InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
Since last week, a wave of demonstrations by Muslims around the world, a number of them violent, over an anti-Islam film has left at least 15 people dead, including the US ambassador to Libya, with many more injured or arrested.
The film “Innocence of Muslims” portrays the Prophet Mohammad in sexual acts with a number of women, urging his followers to “loot places they attack,” and “use children in whatever way they wish.”
The film’s trailer was uploaded online by US-based Egyptian Coptic Christian Nakoula Besseley Nakoula, who is allegedly behind the film. His family has already gone into hiding.
The first outbreak of anger over the film was in Cairo, after an Egyptian television station showed the trailer. Soon, hundreds of protesters surrounded the US embassy in Cairo, with some of them scaling the compound walls and tearing down the American flag.
Rage over the film quickly turned deadly with Tuesday’s attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya in which US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff were killed as protesters torched the diplomatic post.
A video showing Libyan civilians trying to rescue Stevens as he was trapped in the burning building has since surfaced.
The incident coincided with the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, the commemoration of which was relatively subdued.
More anti-US protests erupted in other countries including India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia and Indonesia as US President Barack Obama ordered tighter security in American embassies worldwide. Canada, fearing it could become a target, shut down its embassies in Cairo, Tripoli and Khartoum.
In the Philippines, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, through chief political officer Ghazali Jaafar, announced it would not attack US targets in the country as they continue to observe a ceasefire pact with the Philippine government. But on Monday, around 3,000 Muslims in Marawi burned American and Israeli flags to protest the film.
View the timeline of events here, as well as a slideshow of photos from Reuters below.
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