukhtar Ahmed. The protesters apparently attacked the press club in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Upper Dir district because they were angry their rally wasn't getting more coverage, he said.
Police charged the crowd in the town of Wari, beating protesters back with batons, Ahmad said. The demonstrators then attacked the office of a senior government official and surrounded a local police station, said Ahmad, who locked himself inside with several other officers.
One protester died when police and demonstrators exchanged fire, and several others were wounded, police official Akhtar Hayat said.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, hundreds of protesters clashed with police for a second day in the southern city of Karachi as they tried to reach the U.S. Consulate. Police lobbed tear gas and fired in the air to disperse the protesters, who were from the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami party. Police arrested 40 students, but no injuries have been reported, said senior police officer Asif Ejaz Shaikh.
Pakistanis have also held many peaceful protests against the film, including one in the southwest town of Chaman on Monday attended by around 3,000 students and teachers.
In Jakarta, hundreds of Indonesians clashed with police outside the U.S. Embassy, hurling rocks and firebombs and setting tires alight, marking the first violence over the film seen in the world's most populous Muslim country.
At least 10 police were rushed to the hospital after being pelted with rocks and attacked with bamboo sticks, said Jakarta Police Chief Maj. Gen. Untung Rajad. He said four protesters were arrested and one was hospitalized.
Demonstrators burned a picture of Obama and also tried to ignite a fire truck parked outside the embassy after ripping a water hose off the vehicle and torching it, sending plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky. Police used a bullhorn to appeal for calm and deployed water cannons and tear gas to try to disperse the crowd as the protesters shouted "Allah Akbar," or God is great.
"We will destroy America like this flag!" a protester screamed while burning a U.S. flag. "We will chase away the American ambassador from the country!"
Demonstrations were also held Monday in the Indonesian cities of Medan and Bandung. Over the weekend in the central Java town of Solo, protesters stormed KFC and McDonald's restaurants, forcing customers to leave and management to close the stores.
German authorities are considering whether to ban the public screening of the film, titled "Innocence of Muslims" because it could endanger public security, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday. A fringe far-right political party says it plans to show the film in Berlin in November.
Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the West to block the film Monday to prove they are not "accomplices" in a "big crime," according to Iranian state TV.
Such an appeal falls into the major cultural divides over the film. U.S. officials say they cannot limit free speech and Google Inc. refuses to do a blanket ban on the YouTube video clip. This leaves individual countries putting up their own blocks.
Death to America?
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When will we finally cut ourselves free of these b@stards?
How long is the MSM going to keep perpetuating this lie? Â This is not about the film! Â Why is the MSM not reporting that the attack on our embassy began BEFORE these protests started? Â This lie will soon be spiraling out of control.Â
 @JCCBlvu Because they Want Obama to stay in the white house!
The world press reports the truth while the American mainstream media circle the wagons around an incompetent president Obama.
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 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/us-was-warned-of-libya-embassy-attack-but-did-nothing-16210837.html
 @ByeByeBarry We have an excellent example of someone desperately trying to deflect responsibility for this travesty right here. A pity he is as incompetent at it as other supporters of this president.
why the will all of WA vote for this stupid cunning man
@Peace4all Day after day of propaganda from the media is why. Rather like the Soviet Union-except they knew they were lied to
 @ByeByeBarry So they had credible info 48 hours prior that something might happen.
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And how many month prior to 9/11 did the Bush administration have credible info?
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And how about that credible info they used to get 4500 American kids killed in Iraq?Â
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Relatively speaking, would you say that an embassy attack, 8 of which happened under W himself, is more or less damaging than an attack on U.S. soil that killed 3,000?Â
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 @caphillkid  @ByeByeBarry why do you still bring up bush? is it because you know obama is blaming us for all of this non-sense?
@caphillkid Well This happened on baby berry's watch! US Marines No Ammo! Al Qida Claimed responsibility for this. Um did not the Great thin skinned one kill Obama? And said Al qida is dead no longer a threat? Sorry This happened on his watch! Oh and when a nation says no we can not send in the US Marines to protect Out Soil? That Nation Just declared War On the America What Does Obama do say Ok we won't send in our Marines to protect our citizens don't want to tick off the bad guys. Obama's wife has a bigger set then he does.
