KABUL, Afghanistan — Facing Afghanistan's first significant outbreak of violence over an anti-Islam film that has inflamed mobs elsewhere, the police moved swiftly on Monday to contain rampaging groups of young men who were burning tires and throwing stones along a thoroughfare leading east out of Kabul, keeping the protesters from advancing toward the city and dispersing them within hours.
A large American base along the route taken by the protesters remained untouched throughout Monday morning's unrest, and there were no reports of deaths or serious injuries among the police or protesters.
The work by the police earned the praise of Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of the American-led military forces in Afghanistan, and capped nearly a week in which the Afghan government has quietly worked behind the scenes to keep anger over the American-made film, which mocks the Prophet Muhammad, from turning violent. As news of the protests spread around the world last week, Afghan officials across the country gathered elders and religious leaders and told them that it was fine to speak out against the film, "The Innocence of Muslims," but that they should urge people to stay calm and avoid violence.
Those efforts have continued — many sermons delivered during last week's Friday Prayer, for instance, were vehemently anti-American and sharply critical of the movie yet concluded with urgings to keep the peace.
Afghan and Western officials on Monday said having those kinds of messages delivered by religious and tribal leaders had gone a long way toward averting a repeat of the violence that gripped wide areas of Afghanistan earlier this year after American soldiers burned Korans at a base north of Kabul.
The government also asked Internet providers to block sites hosting a clip of the film, shutting down access to Google, YouTube and Gmail in the process. Access to Google and Gmail appeared to have been restored on Monday afternoon, though officials said YouTube remained blocked for most Internet users.
The relative calm in Afghanistan, despite Monday's outburst, has stood in stark contrast to events elsewhere in the Muslim world since last Tuesday when the American ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, was killed in an attack on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi as protests spread from neighboring Egypt. New outbreaks were reported Monday in Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon and Iran.
In Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, police firing tear gas and water cannons moved against hundreds of demonstrators who had gathered outside the American Embassy to express opposition to the film. Some protesters set fire to an American flag, while others hurled rocks and gasoline bombs and burned tires, news reports said.
Demonstrations spread across Pakistan, where the government restricted Internet access to YouTube and other sites containing what the Telecommunication Authority called anti-Islamic material. The police clashed with protesters outside the United States Consulates in Lahore and Karachi, and dozens were reported hurt. In the Upper Dir district of northwest Pakistan, police officers opened fire on 600 student protesters, leaving at least one dead. In Islamabad, the United States Embassy suspended public services.
In Beirut, Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah, condemned the video during a rare public appearance at a peaceful protest of thousands far from the United States Embassy. He said countries around the world should block Web sites carrying the video, and that its producers should be "punished."
"America, which uses the pretext of freedom of expression, should understand that airing the entire movie will have repercussions in the world that are dangerous, dangerous, very dangerous!" he said.
Student protesters were also mobilized to denounce the film in Iran, where the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed what he called the West's "Islamophobic policies of arrogance and Zionism" and dismissed American government criticism of the film as meaningless. In a speech to police cadets, reported by Iran's official news media, the ayatollah said Western countries "should acquit themselves of such a heavy crime not in words but in deed."
By EDWARD WONG 18 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/world/asia/unrest-protests-over-mohammed-film.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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