TUNIS: Tunisia banned all demonstrations yesterday and Western missions across the Arab world went on high alert amid fears of new violence over a US-made film mocking Islam and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) in a French magazine.
France closed its missions, schools and cultural centres in 20 countries for the day. Schools in Tunisia were ordered shut from Wednesday, those in Egypt from Thursday.
Islamist groups were organising planned rallies in several countries but security forces were on alert across the region for spontaneous demontrations after the main weekly Muslim prayers at noon - a traditional focal point for protest.
Demonstrations were held among both Sunni and Shias in Lebanon, and among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The Tunisian interior ministry said it was invoking emergency law powers to impose the nationwide demonstration ban following tip-offs of preparations for violence by hardliners.
For his part, the imam of Gazelle mosque, a Salafist bastion in Ariana west of Tunis, did not call for a demonstration as he did last week.
In an interview, the veteran leader of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party that leads Tunisia’s governing coalition said the authorities had learnt the lesson of deadly disturbances outside the US embassy on September 14 and said he expected no repetition of such violence.
In Tehran yesterday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he did not believe for one moment the repeated insistence of US officials that the administration had nothing to do with the low-budget movie “Innocence of Muslims” produced by an extremist Christian group.
He said US government claims it could do nothing to censor the film were a “deception” exploiting the pretext of freedom of expression. He called the film an Israeli-hatched plot “to divide (Muslims) and spark sectarian conflict.”
AFP
