Protesters in Afghanistan and Indonesia burned US flags and chanted: “Death to America” yesterday in renewed demonstrations over a film mocking the Prophet Mohammed that has unleashed a wave of anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim and Arab world.
Indonesian police fired teargas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who massed outside the US embassy in Jakarta, capital of the most populous Muslim nation.
In Kabul, thousands of protesters took to the streets, setting fire to cars and shops and throwing stones at police.
“We will defend our Prophet until we have blood across our bodies. We will not let anyone insult him,” one protester in the Afghan capital said. “Americans will pay for their dishonor.”
The demonstrations were the latest across the world provoked by a short film made with private funds in the US that depicted the Prophet Mohammed as a fool and womanizer.
In a torrent of violence last week, the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in an attack in Benghazi and US and other foreign embassies were stormed in several cities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East by enraged Muslims. At least nine other people have been killed.
The US has sent ships, extra troops and special forces to protect its interests and citizens in the Middle East, while a number of its embassies have evacuated staff and are on high alert for trouble.
The situation poses an unexpected foreign policy headache for US President Barack Obama as he campaigns for re-election in November, even though his administration has condemned the film as reprehensible and disgusting.
Despite efforts early in his tenure to improve relations with the Arab and Muslim world, he faces a number of problems, including the continued US military involvement in Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear program, the Syrian civil war and the fall-out from the Arab Spring revolts.
The renewed protests yesterday dashed any hopes that the furor over the film might fade, despite an appeal from the senior cleric in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest shrines, for calm over the weekend.
In the Kabul demonstration, protesters shouted: “Death to America” and burned the flags of the US and of Israel, a country reviled by many Muslims and Arabs because of the Palestinian issue.
Police Lieutenant-General Fahem Qayem put the number of demonstrators at between 3,000 and 4,000, but said police had the situation under control.
Embassies in central Kabul, including the US and British missions, were placed on lockdown and violence flared near fortified housing compounds for foreign workers.
Rallies also took place in London, Australia, Turkey and Pakistan on Sunday, showing the global scale of the outrage.
Iran said it would hunt for those responsible for making the film.
“The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns this inappropriate and offensive action,” Iranian First Vice President Mohammed Reza Rahimi said. “Certainly it will search for, track and pursue this guilty person who has insulted 1.5 billion Muslims in the world.”
Iranian officials have demanded that the US apologize to Muslims for the film.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS