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France said it would temporarily close its embassies and schools in 20 countries Friday after a satirical magazine in Paris published insulting cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, a move it fears will add “fuel to the fire” of global tensions over an anti-Islam film.
The French government, which had urged the weekly not to print the cartoons, said it was shutting embassies and schools as a precaution on Friday, when protests sometimes break out after Muslim prayers.
“We have indeed decided as a precautionary measure to close our premises, embassies, consulates, cultural centers and schools,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman told Reuters. Riot police were also sent to the offices of the weekly magazine, Charlie Hebdo.
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby called the drawings outrageous but said those who were offended by them should "use peaceful means to express their firm rejection".
Tunisia's ruling Islamist party, Ennahda, condemned what it called an act of "aggression" against Muhammad but urged Muslims not to fall into a trap intended to "derail the Arab Spring and turn it into a conflict with the West".
In the northern Paris suburb of Sarcelles, one person was slightly hurt when two masked men threw a small explosive device through the window of a kosher supermarket. Police said it was too early to link the incident to the cartoons. One small local Muslim group filed a legal complaint against the weekly but there were no reports of reaction on the streets of France.
The acting head of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said French courts should deal with the case as firmly as it dealt with a magazine that published topless photographs of the U.K.'s Duchess of Cambridge.
The publication came amid widespread outrage over a crude, provocative film, made by anti-Islam campaigners in California, that mocked the Prophet and ignited days of deadly protests including an attack in Libya in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed.
The front-page cartoon had the figure in a wheelchair saying "You mustn't mock'' under the headline "Untouchable 2," a reference to a hugely popular French movie about a paralyzed rich white man and his black assistant.
US Muslims walk tightrope, denouncing both violence and anti-Islam film
Charlie Hebdo's Paris offices were fire bombed last November after it published a mocking caricature of Muhammad.
Many Muslims consider any representation of Allah or Muhammad offensive.
From Northern Africa to Indonesia, protesters – sparked by outrage over an anti-Islam film produced in the U.S. – march in sometimes violent demonstrations. NBC's Jim Maceda reports and msnbc's Rula Jebreal and TIME's Bobby Ghosh offer analysis.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius criticized the magazine's move.
"Is it relevant and intelligent in this environment to add fuel to the fire? The answer is no,'' Fabius told France Info radio. "I'm very worried... and when I saw this I immediately issued instructions for special security precautions to be taken in all the countries where it could be a problem.''
The government has called for restraint over the cartoons, restating the principles of free speech in France and urging those shocked by the images to take action through the courts.
Clinton to hold closed briefing for lawmakers on rising anti-US violence
Muslim leaders in France, which has Europe's largest Muslim population, have appealed for calm.
Salafist Muslims in Paris have already called for a protest this Saturday at Trocadero, near the Eiffel Tower, against the California-made film.
According to reports citing local officials in Afghanistan, a female suicide bomber attacked a minibus near Kabul, killing at least nine people in what may be the deadliest act of retribution over an anti-Islam film produced in the U.S. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
However, French authorities have refused to authorize any demonstration.
A small group of about 100 were prevented by riot police from approaching the U.S. Embassy in the center of Paris last Saturday.
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the authorities had rejected a request to hold a march.
"There is no reason for us to allow conflicts that do not concern France to enter our country,'' Ayrault told RTL radio.
Muslim Brotherhood: Respect beliefs of others
Muslim leaders criticized the magazine’s cartoons as another Western insult to their faith and urged France's government to take action.
"We reject and condemn the French cartoons that dishonor the Prophet and we condemn any action that defames the sacred according to people's beliefs," the acting head of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, Essam Erian, said, according to Reuters.
Erian added that the French judiciary should deal with the issue as firmly as it had handled the case against the magazine, Closer, which published topless pictures of Britain's Duchess of Cambridge, the wife of Prince William.
"If the case of Kate (the duchess) is a matter of privacy, then the cartoons are an insult to a whole people. The beliefs of others must be respected," he told Reuters.
Erian also spoke out against any violent reaction from Muslims but said peaceful protests were justified.