 @caphillkidÂ
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Well, Bush was in office less than 9 months before the 9/11 attack. We now know that planning for the attack started in 1998 and that some of the terrorists trained in this country for 2 years prior to the attack. So Cap, you tell me, how many months warning did Clinton have?Â
@takingamericaback Failed? Made it worse, you mean
 @caphillkid  @LockesChild then are you admitting that obama has failed in this situation?
 @caphillkid  @LockesChild OH and One thing Mr. President this Muslim up rising did not happen all by itself some body help with that Yes Mr. Obama you Built that problem supporting the Arab spring!
 @caphillkid I sure do when the bad guys say they are going to do it three days before they do! Well First Obama needs to attend a security briefing has not done that David Letterman is more important!
 @caphillkid Amazing. You have absolutely no understanding of the conflict between the Irish and the British in the 20th Century, do you? And, after having displayed this astounding level of ignorance, you actually expect anyone to listen to your comments regarding either religion or the middle east?
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This is like reading something a 20 year old stoner would write after having flunked out of an easy college
 @LockesChild Go look up the IRA on wikipedia and read up.Â
 @caphillkid Adults know that Obama is in charge and has been for the last 3+ years. What happens now is his responsibility. What happened before is irrelevant to how poorly he is doing regardless of increasingly desperate attempts to deflect responsibility.
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Romney did the country a service identifying the administration's incompetents attempting to apologize for free speech during the Cairo protest. Certainly this administration would not have refuted that disgraceful statement had not Romney made the point. But the cartoonish handling of that dispatch still showed how this collection of adolescents and crooks in the current administration cannot be trusted to arrange a college kegger.
 @LockesChild Funny, the only people casting blame are people like you trying to do anything possible to undermine Obama, even if it means using American deaths as a tool.Â
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You know, for as much as Bush failed all of us on 9/11, then failed us when he gave up looking for Bin Laden and instead got 4500 American kids killed in Iraq, we never tried to use it politically on those early days.Â
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Maybe you should do like Romney didn't and wait for the dust to settle a bit before you try to assign blame.Â
 @caphillkid in your case, that is just a recognition of the truth.
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Embassy attacks under Bush are irrelevant. What matters are the four attacks in Benghazi, one against the consulate, in the last 3 months combined with prior warning of the attacks show how badly this administration is managing our diplomatic missions (along with everything else). They couldn't even arrange for standard security contractors in such a high risk location.
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Instead the administration can only cast blame elsewhere.Â
 @caphillkidÂ
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"The CIA had been warning Bush of a cell within the US since Spring, well before the infamous August PDB, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in America."
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I will guarantee you there are Islamic extremists that are "determined" to strike in the US right now. So? Infamous August PDB? LOL! Without hard intelligence, who, how, where, and when what could anyone do to stop them? As far as the "August PDB" is concerned at least Bush attended his presidential daily briefings.  Â
 @LockesChild And the 8 separate embassy attacks under Bush? What were those? Also, if you are going to call people morons, your comments are going to get removed. Heads up.Â
 @caphillkid What a moron. This was one embassy and one consulate in Libya. Not the entire USA.
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 @ByeByeBarry It's funny also that you immediately bring up 9 months, but expect Obama to jump into action within 48 hours.Â
 @ByeByeBarry The intelligence gathered during Clinton's last years was handed over to Bush. The CIA had been warning Bush of a cell within the US since Spring, well before the infamous August PDB, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in America." The FBI was contacted about Arabs at flight training schools who didn't care about learning to land. The Bush administration failed to connect the dots. There is ample evidence of repeated warning from the CIA that were ignored. There is zero evidence that Clinton was ever warned of an existing cell in the US ready to attack.Â
 @ByeByeBarry Nor are Obama's press reporting on how the administration did not provide anywhere near adequate security for the mission:
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19605322
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"But sources have told the BBC that on the advice of a US diplomatic regional security officer, the mission in Benghazi was not given the full contract despite lobbying by private contractors.
Instead, the US consulate was guarded externally by a force of local Libyan militia, many of whom reportedly put down their weapons and fled once the mission came under concerted attack."
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It would be interesting to live in a time where the press was not virtually entirely Democratic shills and actually reported on events. Maybe in another generation or two.
"Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the West to block the film Monday to prove they are not "accomplices" in a "big crime," according to Iranian state TV."
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Block it? We should promote it. Send free copies to those who don't have a quality internet connection. Bundle some snapshots of the Mohammed cartoons in the package.
