freediver
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Finally the Muslim world has found something to unite behind - their opposition to freedom of speech.
How's that fending going Gandalf?
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/17/volatility-charlie-hebdo-cover-display-protests-erupt-numerous-countries
Volatility of Charlie Hebdo Cover on Display as Protests Erupt in Numerous Countries
Protests against anti-Muslim sentiment have now taken place in Niger, Yemen, Sudan, Pakistan, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, Somalia, and elsewhere.
Following the massacre at their offices, which claimed the lives of ten staffers, Charlie Hebdo featured a depiction of the Prophet Mohammed on the cover of its very next issue, which was released in a record-printing of more than 3 million copies.
In what is widely understood as a reaction to that decision—taken as another signal by some members of the Muslim community that their sensitivities are disregarded while those of others are upheld—the protests in predominantly-Muslim nations have found fertile ground for anger and resentment in recent days.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/five-killed-in-charlie-hebdo-riots-as-france-defends-free-speech-20150117-12slrr.html
Five people were killed and churches set on fire in Niger on Saturday in fresh protests against the French weekly Charlie Hebdo's Mohammed cover, as France condemned the violence and defended freedom of expression.
With France still reeling from last week's attacks that claimed 17 lives, jittery European countries stepped up security, with soldiers patrolling the streets of Belgium for the first time in 35 years.
But anger mounted in several Muslim countries over the satirical newspaper's caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, with a second day of rioting erupting in Niger, a predominantly Muslim former French colony.
Around 1000 youths wielding iron bars, clubs and axes rampaged through the Niger capital, hurling rocks at police who responded with tear gas.
At least eight churches were torched and the French embassy in Niamey urged its citizens to stay at home.
"In Niamey, the tally is five dead, all civilians," Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said in a speech broadcast on state television, as he appealed for calm.
The death toll from riots a day earlier in Niger's second city of Zinder had climbed from four to five after a body was found "burned inside a church", he added.
Salman Khan, a protest leader, said 15 people had been arrested. “Protesting insults against the prophet is our Islamic and democratic right,” he said.
http://www.dailysabah.com/mideast/2015/01/16/syrian-regime-kills-ten-people-in-anticharlie-hebdo-protests
The Syrian regime's airstrikes killed at least 10 people on Friday in Idlib's northern countryside.
The causalities took place in the towns of Armanaz and Kafr Takharim, an Anadolu Agency correspondent on the ground reports. The protesters, who marched after Friday prayers for the Prophet Muhammad and to condemn Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of him, were attacked by Assad's forces. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned "the use of violence" in Niger while President Francois Hollande said France was committed to "freedom of expression", calling it "non-negotiable".
Some 15,000 people also rallied in Russia's Muslim North Caucasus region of Ingushetia against Charlie Hebdo, which depicted on its most recent cover a weeping Mohammed holding a "Je suis Charlie" sign.
There were also protests in Pakistan on Friday, and in Gaza the French cultural centre was defaced with graffiti, reading: "You will go to hell, French journalists".
In a speech, Hollande urged his compatriots not to change their habits, because "to do so would be to yield to terrorism."
However, he warned that "nothing will be like it was before" the attacks that rocked France last week.
'They have to be punished'
The deployment of troops in Belgium came after security forces this week smashed a suspected Islamist "terrorist" cell planning to kill police officers.
Greek anti-terror police arrested at least four people suspected of links to the dismantled jihadist cell. Among them was believed to be Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the 27-year-old alleged mastermind of the cell who according to media reports may have been planning the foiled attacks from Greece.
As authorities try to close in on jihadist cells around the world, Yemen detained two Frenchmen for questioning over suspected links to Al-Qaeda.
In France, investigators were focusing on 12 people detained early Friday and questioned over "possible logistical support" they may have given to the Paris gunmen -- Islamist brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly, sources said.
In London, authorities were mulling "further measures" to protect police "given some of the deliberate targeting of the police we have seen in a number of countries across Europe and the world."
British police officers, for the most part unarmed, will reportedly be equipped with taser guns as part of reinforced security measures.
Charlie Hebdo, which has flown off the shelves in record numbers since the attacks, announced on Saturday it would extend its print run to seven million copies.
Before the assault on its Paris headquarters, Charlie Hebdo had a circulation of around 30,000, with only a handful being sold abroad.
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