A
police officer clashes with a protester, as police attempt to disperse
anti-government protesters and young unemployed graduates, during a
demonstration in Rabat September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer
Published Friday, September 21, 2012
Tunisia
banned all demonstrations on Friday and Western missions across the Arab world
went on high alert amid fears of new violence over a US-made film mocking Islam
and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a French magazine.
France
closed its missions, schools and cultural centers in 20 countries for the day.
Schools in Tunisia were ordered shut from Wednesday, those in Egypt from
Thursday.
Islamist
groups were organizing planned rallies in several countries but security forces
were on alert across the region for spontaneous demonstrations after the main
weekly Muslim prayers at noon -- a traditional focal point for protest.
In
Libya's second city Benghazi, where US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other
Americans were murdered last week in what Washington says was a terrorist
attack, rival demonstrations were planned and there were fears clashes could
break out.
The
hardline Salafist group Ansar Al-Sharia, which denied any role in the Stevens
killing, called for supporters to rally around Al-Kish Square, a key
battleground in the uprising that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi last year.
The
demonstration was set for 3:00pm GMT, the same time as a "Save
Benghazi" march organized by militia opponents was due to head for the
square.
Demonstrations
were also planned among both Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Lebanon, and among
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
On
Monday, in a rare public appearance, the leader of Lebanon's powerful
resistance movement Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, told a massive gathering the
film was the "worst attack ever on Islam."
"O
Prophet, we die for you, my soul and my blood are for you," he shouted to
tens of thousands of delirious supporters, urging them to repeat the words for
the whole world to hear.
The
Tunisian interior ministry said it was invoking emergency law powers to impose
the nationwide demonstration ban following tip-offs of preparations for
violence by hardliners.
"The
interior ministry, using its powers under the state of emergency and in order
to maintain public order, announces that it is outlawing
"The
ministry notes that it has received information suggesting the protests would
be exploited for the purpose of committing acts of violence and causing
unrest."
Calls
for Friday protests were circulating on social networks following the
publication by French weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday of cartoons featuring
obscene images of the founder of Islam.
The
interior ministry called on "all Tunisians and civil society to
demonstrate understanding" and "urge (people) not to follow the
call" to protest.
For
his part, the imam of Gazelle mosque, a Salafist bastion in Ariana west of
Tunis, did not call for a demonstration as he did last week, an AFP
correspondent reported.
In
an exclusive AFP interview, the veteran leader of the moderate Islamist Ennahda
party that leads Tunisia's governing coalition said the authorities had learned
the lesson of deadly disturbances outside the US embassy on September 14 and
said he expected no repetition of such violence.
"Each
time that parties or groups overstep our freedoms in a flagrant manner, we have
to be tough, clamp down and insist on public order," Rached Ghannouchi
told AFP.
"These
people pose a threat not only to Ennahda but to the country's freedoms and
security.
"The
police have learnt the lesson and I don't think there's going to be any
repetition (this Friday)," he said.
Four
people were killed and dozens wounded when last week's demonstration outside
the US embassy and adjacent American School turned violent.
It
took the security forces, who fired live rounds and tear gas in response,
nearly three hours to bring the violence under control.
In
Tehran on Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he did not believe
for one moment the repeated insistence of US officials that the administration
had nothing to do with the low-budget movie "Innocence of Muslims"
produced by an extremist Christian group.
He
said US government claims it could do nothing to censor the film were a
"deception" exploiting the pretext of freedom of expression.
He
called the film an Israeli-hatched plot "to divide (Muslims) and spark
sectarian conflict."
(AFP,
Al-Akhbar)
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