Three protesters were reportedly arrested after clashing with police forces.
By TOBIAS SIEGALTHE DOME of the Rock, situated on the Temple Mount – the ‘world’s atomic reactor.’(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Hundreds of people gathered on Friday at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to demonstrate against French President Emmanuel Macron and his comments protecting the right to caricature the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, the Jewish News Syndicate reported.The protests followed comments made on Thursday by Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Palestinian Islamic Supreme Council, when he called for a “day of rage” on Friday to protest “attempts to harm” the Prophet Muhammad, and were part of such demonstrations throughout the Muslim world.Protesters were heard chanting slogans like “With our souls and with our blood we sacrifice for our prophet, Muhammad,” and referring to Macron as the “enemy of God.”Three protesters were reportedly arrested after clashing with police forces.Other mass demonstrations were reported in Jerusalem’s Kafr Aqab neighborhood and in the neighboring Kalandiya refugee camp.The protests were part of a global Muslim uproar following Macron’s statements from October 2, when he said that Islam was “a religion in crisis” and that there was a need for an “Islam of Enlightenment.”Macron’s comments were made in light of recent terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic extremists in France.Tens of thousands of Muslims also protested throughout the Muslim world.In Pakistan, police briefly fired tear gas at protesters who broke through security blockades in Islamabad in a failed attempt to demonstrate at the French Embassy against the printing in France of images depicting the Prophet.Protests and gatherings marking the occasion were also held in the Pakistani cities of Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.In Bangladesh, tens of thousands marched through Dhaka, the capital, chanting “Boycott French products” and carrying banners calling Macron “the world’s biggest terrorist.”“Macron is leading Islamophobia,” said Dhaka demonstrator Akramul Haq. “He doesn’t know the power of Islam. The Muslim world will not let this go in vain. We’ll rise and stand in solidarity against him.”Some Bangladeshi demonstrators also burned effigies of Macron and carried cutouts of the president with a garland of shoes around his neck, a severe insult according to Islam.In a Muslim-majority district of India’s financial hub Mumbai, some 100 posters showing Macron with a boot on his face and calling him a “demon” were pasted on pavements and roads.In Lebanon, security forces fired tear gas to drive back some 300 protesters including supporters of a local Sunni Islamist party who marched from a mosque in the capital Beirut to the official residence of the French ambassador.Thousands in Somalia turned up for Friday prayers in mosques where sermons were dominated by curses and condemnation of Macron and his government.Abdirahman Hussein Mohamed, a shopkeeper in the capital Mogadishu, set aside all French products including face wash, perfumes and other cosmetics with a large sign, “NOT FOR SALE.”
