Dear O’Bomba – “Don’t blame us if your citizens DIE, you started it” – Uprisings spreading across Eurasia… Death follows

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KUALA LUMPUR: About 3,000 Muslims marched on the US embassy in Malaysia on Friday, burning an American flag, over a US-made film that has sparked anger in the Islamic world.

Although there was no violence, angry demonstrators declared their willingness to sacrifice their lives to defend the honour of Prophet Mohammed and warned “there will be consequences” over the film.

“We will not allow the prophet to be insulted. We are willing to sacrifice our lives and property,” said Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, an official with the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), which spearheaded the march.

About 60 percent of Malaysia’s 28 million people are Malay-Muslims.

Protesters shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) and held up signs denouncing the film, America and Jews.

One placard read: “Obama, our patience has its limit. Don’t blame us if your citizens die. Blame yourself. U started it!”

Demonstrators handed a memo to an American embassy official, demanding a US apology, “maximum sentences” for the movie-makers and an investigation into whether there was a “planned agenda to provoke hatred and anger towards Muslims”.

However, PAS officials said they were not behind the flag burning, and condemned it.

The protest forced the closure of a busy main road in the heavily congested capital Kuala Lumpur for nearly two hours.

The low-budget “Innocence of Muslims”, produced by a US Christian activist, mocks Muslims and Prophet Mohammed.

Western, and particularly US, diplomatic missions have been under siege around the world since a trailer for the movie gained attention this month on YouTube.

This week France also found itself in the firing line after the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo printed a batch of cartoons caricaturing Prophet Mohammed.

On Friday, hundreds of protesters also condemned the film at a separate demonstration nearby, organised by the youth wing of Malaysia’s ruling party.

The US embassy in Malaysia had closed for a half-day on Friday ahead of the planned protest, while the nearby French embassy closed for the entire day.

Anti-French and anti-American protests also erupted in Indonesia on Friday.

Protesters gathered outside US and French missions, which were closed across the country on the Muslim holy day amid fears of violence, targeted American fast food outlets and scuffled with police.

In Medan, North Sumatra province, dozens of protesters from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) burnt an American flag outside the US consulate.

Outside the French consulate in Surabaya, capital of East Java province, some 200 protesters from another Islamic group chanted “crush America, crush France”.

They earlier scuffled with several hundred policemen in riot gear outside a nearby McDonalds. They sealed the entrance to the restaurant with tape, which carried the slogans “death to the filmmakers” and “boycott American products”.

About 50 protesters demonstrated outside the US embassy in Jakarta after Friday prayers, where some 200 policemen were stationed.

Some 50 demonstrators gathered at the French embassy in the capital, where they chanted “death to France”, “France is evil” and “crush France”.

- AFP/al