Mahmoud Ghozlan, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, welcomed French government criticism of the cartoons but said that French law should deal with insults against Islam in the same way as it deals with Holocaust denial.
"If anyone doubts the Holocaust happened, they are imprisoned, yet if anyone insults the Prophet, his companions or Islam, the most (France) does is to apologize in two words. It is not fair or logical," he told Reuters.
In Lebanon, leading Salafist cleric Sheikh Nabil Rahim said the cartoons were extremely insulting and could lead to more violence.
"Of course it will anger people further. It will raise tensions that were already dangerously high," he said, according to Reuters.
He accused those involved of trying to provoke a clash of civilizations, not dialogue. "We will try to keep things managed and peaceful, but these things easily get out of hand. I fear there could more targeting of foreigners, and this is why I wish they would not persist with these provocations."
An official in Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church said the move was a deliberate provocation. It showed "some international powers" wanted violence to escalate in Egypt so that the country would not develop economically, the official, who asked not to be named, said without elaborating.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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This does not suprise me from France. One of the few countries where cowardice has been long running. During WW2; Germany took France and there largest city Paris in one day. During the French revolution the french people would have lost if it hadn't been for God and a sixteen year old girl. Are you so afraid of the violent Muslim's that you would run away and hide scared of your freedom of speech and point of view. Doing that gives power to agressive, violent animals; the best approach is to stand your ground and fight. At this point it matters more then ever that people stand up to them and put them in there place.
While I don't argue with your take on French history, I would suggest that closing down all official sites and removing all personnel will be more effective than trying to "stand and fight" in Islamic countries.
Let them dine on sand, then the powers-that-be in those countries can deal with the violent rabble that they have spawned and bred.
France's COWARDICE on display again for All the world to see. mohammed was a Deluded Pedophile false prophet of satan not of The One True Living GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Get used to it and Stop listening to satan's followers LIES.
They are the venom of the religious world. KILL THEM ALL!!!
Crockett for Defense Secretary!
ahhhh, typical France, give up and run away without a fight....but they do make a great tasting toast!
I agree, they are cowards, but even their government made a better attempt to protect their citizens than ours did, and they responded quickly. Oh, and I love Creme brulee!
French Vanila ain't too shabby either.
HEY Muslims of the world, now is your chance to maim, destroy, and murder. Why this cartoon is good enough for what...150 little girls being killed, or 200 innocents. Why is the American Muslims blaming both sides? They never accept blame for the televised murders, the endless, mindless, numbing bombing, the forever "you have to accept my faith, I don't have to accept yours" chant. Well, you know what? Here's another shocking revelation...I don't trust any of you, I don't think your faith is a faith, more a political statement, and it's completely unAmerican. Shut up and go away, or what, you want disability or free education, or protection from others, or the dream act, or...
Has to be worth at least 14 dead non-Muslims in the world, so tired of this crap and yet we pander to them and give them aid and really hear no support from the Muslim (so called Citizens here in the US that really means anything, just more excuses). Well done Arab Spring!!!
Obama bombed Libya (without Congressional approval, no less) to help their little cause. They had a funny way of showing their thanks, huh?
...
The muslims have established the norm.
If someone disparages your religion, KILL THEM.
I encourage all to go to the internet, pick out the affront to your religion du jour and immediately go on a rampage.
...
Yeah I think we need to flood the world with these depictions so they become commonplace. Why not publish the Kate photos also? lol
when will the Muslim Leaders Stand Up and Stop this?
If I had to take a guess, I would say when hell freezes over.
When hell freezes over - and pigs grow wings!
The Muslim leaders are the ones who fuel the fire.
Now I know the world is coming to an end. French media is displaying more courage than America. How far have we fallen...
Wow, all this over cartoons; They are really not going to like "Name of the Prophet"
TP
I applaud the French magazine for their actions! I think we need to stop bowing down to the small minded Arabs and tell them to shut the hell up and leave our rights to say what we want alone. Tired of seeing how we have to keep tip toe around these jerks because we are making fun of their "god" We are not the same religion and it doesn't meant we have to skirt around them. They can kiss our butts.
