BBC NEWS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), LE MONDE (France), THE AUSTRALIAN, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia)
BEIRUT – Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, has called for new protests over the controversial anti-Islam film which has sparked furor in the Muslim world.
The religious and political leader called the movie “the worst attack ever on Islam, worse than the Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, the burning of the Quran in Afghanistan and the cartoons in the European media,” reports Al Jazeera.
He urged for new protests in Hezbollah’s stronghold South Beirut on Monday and other Lebanese cities during the week.
“The whole world needs to see your anger on your faces, in your fists and your shouts,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Sunday, reports BBC News.
Protests over the film at many U.S. diplomatic missions have been continuing in Niger, Turkey, Yemen, and Tunisia.
In Afghanistan capital Kabul, demonstrators fired guns, torched police cars and shouted anti-US slogans on Monday.
In Pakistan, one person was killed in clashes with the police (watch video below).
Demonstrations also took place in Western capitals over the weekend. More than 150 protesters were arrested Saturday in Paris in front of the U.S. embassy.
In Australia, which holds an important Muslim community, riot police used tear gas Saturday in clashes with hundreds of protesters outside the U.S. consulate in Sydney. Six policemen where injured and eight people were arrested, reports The Australian.
Angry members of the Muslim community tipped off police that radical Islamists were sending around inflammatory text messages garnering support for Saturday’s protest, said the Sydney Morning Herald.
Early last week, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three officials were killed in Benghazi in a rocket attack after the movie caused major outbursts of violence in the country.