If the Christians want to get rid of the Islamic extremists, just ask your God for some help. Apparently he is on call 24/7.Â
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"And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it." (John 14:13-14)
 @caphillkid Of course, you have to admit, the Book *is* a bit sketchy as to the timing and methodologies of said interventions...
 @RN1 Yeah. When a dude scores a touchdown in the NFL it is always God's work.
All these people protesting are idiots. The USA didn't make that film, some stupid man who lacked common sense (and apparently lacked film making skills, too) made it.  If they want to protest something over the film, they should protest the idiot who came up with the idea.Â
 @Sovereign This ISN'T about the film!  That is what Obama wants you to believe.  Â
Definitely a target-rich environment in that photo.
 @LockesChild Onward Christian soldier.Â
what will it take to make you or anyone understand that you can not get Democracy in the Middle East? They are ruled by Allah and nothing else- there can be no equal anything with there religion read about it
 @caphillkid You definitely aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer
 @Sovereign  @LockesChild And? The Christian Bible is both testaments.Â
 @caphillkid  @LockesChild That was the old testament.
 @LockesChild "The LORD issued the following command to Moses: "Seize all the ringleaders and execute them before the LORD in broad daylight, so his fierce anger will turn away from the people of Israel." So Moses ordered Israel's judges to execute everyone who had joined in worshiping Baal of Peor.  Just then one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman into the camp, right before the eyes of Moses and all the people, as they were weeping at the entrance of the Tabernacle. When Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up and left the assembly.  Then he took a spear and rushed after the man into his tent. Phinehas thrust the spear all the way through the man's body and into the woman's stomach.  So the plague against the Israelites was stopped, but not before 24,000 people had died." (Numbers 25)
Religion is so freaking dumb.Â
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My brainwashing is better than your brainwashing. Let's fight!Â
 @caphillkid Oh, please. atheistic/materialistic leftist beliefs such as socialism and fascism killed tens of millions in the 20th century. Some beliefs are simply evil, the fundamentals of religion (or atheism) have nothing to do with it.
 @LockesChild Defensive much? Notice how I never said any of what you insinuate that I said.
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Religion is dumb, end of story.Â
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If you want to talk about "isms" then have at it, I wasn't though.Â
 @LockesChild Belief without proof is dumb, yes.Â
 @caphillkid so all belief is dumb.
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got it.
Step 1 make low budget anti-Islam movie.. step 2, marketing.. tell Islamic people the movie exists,, tell the press that the movie is offensive.. step 3 profit .. sell american flags for burning to Islamic people to protest your low budget film
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brilliant marketing and profits. !
Doubt I'll have a popularity issue over my opinion... i haven't seen said movie, nor any desire to see said movie. This isn't about the movie of couse, just the fuel to add to the fire. BUT... in his country, if you burn a cross in a yard where an African American resides, it's a hate crime... write derrogatory statements about a classmates sexual preference and it's a hate crime. Our kids can get in trouble with the law for picking on another child when it's considered bullying. So under our so called "freedom of speech" we can pick apart, ridicule, and openly and publicly put out worldwide a movie that directly attacks someone's religious beliefs and be shocked with those people are offended???Â
Hilary thought the play born Morman? was funny but the Muslim film deploreable- listen up and watch how she laughs at killing a dictator
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 @sweet98201 Burning a cross on someone's front lawn is intimidation and a directly implied threat. And it's burning w/o a permit :-) Sawing bad things about an individual's sexuality is often also considered a direct implied threat. Those are not good. but it is my opinion that generically denouncing gays (or straights), Jews (or Christians), blacks (or whites), etc., should NOT be crimes if they are in the abstract and not obviously directed at intimidating an individual or specific group of individuals.because that is THOUGHT-crime, which is what the ide of free speech is supposed to protect. but, that's just me.
 @sweet98201 "So under our so called "freedom of speech" we can pick apart, ridicule, and openly and publicly put out worldwide a movie that directly attacks someone's religious beliefs ..."
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Yes, we can. Your other examples are either specious or are directly threatening (such as a burning cross). As for being shocked--I doubt anyone is shocked that these animals responded in such a manner. It doesn't matter. Attacking Islam is every bit as valid as attacking Christianity. If Muslims don't like it then don't watch the video.
They don't want us in these countries and we don't need anything from them. Pull the embassies. Pull the foreign aid. In the future, if we're attacked, we remotely bomb them into the stone age or until they capitulate. If we need to go there, we occupy the country and reap the profits from their resources (oil) until the war debt is paid....or longer. Spoils of war.Â