Hundreds join demos across the Muslim world against Charlie Hebdo cartoons
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Chanting “I am not Charlie, I am Mohammed”, hundreds of protesters in Algeria joined a wave of demos across the Muslim world against Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons.
Protests turned violent after Friday prayers.
In Niger’s second largest city of Zinder four died and 45 were wounded in clashes with police. The French cultural centre was set alight and churches were attacked.
The first edition of the French satirical weekly since a deadly attack on their offices featured a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, which many saw as a new provocation.
Turkish President Erdogan said that publishing the cartoons had nothing to do with freedom of expression but with “terrorising the freedom of others”.
At the Fatih mosque in Istanbul, some protesters also prayed for the memory of the Kouachi brothers, the two suspects who died in a shootout with police following the Paris attacks.
“We’re here to protest against the insult to our Prophet and to hold funeral prayers for our two brothers (referring to Cherif and Said Kouachi),” one of the demonstrators explained.
In Pakistan a local photographer, Assif Hassan, was hit by gunfire and seriously wounded and others were injured in protests outside the French consulate in Karachi.
It was part of nationwide protests in the country where insulting the prophet carries the death penalty.