Oh the poor muslims!!! BOO Hoo
Having traveled to France many times, I know one thing...the French government and people will not tolerate Muslim antics in France. Oh, go ahead, burn their own neighborhoods, raise havoc for a few nights in their hometowns, but never to the level of their destruction in THEIR OWN COUNTRIES!!! Like really, don't these people have jobs and homes and things to do?! They have their guns and religion but live in squalor and seem to like it!
To compare a mocking cartoon to the Holocaust shows what a bunch of ninnies these folks are. Long live free speech, and I also ask that MSNBC reprint the cartoons; I would like to see them and make up my own mind. I'm tired of one religion trying to control free speech. Remember: Jesus is a regular on Family Guy, The Simpsons and South Park and nobody makes a peep. Having a sense of humor is a wonderful thing.
Couldn't have said it better myself!!!
Good for France.. Shame on all of you newspapers whom cower over Muslims. The press is always screaming "Freedom of the press" but when it comes to Muslims and Mohamed they run and hide. The Muslims want freedom, well here it is in all of its glory.
bulah bulah bulah ...............BOOOM! LOL
Mohammed Face here :>(
While we're at it, just issue 'shoot to kill' orders for all Muslim protesters who try to start something over this. That way someone can interrogate the dead to see if they are terrorists or not.
Some people just can't resist pushing other peoples' buttons!
The French government are taking precautions we didn't to close their embassies and other French interests in foreign countries that our Administration failed to.
They have the common sense to prevent demonstrations in Paris of the Mohammad film that had nothing to do with France.
They also had the stones to reiterate that free speech is free, any opposition to it can taken up in court instead of violence and destruction.
Take note Obama and administration.
So easy to read tomorrows newspapers today and come out looking like you have stones.
All free countries and people should all mock the pedophile mohammed at the same time, and maybe the wackos will get so enraged that they will have a heart attack, of just attack whoever is closest to them.
ROTFLMFAO!!!!!! Go France go!!! It's about time this cockroach religion grows some ticker skin. Who are these these hypocritical slime bags to say we offended their f'ing prophet, when they call folks adhering to the Christian faith "DOGS"? Well, I have news for these disease carrying muslims maggots: your "gutter religion" has it's share of fleas...and then some!! Get a GD'ed life...and a brain while you're at it.
The world truly is going mad, "cartoon depictions", "movies", any and all depictions of "your" GOD is worth all this nonsense? Let's face reality, isn't this more about the world condition? Politics, religion, haves and have nots, geo political environments? Seems no one will be at peace until some terrible form of destruction to human life makes this world so intolerable that the haman race has nothing else to do but change its direction.....c'mon people.....!!!!
" isn't this more about the world condition?"
No. This is about Islam, that religion of love and peace as practiced by their extreme (and notice that their extreme is pretty much world-wide).
Let's all post an insulting/funny cartoon of Muhammad so the muslim world can get accustomed to freedom of speech.
This is known in the world of psychology as "desensitization." We could also encourage more movies, T-shirts, bumper stickers, etc.
I am so sick of those thin skinned dark ages morons. Where are the world's terrorists from? Laregely, Muslim countries. Those countries quarter the terrorists who carry out their acts of insane murder against us.
I say this: 1). Cut off financial aid to those countries - no conditions, cut it off. 2). Let's organize and protest loudly and daily in front of their embassies ans consulates. 3). Let's draw a line in the sand between them and us and insist neither of us cross it except to trade their oil for our food, technology, pharmaceuticals, household goods and luxury goods.
These people are so ridiculous! And all this over a MILF loving desert wanderer who deceed to his followers not to eat pork because he ate some that was rotting in the sun and it gave him diarrhea. Yeah, really smart Mo!
LET THEM EAT PORK!!!
If I knew what he looked like I would draw a cartoon also, and as a matter of fact I encourage every one to do so. We could do that for a couple of years then quit. The radicals would be bat crap crazy er.