Sunday 18 January 2015
What happened to:
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."?
Photo: More than 1,000 people threw rocks at police and burned tyres in Niger's capital. (AFP: Boureima Hama)
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French president Francois Hollande says anti-Charlie Hebdo protesters in other countries do not understand France's attachment to freedom of speech.
He was speaking a day after the satirical weekly's publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed sparked violent clashes, including deaths, in some Muslim countries.
"There are tensions abroad where people don't understand our attachment to the freedom of speech," Mr Hollande said during a visit to the southern city of Tulle.
"We've seen the protests, and I would say that in France all beliefs are respected."
Demand has surged for Charlie Hebdo's first issue since two militant gunmen burst into its weekly editorial conference and shot dead 12 people at the start of three days of violence that shocked France.
A cartoon image of Mohammed on this issue's front page - showing the Prophet shedding a tear and holding a sign saying "all is forgiven" - has outraged many in the Muslim world, triggering violent demonstrations in Algeria, Niger and Pakistan.
The magazine's distributors said its print run had been lifted to 7 million copies, dwarfing its usual circulation of only 60,000.
The shootings in Paris were prompted by Charlie Hebdo's previous publication of Mohammed cartoons, a depiction many Muslims consider blasphemous.
"We've supported these countries in the fight against terrorism," Mr Hollande said.
"I still want to express my solidarity [towards them], but at the same time France has principles and values, in particular freedom of expression," he added.
Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests break out in Africa
A violent mob torched at least seven churches in Niger's capital Niamey on Saturday as protests raged on against the publication, French news agency AFP reported.
About 100 helmeted riot police stood in front of the Niamey cathedral at midday, protecting it from a crowd of stone-throwing youths.
The Drum: Charlie Hebdo v 18C
In a second day of clashes in the former French colony, police fired tear gas to disperse some 1,000 youths in front of the city's grand mosque and protesters in several parts of the city were reportedly armed with iron bars and clubs.
A police officer and three civilians were killed on Friday in the city of Zinder, while churches were burned and Christian homes looted.
Five people were killed during the riots in Niamey and the toll from protests in Zinder climbed from four to five dead, Niger's president Mahamadou Issoufou said.
It was not clear whether the fifth person killed in Zinder was a police officer or a civilian.
Islamic scholars in Niger have appeared on national television to remind protestors that Islam is a religion of peace.
"Don't forget that Islam is against violence. I urge men and women, boys and girls to calm down," said Muslim elder Yaou Sonna, speaking on behalf of around 20 of his peers.
Several Algerian police officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators in Algiers after rioting broke out at the end of a protest.
Protests also turned violent on Friday in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi, where police used tear gas and a water cannon against demonstrators outside the French consulate.
A photographer for AFP was also wounded by a gunshot during the protest.
Thousands rally in Russia, protest graffiti appears in Gaza
About 15,000 people rallied in Russia's Muslim North Caucasus region of Ingushetia on Saturday.
The crowd gathered for the officially sanctioned meeting in the regional capital Magas to protest "against cartoons of the prophet, Islam phobia and insulting the beliefs of Muslims," the local government's press service said.
Regional head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov described the publication of caricatures of the Prophet as "state extremism on the side of several Western countries" in a statement addressed to the protest.
"Instead of decisively condemning these destructive steps, the political authorities in the West are trying to set people of different religions and nationalities against each other," the statement said.
Russia's media watchdog on Friday warned publications that printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed was against the country's law and ethical norms.
Media and communications ombudsman Roskomnadzor said that publishing the caricatures could be qualified as "inciting ethnic and religious hatred" and punished under anti-extremism laws.
Although Russia's leadership extended its condolences to France, and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov participated in the unity march staged last weekend, pro-Kremlin commentators and Muslims accused the cartoonists of provoking the attack.
Another rally against the cartoons was due to be held on Monday in the neighbouring region of Chechnya.
Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov said those who drew Mohammed cartoons were "people without spiritual and moral values" and pledged that 500,000 people would participate in the rally.
Meanwhile, protest graffiti was also sprayed outside the French cultural centre in Gaza before dawn on Saturday.
"You will go to hell, French journalists," read one of the slogans daubed on the walls of the cultural centre compound, which has been closed since it was damaged in a fire last October.
"Anything but the prophet," read another.
Police were deployed outside the compound's main gate as well as on the adjacent main road, AFP reported.
