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Loading...American Flag Torn Down at US Embassy in Cairo
An American flag at the US Embassy in Cairo was torn down and replaced with an Islamic one by demonstrators who breached the compound’s wall today, September 11. Almost 3,000 protesters, mostly hardline Islamist Salafists and ultras — members of soccer clubs who played a large role in the uprisings that brought down Hosni Mubarak in February of 2011 — gathered outside the embassy, which is not far from Tahrir Square, to protest a US-made film that is said to insult the Prophet Muhammad.
The Islamist flag said that “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.” Demonstrators also scrawled “There is no God but God” on the walls of the embassy.
The US flag, which had been flying at half-mast in commemoration of 9/11, was torn up and some of its pieces displayed for television cameras while others were burned, according to the Reuters.
Which film had angered the protesters was “not immediately clear,” said Reuters. According to the website Stand Up America, Terry Jones, the pastor who earlier this year burned copies of the Koran and angered Muslims, was to be at a Tuesday event called ”International Judge Muhammad Day” in Florida that “would symbolically put the prophet on trial and play it live over the Internet.”
The BBC said that Jones was one of the producers of the film; Al-Jazeera reported that the film was also “produced by expatriate members of Egypt’s Christian minority resident in the United States.”
US Embassy officials had no immediate comment about the incident on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, they had issued a statement that condemned “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.” The statement also said that the US “firmly reject[s] the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others” and emphasized that “respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy.”
About 10 percent of Egypt’s 83 million people are Christian. On an Egyptian state website, Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church condemned efforts by some Copts living outside Egypt “to finance the production of a film insulting Prophet Muhammad.”
A handful of protesters were still sitting on the wall of the embassy on Tuesday evening. Riot police surrounded the compound and “there was no sign of any confrontation,” said the BBC.
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Read more: cairo, coptic, egypt, islamist, religion, religious tolerance, salafist
AP Photo/Nasser Nasser; AP Photo/Mohammed Abu Zaid
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164 comments
+ add your ownHere is another example of a CHICKEN SHIT Ambassador and US Government, allowing an "invasion" of US Embassy. The US Marines on duty should have shot and killed ALL THE INVADERS.
Bull , Free Speech!! It's Not what it meant to us - It's what it means to them - And it is giving them more courage to do - "What" - Attach the embasy itself??
Try tearing down and burn their flag and calling it free speech..
"Anytime anyone pokes the slightest criticism at the overwhelmingly hypersensitive followers of Islam, they act like a bunch of crybabies of a mob mentality.."
Strangely enough, Americans react in exactly the same way.
We across the pond sometimes amuse ourselves by winding up you lot - it's so very easy to do.
Michael, what did I say that wasn't true? That 4 Americans were murdered? That Obama went to Vegas for a fund raiser on the night of 9/11? Both are very true!
Radical Islam has nothing to do with numbers and percentage. It has to do with deeds, influence and education which is the reason for its spreading. All you readers should have a look at the site which translates the Arab/Moslem media. MEMRI http://www.memritv.org/
Sarah your vapid rants are devoid of truth and express opinions that have no validity and are tiresome.
This was happening, Americans had been murdered, where was Obama? He went to Vegas for a fund raiser! Where is his leadership? It is like Clint Eastwood said we have an empty chair for a president!
What is he doing to keep us safe? NOTHING!!!!!!
No religion holds patent or copyright in being zealots.
As to flag burning itself , it's considered free speech.
It is a total outrageous & disgraceful thing to tear down our flag, to burn it and show such hatred all at the same time. This is UNACCEPTABLE!!! You zealots "your days are numbered"
Religions of all stripes left to the business of faith are fairly benign. It's typically but when they become the tools of politics,power and greed that the bodies and wreckage start piling up.
Islamic,Jewish and Christian faiths are all born of the exact same Abrahamic roots, so either is about as true or false as the other.
Each has been found being used as a tool of violence, manipulation and greed throughout time as obviously religions being collections of followers is an irresistible target for those seeking large groups to carry their ambitions far afield of simple topics of religious faith.
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