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David TrifunovSeptember 23, 2012 12:56
Innocence of Muslims protests spread to Athens, Greece
Marchers shout "All we have is Mohammad" during Athens' Innocence of Muslims demonstration.
Marchers shout "All we have is Mohammad" during Athens' Innocence of Muslims demonstration.
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Muslims living in Greece protest in front of the police cordon blocking their way to the US embassy in Athens during a demonstration against a US-made film mocking Islam on September 23, 2012. Police fired tear gas to disperse some 1,000 demonstrators in central Athens after some of them, largely immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, tried to break through a cordon to march toward the US embassy. (LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images)
Protests against “Innocence of Muslims” spread to Greece and Turkey today as hundreds clashed with police in Athens over the low-budget YouTube video.
Marchers heading toward the US Embassy in the Greek capital shouted, “All we have is Mohammad” while carrying signs that said, “We demand an immediate punishment for those who tried to mock our Prophet Mohammad,” Reuters reported.
Innocence of Muslims is a low-budget film that paints the Prophet Mohammad as an abusive figure.
Many Muslims consider depicting or even drawing Mohammad, let along satirizing or denigrating the Prophet, blasphemous.
California filmmakers made the short movie, sparking deaths at the US Embassy in Libya, riots and protests across the globe.
Greece’s first demonstration against the film erupted into violence when protesters and police traded thrown bottles for teargas, Reuters said.
More from GlobalPost: France closes embassies, steps up security in Muslim countries
According to the news agency, Greek police closed a subway station and considered stopping marchers before they reached the embassy.
In Istanbul, about 500 gathered in Taksim Square to show their anger at the film and a French magazine’s publication of cartoons depicting Mohammad.
They carried signs that read “Death to America” and “Death to France,” Agence France-Presse said.
Last week, the magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked Mohammad.
Police kept about 400 students away from the French embassy in Tehran today, AFP said.
The crowd dispersed after about 90 minutes.
More from GlobalPost: Pakistan condemns railways minister's bounty on anti-Islam filmmaker
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/120923/innocence-muslims-protests-spread-athens-greece
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