[The wave of unrest not only increased concern in the West but raised new questions about political instability in Egypt , Tunisia and other Middle East countries where newfound freedoms, once suppressed by autocratic leaders, have given way to an absence of authority. The protests also seemed to highlight the unintended consequences of America ’s support of movements to overthrow those autocrats, which have empowered Islamist groups that remain implacably hostile to the West.]
By Rick Gladstone
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Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters
Protesters in front of the burning German Embassy in
after Friday Prayer. More Photos »
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The broadening of the protests appeared to reflect a
pent-up resentment of Western powers in general, and defied pleas for restraint
from world leaders, including the new Islamist president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, whose country was the
instigator of the demonstrations that erupted three days earlier on the
anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The anger stretched from North Africa
to South Asia and Indonesia and in some cases was surprisingly destructive. In Tunis , an American-run school that was untouched during the
revolution nearly two years ago was completely ransacked. In eastern Afghanistan , protesters burned an effigy of President Obama, who had
made an outreach to Muslims a thematic pillar of his first year in office.
The State Department confirmed that protesters had
penetrated the perimeters of the American Embassies in the Tunisian and
Sudanese capitals, and said that 65 embassies or consulates around the world
had issued emergency messages about threats of violence, and that those
facilities in Islamic countries were curtailing diplomatic activity. The
Pentagon said it sent Marines to protect embassies in Yemen and Sudan .
The wave of unrest not only increased concern in the West
but raised new questions about political instability in Egypt , Tunisia and other Middle
East countries where newfound
freedoms, once suppressed by autocratic leaders, have given way to an absence
of authority. The protests also seemed to highlight the unintended consequences
of America ’s support of movements to overthrow those autocrats, which
have empowered Islamist groups that remain implacably hostile to the West.
“We have, throughout the Arab world, a young, unemployed,
alienated and radicalized group of people, mainly men, who have found a vehicle
to express themselves,” Rob Malley, the Middle East-North African program
director for the International Crisis Group, a consulting firm, said in a
telephone interview from Tripoli , Libya
In a number of these countries, particularly Egypt and Tunisia , he said, “the state has lost a lot of its capacity to
govern effectively. Paradoxically, that has made it more likely that events
like the video will make people take to the streets and act in the way they
did.”
Some of the most serious violence targeted the compound
housing the German and British Embassies in Khartoum , the Sudanese capital, causing minor damage to the British
property but major fire damage to the German one. The foreign ministers of both
countries strongly protested the assault, which The Associated Press said had
been instigated by a prominent sheik exhorting protesters to storm the German
Embassy to avenge what he called anti-Muslim graffiti on Berlin mosques.
The police fired tear gas to repulse attacks in Khartoum,
where about 5,000 demonstrators had massed, news reports said, before they
moved on to the United States Embassy on the outskirts of the capital.
In Tunis , the United States Embassy was assaulted at midday by protesters who smashed windows and set fires before
security forces routed them in violent clashes that left at least 3 dead and 28
hurt. Witnesses and officials said no Americans were hurt and most had left
earlier.
The worst damage was inflicted on the American Cooperative
School of Tunis, a highly regarded institution that, despite its name, catered
mostly to the children of non-American expatriates, nearly half of whom work
for the African Development Bank. School officials, who had sent the 650 students
home early, said a few protesters scaled the fence and dismantled monitoring
cameras, followed by 300 to 400 others, some of them local residents, who
looted everything including 700 laptop computers, musical instruments and the
safe in the director’s office, and then set the building on fire.
“It’s ransacked,” the director, Allan Bredy, said in a
telephone interview. “We were thinking it was something the Tunisia government would keep under control. We had no idea they
would allow things to go as wildly as they did.”
The school’s director of security, David Santiago, said a
group of staff members formed a posse armed with baseball bats to chase
lingering looters away hours after the assault. “Our elementary school library
is burning as we speak,” he said angrily as he and his colleagues sought to
assess the damage. “It’s complete chaos.”
