Muslim pressure group to protest over anti-Muslim film

A Muslim pressure group that campaigns for an Islamic state with sharia law will protest outside London's American embassy today over a film mocking the prophet Muhammad.

Innocence of Muslims, which was produced in the United States and portrays Muhammad as a fraud, womaniser, homosexual and madman, has caused furious demonstrations worldwide.

Riot police clashed on yesterday with about 200 protesters at the US consulate in Sydney, Australia.

On Tuesday Chris Stevens, US ambassador in Libya, was killed when the consulate in Benghazi was stormed by militants suspected of using the protests to stage an assault on the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 atrocities.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has previously faced calls to be banned, said hundreds of Muslims from across the UK would rally and demonstrate "in solidarity" with others across the world.

They plan to converge outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square at 2.30pm today.

A group statement said: "The demonstration will be condemning in the strongest possible terms any and all insults against Islam and the symbols of our religion; especially those against the greatest man sent to mankind the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him."

Yesterday, Muslims took to the streets in more than 20 countries from the Middle East to south-east Asia.

In most countries, protests were peaceful, if vehement.

But deadly clashes erupted in several places, protesters in Sudan and Tunisia tried to storm Western embassies, an American fast-food restaurant was set ablaze in Lebanon, and international peacekeepers were attacked in the Sinai.

Demonstrators have died in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Yemen and Sudan.

A 14-minute excerpt from the film was described by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton as "an awful internet video that we had nothing to do with".

PA