ROME (Reuters) - The row over controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad forced two ministers out of their jobs in Europe and the Middle East on Saturday after clashes between police and protesters claimed 11 lives in Libya.
The protest in Benghazi was the bloodiest so far over caricatures of the Prophet that Muslims regard as blasphemous.
Initially resisting calls for his resignation, Italian Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli stepped down after he was widely blamed for bloody clashes in Libya over cartoons of the Prophet which he had made into T-shirts and wore on television. (Can you believe this? The tension has been building up quite a bit around this issue the past few weeks. I find it hard to imagine how insensitive, foolish and totally provocative some people can be!)
In Tripoli, the General People's Congress fired Interior Minister Nasser al-Mabrouk Abdallah and police chiefs in Benghazi saying "disproportionate force" had been used to disperse protesters who tried to storm the Italian consulate.
The Congress hailed the dead as "martyrs" and declared Sunday a day of mourning across Libya.
Italian diplomats in Tripoli said Libyan authorities had told them at least 11 were dead and nearly 40 wounded.
After Calderoli resigned, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi spoke with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi by phone. "(They) fully agreed that this serious episode must not affect in a negative way the friendly relations between Italy and Libya," Berlusconi's office said in a statement.
As thousands of Muslims rallied in central London to keep up the cycle of cartoon protests around the world, there was fresh bloodshed in Pakistan when four people were wounded in gunfire at a demonstration in the central Punjab region.
Protests in Pakistan this week have resulted in at least five deaths, and on Friday it became the latest country where Denmark has decided to temporarily close its embassy. Denmark urged any Danes in Pakistan to leave as soon as possible.
In a bid to harness the escalating violence, Pakistan on Saturday banned protests in Islamabad. As the ban was introduced the country's main Islamist alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), said it would go ahead with its Sunday demonstration,
"The rally will be held in Islamabad. It will be a peaceful rally," Shahid Shamsi, an MMA spokesman said.
Read more about this: CNN, BBC and Reuters. The cartoons.
1 comment:
so what do you feel should be done? you summarize what is going on, what do you feel people should DO?
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