Afghanistan anti-Charlie Hebdo protest draws 20,000
The demonstrators burn French flags, chant death slogans against France, and demand Paris to apologize to Muslims
PROTEST. An Afghan demonstrator holds placards that read Muhammad during a protest against the printing of satirical sketches of the Prophet Muhammad by French magazine Charlie Hebdo in front of French Embassy in Kabul on January 22, 2015. Photo by Shah Marai/AFP
HERAT, Afghanistan At least 20,000 people protested in the western Afghan city of Herat on Friday, January 23, against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
The demonstrators burned French flags, chanted death slogans against France and demanded Paris apologize to Muslims in Afghanistan's biggest rally yet against the weekly.
A smaller protest was held in the capital Kabul, where a few demonstrators threw stones at the French embassy, prompting guards to fire one or two warning shots.
"No Muslim can tolerate insults to our beloved prophet Mohammed, we demand the French government apologize to all Muslims and punish those who have insulted Islam," said one protester in Herat.
There have been small, sporadic protests across Afghanistan since the magazine ran a cover image of the prophet with a tear in his eye, holding a sign saying "Je suis Charlie".
That "survivors' edition" followed an attack on the magazine's offices in Paris in which 12 people were gunned down by Islamist militants. The massacre triggered a huge outpouring of anger and grief on social media, much of it using the hashtag #jusuisCharlie."
An Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene in Herat and the provincial governor's spokesman Ehsanullah Hayat said the crowd was at least 20,000 strong.
In Kabul, several thousand people rallied in the city centre chanting "death to France, death to the enemies of Islam".
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Afghanistan anti-Charlie Hebdo protest draws 20,000