A Muslim demonstrator holds up a sign and shouts slogans outside the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur Friday in protest against a blasphemous US film and sacrilegious cartoons in a French magazine. — Reuters ISLAMABAD – Protests against insults to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) turned violent in Pakistan, at least 13 people were killed and 195 wounded Friday, but remained mostly peaceful in Muslim countries elsewhere. In France, the authorities banned all protests. “There will be strictly no exceptions. Demonstrations will be banned and broken up,” said Interior Minister Manuel Valls. Tunisia's Islamist-led government also banned protests against the images published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Many Western and Muslim politicians and clerics have appealed for calm, denouncing those behind the blasphemous film and sketches, but also condemning violent reactions to it. At street level, Muslims enraged by attacks on their faith spoke of a culture war with those in the West who put rights to freedom of expression above any religious offense caused. Western diplomatic missions in Muslim nations tightened security ahead of Friday prayers. France ordered its embassies, schools and cultural centers to shut in a score of countries. In Pakistan, tens of thousands of people joined protests encouraged by the government in several cities including Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore, Multan and Muzaffarabad. Nine people were killed in Karachi, the country's largest city, and four in the northwestern city of Peshawar, hospital officials said. Crowds set two cinemas ablaze and ransacked shops in Peshawar, clashing with riot police who fired tear gas. At least five protesters were hurt and the ARY television station said an employee had been killed. Pakistan declared Friday a “Day of Love” for the Prophet and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said an attack on Islam's founder was “an attack on the whole 1.5 billion Muslims”. In neighboring Afghanistan, police contacted religious and community leaders to try to prevent bloodshed. About 10,000 protesters gathered in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, after Friday prayers, chanting slogans and burning US and French flags and an effigy of US President Barack Obama. Protests went off peacefully in the Arab world, where last week several embassies were attacked and the US envoy to Libya was killed in an initial burst of unrest over the film. In Yemen, where the US embassy was stormed last week, several hundred protesters chanted anti-American slogans, but riot police blocked the route to the embassy. In Geneva, the UN's human rights agency Friday condemned the French satirical magazine's publication of cartoons. “Both the film and the cartoons are malicious and deliberately provocative,” said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. – Agencies
