Anti-Islam film: Thousands protest around Muslim world

Sept 18, 2012: Fresh protests are taking place around the Muslim world over an amateur anti-Islam video produced in the US.

At least one protester was killed in violent protests in Pakistan and thousands attended an angry rally in the Philippines city of Marawi. Weapons were fired and police cars torched in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah has said the US faces "very dangerous" repercussions if it allows the full video to be released.

More than a dozen people have died since last Tuesday in protests sparked by the appearance on Youtube of a trailer for the obscure, poorly made film, which is entitled Innocence of Muslims.

Youtube told the BBC it would not remove the trailer as it was within its guidelines but it had restricted access to the clip in countries where its content was illegal "such as India and Indonesia as well as in Libya and Egypt".

Thousands of people were on the streets of Beirut, waving flags and chanting, "America, hear us - don't insult our Prophet". Sheikh Nasrallah, the influential leader of Lebanon's Shia Muslim militant group, earlier called for a week of protests - not only against American embassies, but also to press Muslim governments to express their own anger to the US.

At least one protester was killed in Pakistan on Monday as violent demonstrations were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the country's biggest city, Karachi. Pakistan, as predicted, has blocked access to Youtube, accusing it of failing to remove blasphemous material. This is clearly an attempt by the authorities to show people they have responded on an emotive issue, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool reports from Islamabad.

About 3,000 protesters from the Philippines Muslim minority burned US and Israeli flags in the southern city of Marawi. In Yemen, hundreds of students in the capital, Sanaa, called for the expulsion of the US ambassador. In Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, hundreds of protesters faced off with police, throwing stones and petrol bombs, while police retaliated with tear gas. Hundreds of Palestinians staged a peaceful sit-in protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Angry demonstrators in the Afghan capital, Kabul, fired guns, torched police cars and shouted anti-US slogans. Police arrested at least 15 people at a small protest outside the US embassy in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku.

In a BBC interview, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the film was "wrong and offensive but also laughable as a piece of film-making". "What is dangerous and wrong is the reaction to it," said Mr Blair, who now serves as a Middle East peace envoy.

The exact origins of the film are shrouded in mystery, although a man called Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a convicted fraudster living in California has been questioned over his involvement.

The eruption of anger has seen attacks on US consulates, embassies and business interests across the Middle East and north Africa. British, Swiss, German and Dutch properties have also been targeted. The US ambassador to Libya was among four Americans killed on the day protests first broke out.

Libyan Interior Minister Fawzi Abdul Al has dismissed a claim on Sunday by the president of the national congress that 50 people were arrested in connection with the deaths. He said only four people had been detained so far, although up to 50 could be under investigation.