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Tens of thousands of Muslims in Pakistan, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere joined the protests on Friday over French President Emmanuel Macron’s vote to protect the right to caricature the Prophet Muhammad.
Demonstrations in Pakistan The capital Islamabad turned violent when 2,000 people who tried to march towards the French embassy were pushed back by police firing tear gas and using batons. Crowds of Islamist activists hung an effigy of Macron from an overpass after hitting it with their shoes.
Several protesters were injured in clashes with police when authorities pressed to evict activists from the red zone, a security area that houses Pakistani diplomatic missions. As night fell, protesters held a sit-in on a main road to protest against the use of force by the authorities.
In the eastern city of Lahore, some 10,000 supporters of the radical Islamic Tehreek-e-Labbaik party took to the streets chanting slogans and carrying banners. “There is only one punishment for blasphemy,” shouted Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a cleric leading the march. “Decapitation! Decapitation! the protesters yelled.
In Multan, in eastern Pakistan’s Punjab province, a crowd burned an effigy of Macron and called on Pakistan to sever ties with France and boycott French goods.
Tensions between France and Muslim-majority nations erupted this month when a young Muslim beheaded a French school teacher who had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class.
The images, republished by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to mark the opening of the trial for the deadly 2015 attack on the publication, have enraged Muslims around the world who consider the depictions of the prophet blasphemous. On Thursday, a Tunisian man wielding a knife and carrying a copy of the Koran killed three people in a church in Nice.
In Lebanon In the capital, Beirut, a few hundred protesters made their way to the Palais des Pins, the official residence of the French ambassador, but found their way blocked by lines of police in riot gear. Waving black and white flags bearing Islamist insignia, the activists shouted: “At your service, O prophet of God.” Some threw stones at the police officers who responded with smoke and tear gas.
The protests will be an embarrassment to Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who is trying to form a new government that implements a French reform plan. France, the former colonial ruler of Lebanon, has been helping the country chart the course of its growing economic and financial crisis.
In Estambul, Turkey In the largest city, worshipers packed a Shiite mosque after Friday prayers, chanting religious slogans and holding signs satirizing Macron. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s criticism of Macron led France to withdraw its ambassador to Turkey last weekend.
Hundreds of Palestinians protested Macron in front of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest place in Islam. Some young people got into a fight with the Israeli police when they left the esplanade towards the Old City. Israeli police said they dispersed the meeting and detained three people.
Many more occurred in the Gaza Strip, where the militant group Hamas organized demonstrations in mosques throughout the territory it controls. Fathi Hammad, a Hamas official, addressed a demonstration in the Jabaliya refugee camp and vowed to “stand together to face this criminal offensive that damages the faith of some 2 billion Muslims,” referring to depictions of the prophet. He reiterated the call of the Hamas authorities to the Palestinians to boycott all French products.
One protester, who identified himself as Abu Huzayfa, was equivocal when asked about recent attacks in France in retaliation for the cartoons. “We don’t target innocents,” he said. “But those who directly insult our prophet will take responsibility.”
Shouts of “death to France” rang out in Afghanistan capital Kabul and several other provinces as thousands filled the streets. The protesters trampled on Macron’s portraits and called on Afghan leaders to close the French embassy, stop French imports and ban French citizens from visiting the country.
In the western province of Herat, protesters hoisted an effigy of Macron with a crane and set it on fire. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-i-Islami, an Islamist party, warned that if Macron did not “control the situation, we are going to a third world war and Europe will be responsible.”
In Bangladesh In the capital Dhaka, a crowd of 50,000 effigies burned and held up posters saying “Say no to Islamophobia”, “Stop racism” and “Boycott French products”.
In Ethiopia, several hundred people protested peacefully after Friday prayers.
Muslim leaders have strongly criticized France for what they see as the government’s provocative and anti-Muslim stance. But Thursday’s attack in Nice drew condemnations from leaders of countries that had expressed outrage at the cartoons, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt.
In a live broadcast Friday sermon Egyptian On state television, the country’s Minister of Religious Endowments appeared to denounce any violent retaliation for the cartoons. “Love for the prophet cannot be expressed by killing, sabotaging or responding to evil with evil,” said Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa, addressing dozens of worshipers at a mosque in Daqahleya province.
