Muslims protest 'age of mockery' as thousands
descend on Google HQ
Thousands of Muslims have pledged a series of protests against Google HQ for a "hateful and offensive" anti-Islam video, saying they now live in an "age of mockery".
3:52PM BST 14 Oct 2012
A protest by 10,000 Muslims outside the offices of Google in London today is
just the first in an orchestrated attempt to force the company to remove an
anti-Islamic film from website YouTube in Britain.
Thousands
had travelled from as far afield as Glasgow to take part in the demonstration,
ahead of a planned million-strong march in Hyde Park in coming weeks.
The scene outside the Google
offices in Buckingham Palace Road, London. (GEOFF PUGH)
Anger
over 'The Innocence of Muslims', an American-produced film which insults the
Prophet Mohammad and demeans Muslims, according to protesters, remains
available to watch on the website YouTube, a subsidiary of Google.
Organiser
Masoud Alam said: "Our next protest will be at the offices of Google and
YouTube across the world. We are looking to ban this film.
"This
is not freedom of expression, there is a limit for that. This insult of the
Prophet will not be allowed.
The
group's next action was a march Mr Alam hoped would be "a million
strong" would take place in Hyde Park "in the next few weeks",
he said.
"Until
it is banned we will keep protesting," he added.
Today's
demonstration was the third organised in a month, and took place on the central
London street where the website search giant has its UK headquarters.
A
demonstration outside the American Embassy in London last month drew little
attention as protests in Libya, Tunisia and Yemen dominated headlines,
including
the storming of embassy in Benghazi, Libya, that led to the death of the US
Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.
Barricades
were erected in front of Google's headquarters and a crowd bearing placards
with the words "We love our prophet more than our lives" and
"Prophet Muhammad is the founder of freedom of speech" had amassed by
lunchtime.
Speeches
by more than a dozen imams in a mixture of Arabic, Urdu, and English urged
Muslims to honour the name of the Prophet and not to back down in the face of
Google's continuing reluctance to act, and were met with passionate cries of
"God is Great" and "Mohammad is the Prophet of God" in
Arabic.
One of
the speakers, Sheikh Faiz Al-Aqtab Siddiqui, told The Daily Telegraph:
"Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human
feelings as well. The makers of this film have terrorised 1.6 billion people.
"Organisations
like Google are key players and have to take responsibility for civility. You
can't just say it doesn't matter that it's freedom of speech. It's
anarchy."
Sheikh
Siddiqui, a barrister from Nuneaton, said he wanted to form a coalition with
the Church of England, Catholics, Jewish groups, Trade Unions and even
Conservatives to encourage their ranks to join his "campaign for
civility".
"We
want everyone in society to recognise these people are wrecking our fragile
global society. We want the Church, the Synod, Jewish groups and establishment
figures involved," he said.
As many
as 800 imams in mosques across Britain helped to organise today's protest,
which lasted four hours and blocked roads almost up to the Queen's doorstep on
Buckingham Palace Road.
Muslims
from Blackburn, Birmingham, Glasgow, Luton, Manchester and Peterborough were in
attendance. When asked where where the women attending the protest were, one
protester replied: "Right at the back".
Self-employed
businessman Ahmed Nasar said he was worried the video could lead to violence in
Britain in the same way as it had abroad. "If you push people too
far," he said, "You will turn the peaceful elements into
violence."
A
YouTube spokesperson said: "We work hard to create a community everyone
can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions.
"This
can be a challenge because what's OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere.
This video - which is widely available on the Web - is clearly within our
guidelines and so will stay on YouTube."
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