Western missions in MENA brace for major protests

Tunisia banned all demonstrations on Friday and Western missions across the Arab world went on high alert amid fears of new violence over a US-made film mocking Islam, called "Innocence of Muslims," and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a French magazine.

France closed its missions, schools and cultural centers in 20 countries for the day. Schools in Tunisia were ordered shut from Wednesday, those in Egypt from Thursday.

Islamist groups were organizing planned rallies in several countries but security forces were on alert across the region for spontaneous demonstrations after the main weekly Muslim prayers at noon -- a traditional focal point for protest.

In Libya's second city Benghazi, where US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were murdered last week in what Washington has called a terrorist attack, rival demonstrations were planned and there were fears clashes could break out.

The hardline Salafi group Ansar al-Sharia, which denied any role in the Stevens killing, called for supporters to rally around al-Kish Square, a key battleground in the uprising that overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi last year.

The demonstration was set for 3:00pm GMT, the same time as a "Save Benghazi" march organized by militia opponents was due to head for the square.

Demonstrations were also planned among both Sunni and Shia Muslims in Lebanon, and among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

On Monday, in a rare public appearance, the leader of Lebanon's powerful resistance movement Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, told a massive gathering the film was the "worst attack ever on Islam."

"O Prophet, we die for you, my soul and my blood are for you," he shouted to tens of thousands of delirious supporters, urging them to repeat the words for the whole world to hear.

The Tunisian interior ministry said it was invoking emergency law powers to impose the nationwide demonstration ban following tip-offs of preparations for violence by hardliners.

"The interior ministry, using its powers under the state of emergency and in order to maintain public order, announces that it is outlawing any form of demonstration anywhere in Tunisian territory on Friday," it said.

"The ministry notes that it has received information suggesting the protests would be exploited for the purpose of committing acts of violence and causing unrest."

Calls for Friday protests were circulating on social networks following the publication by French weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday of cartoons featuring obscene images of the founder of Islam.

The interior ministry called on "all Tunisians and civil society to demonstrate understanding" and "urge (people) not to follow the call" to protest.

The imam of Gazelle mosque, a Salafi bastion in Ariana west of Tunis, did not call for a demonstration as he did last week, an AFP correspondent reported.

In an exclusive AFP interview, the veteran leader of the moderate Islamist al-Nahda party that leads Tunisia's governing coalition said the authorities had learned the lesson of deadly disturbances outside the US embassy on September 14 and said he expected no repetition of such violence.

"Each time that parties or groups overstep our freedoms in a flagrant manner, we have to be tough, clamp down and insist on public order," Rached Ghannouchi told AFP.

"These people pose a threat not only to al-Nahda but to the country's freedoms and security.

"The police have learnt the lesson and I don't think there's going to be any repetition (this Friday)," he said.

Last week's violent demonstration outside the US embassy and adjacent American School took the security forces, who fired live rounds and tear gas in response, nearly three hours to bring under control.

In Tehran on Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he did not believe for one moment the repeated insistence of US officials that the administration had nothing to do with the offensive low-budget movie .

He said US government claims that it could do nothing to censor the film were a "deception" exploiting the pretext of freedom of expression.

He called the film an Israeli-hatched plot "to divide (Muslims) and spark sectarian conflict."

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)