adminYesterday, police in riot gear fired tear gas and threw stones back at the demonstrators. A burnt-out car was overturned in the middle of the street that leads to the fortified embassy from Tahrir Square.
Police had tried to clear the Square yesterday ahead of a nationwide protest called by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most influential group. The Brotherhood propelled President Mohamed Mursi to power after popular protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last year and ushered in the first democratic elections in decades.
Shortly after police cleared Tahrir, however, the demonstrators returned.
The Egyptian authorities had erected large concrete barriers to block the route to the embassy.
“Before the police, we were attacked by Obama,” shouted one demonstrator, blaming US President Barack Obama and the US government for insulting the Prophet.
One banner held aloft by demonstrators read: “It is the duty of all Muslims and Christians to kill Morris Sadek and Sam Bacile and everyone who participated in the film.”
Several demonstrators waved green and black flags with Islamic verses on them.
US anticipated more protests after Friday prayers amid a wave of violent demonstrations over an anti-Muslim video that has spanned several countries.
The White House said on Thursday that it was prepared for more protests, but stressed that any violence would be unjustified.
“It is important to note that as these protests are taking place in different countries around the world, responding to the movie, that Friday, tomorrow, has historically been a day when there are protests in the Muslim world,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters in Colorado.
“And we are watching very closely for developments that could lead to more protests. We anticipate that they may continue.”
The US has put all of its diplomatic missions overseas on high alert after violent protests raged in parts of the Muslim world particularly Middle East and North Africa.
Protests have also spread to the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, as well as Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and the Gaza Strip. And there have been demonstrations in Sudan and Tunisia.
On Thursday, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US secretary of state, delivered an explicit denunciation of the video.
“The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video,” she said before a meeting with the foreign minister of Morocco at the State Department. “We absolutely reject its content and message.”
“To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible.”
“To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible,” Clinton said. “It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose: to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage.”
However, Clinton stressed that no matter how offensive it was, the film could not be used as an excuse for violence like that seen in Egypt and in Yemen, where demonstrators tried to storm the embassy compound in Sanaa on Thursday.
Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood has called for demonstrations after Friday prayers, as did authorities in Iran and the Gaza strip.
At least four people were killed in protests in the Yemeni capital.
There is no justification, none at all, for responding to this video with violence,” Clinton said.
“We condemn the violence that has resulted in the strongest terms. . . . It is especially wrong for violence to be directed against diplomatic missions. These are places whose very purpose is peaceful: to promote better understanding across countries and cultures.”
She then reminded foreign governments that they have a responsibility to protect embassies as the US embassy in Cairo remained under siege.
On Tuesday, angry demonstrations raided US embassy in Benghazi in which at least 14 people were killed, including the US ambassador Chris Stevens.
US officials said they suspected that the attack at the Benghazi consulate, which had also been the target of an unsuccessful attack in June, may have been only tangentially related to the film.
They also stressed there had been no advance warning or intelligence to suggest a threat in Libya that would warrant boosting security, even on the 11th anniversary of the terror attacks of 11 September 2001.
“As we did with all of our missions overseas, in advance of the September 11 anniversary and as we do every year, we did evaluate the threat stream and we determined that the security at Benghazi was appropriate for what we knew,” Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, said.
President Barack Obama also pledged that the perpetrators would be punished.
“To all those who would do us harm: No act of terror will go unpunished. I will not dim the light of the values that we proudly present to the rest of the world. No act of violence shakes the resolve of the United States of America.”
Libyan officials have arrested an unspecified number of people suspected of taking part in the attack and they were closely monitoring others to see whether they are linked to a group.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, on Thursday denounced the violence, and also the provocative video.
“Nothing justifies such killings and attacks,” Ban said in a statement, adding that he condemns “the hateful film that appears to have been deliberately designed to sow bigotry and bloodshed”. — Al Jazeera.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu