A reporter for Agence France-Presse was shot and three people were injured in a riot against the Charlie Hebdo cartoons in Karachi.
Protests also erupted in Algeria and Jordan, with thousands flocking into the streets following Friday prayers. In Niger, anti-Charlie protestors attacked the French consulate and several churches. Four people were killed, including one policeman.
“Some of the protesters were armed with bows and arrows as well as clubs. The clashes were very violent in some places,” the source added.
Agence France-Presse quoted a minister as saying dozens of people had been injured.
Local residents told Reuters that demonstrators had set fire to churches and raided shops that were run by Christians.
“The protesters are crying out in local Hausa language: Charlie is Satan – let hell engulf those supporting Charlie,” a local shopkeeper said by telephone.
The French cultural centre there also came under attack.
The centre’s director, Kaoumi Bawa, said an angry crowd of around 50 people had smashed the building’s door and set fire to the cafeteria, library and offices.
It was Pakistan were the most intense protests took place:
Clashes erupted in Karachi when protesters started heading toward the French consulate, throwing stones at police, who pushed them back with water cannons and tear gas.
Photographer Asif Hassan was shot and wounded, said AFP news director Michele Leridon, although “his life does not seem in danger.” AFP said it was trying to find out whether Hassan was targeted or shot accidentally.
Police officer Naseer Tanoly said some of the protesters were armed and opened fire on the police, who shot into the air to disperse the crowd. The protesters were mostly students affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami political party.
Umair Saeed, an official with the party’s student wing in Karachi, denied the students had weapons and said the police had opened fire.
Three other people, including two journalists and one police officer, were treated for minor injuries and released from Jinnah Hospital, said Dr. Seemi Jamali.
About 1,000 people gathered in Islamabad to condemn the French publication. The demonstrators carried signs that read “Shame on Charlie Hebdo,” and “If you are Charlie, then I am Kouachi” — referring to the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, who were killed after carrying out the attack on the newspaper office. They had claimed to be sent by al-Qaida in Yemen.
A second day of protests in Lahore drew about 800 people.
On Thursday, Pakistani lawmakers passed a resolution against cartoons of the prophet and marched outside parliament to protest Charlie Hebdo’s latest cover.
The demonstrations overshadowed smaller rallies in Islamabad and elsewhere to commemorate the Peshawar school attack one month ago by Taliban gunmen that killed 150 people, many of them children. Those attending the rallies urged the government to do more to curb support for militancy and extremism, which many say have flourished at mosques and religious schools.
Not much of a chance of that happening — especially since the extremists were largely created by the government and do the government’s bidding.
We’ve seen this pattern many times before. The clerics of the Religion of Perpetual Outrage find something to become outraged about, whip their flocks into a frothing frenzy at Friday prayers, and then let them loose in the streets to create murder and mayhem.
It’s hard to imagine these holy men preaching peace and tolerance from the pulpit, and then 10 minutes later the crowd is in the streets screaming bloody murder. This blatant incitement to riot happens all across the Muslim world. Whether it be Mohammed cartoons or a nearly invisible film about the life of the prophet, it hardly matters.
And then the western press absolves the imams of fomenting the violence by failing to mention their major role in influencing their worshipers, and blames the riots on the victims.
As long as Muslim mobs prove useful to those in power, these “spontaneous” riots will continue.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member