Thousands of Palestinians joined demonstrations after Friday
Prayer in the Gaza Strip. Since there is no American diplomatic representation
in Gaza , the main gathering took place in Gaza City Jerusalem and held protests in the West Bank .
Witnesses in Cairo said protests that first flared Tuesday grew in scope on
Friday, with demonstrators throwing rocks and gasoline bombs near the American
Embassy and the police firing tear gas.
Egyptian state media said Saturday that at least one person
had been killed in Friday’s clashes near the American Embassy in Cairo . News reports said that a 35-year-old man was killed by
shotgun fire and state media noted that he had a long criminal record. More
than 224 people have been injured in four days of street battles, according to
state media, and by Friday at least 99 Egyptian security officers had been hurt
protecting the embassy in Cairo .
In the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi , where J. Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador,
and three other Americans were killed Tuesday, militias fired rockets at what
they thought were American drones overhead, prompting the government to
temporarily close the airport as a precaution. The bodies of Mr. Stevens and
the others killed in the Libya attack were returned to the United States on Friday.
In Lebanon , where Pope Benedict XVI was visiting, one person was
killed and 25 were injured as protesters attacked restaurants. There was also
turmoil in Yemen , Bangladesh , Qatar , Kuwait , Bahrain , India , Pakistan and Iraq , and demonstrations in Malaysia . In Nigeria , troops fired into the air to disperse protesters marching
on the city of Jos , Reuters reported. In Syria , about 200 protesters chanted anti-American slogans
outside the long-closed American Embassy in Damascus , news reports said.
In the Egyptian Sinai, a group of Bedouins stormed an
international peacekeepers’ camp and set fire to an observation tower,
according to Al Ahram Online, a state-owned, English-language Web site. Three
people, two Colombians and one Egyptian, were injured in the ensuing clashes.
In Yemen , baton-wielding security forces backed by water cannons
blocked streets near the American Embassy a day after protesters breached the
outer security perimeter there, and officials said two people were killed in
clashes with the police. Still, a group of several dozen protesters gathered
near the diplomatic post, carrying placards and shouting slogans.
In Iraq, where the heavily fortified American Embassy sits
on the banks of the Tigris River inside Baghdad’s Green Zone and is out of
reach to most Iraqis, thousands protested after Friday Prayer in Sunni and Shiite
cities alike.
Raising banners with Islamic slogans and denouncing the United States and Israel , Iraqis called for the expulsion of American diplomats
from the country and demanded that the American government apologize for the
incendiary film and take legal action against its creators.
Anger over the film even reached Sydney , Australia Sydney clashed with about 200 protesters who were rallying
against the film, The Associated Press reported. The police would not
immediately confirm injuries or say whether arrests had been made.
In Egypt , in particular, leaders scrambled to repair deep strains
with Washington provoked by their initial response to attacks on the
American Embassy on Tuesday, tacitly acknowledging that they erred in their
response by focusing far more on anti-American domestic opinion than on
condemning the violence.
The attacks squeezed Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood
between conflicting pressures from Washington and their Islamic constituency at home, a senior
Brotherhood official acknowledged. During a 20-minute phone call Wednesday
night, Mr. Obama warned Mr. Morsi that relations would be jeopardized if the
authorities in Cairo failed to protect American diplomats and stand more firmly
against anti-American attacks.
On Friday, Mr. Morsi, on a scheduled state visit to Rome , called attacks on foreign embassies “absolutely unacceptable.”
Reporting was contributed by David D.
Kirkpatrick from Cairo; Alan Cowell from London; Monica Marks from Tunis;
Nasser Arrabyee from Sana, Yemen; Tim Arango from Baghdad; Nicholas Kulish from
Berlin; Steven Lee Myers from Washington; Alissa J. Rubin from Kabul,
Afghanistan; Kareem Fahim from Beirut, Lebanon; Fares Akram from Gaza; Isabel
Kershner from Jerusalem; and Christine Hauser from New York.
