American film offensive to Islam sparks anti-US protests across Muslim world

Adding to the death of the American ambassador to Libya and members of his staff in Benghazi on September 11, demonstrations condemning a film that insulted the Prophet Muhammad have spread to Egypt, Yemen, Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, Tunisia, Sudan, Morocco, and Mauritania, leading to four deaths in Yemen. Other Western embassies have also been attacked in Sudan.

IBA reported that the film that was released on the Internet and sparked the protests is called "Innocence of Muslims," and was produced by a California-based Jewish writer and producer. Most of Mosaic's broadcasters have reported that he is an Israeli American, leading to further anti-US and anti-Israel sentiment among Muslims.

Israel quickly denounced the film, with New TV reporting on Wednesday that the Israeli Foreign Ministry called it "unbearable extremism." Press TV noted that US President Barack Obama condemned the killings, but stopped short of condemning the film.

In addition to depicting the prophet Muhammad, which is strictly taboo in many interpretations of Islam, the film struck a nerve in the Muslim and Arab worlds for being American-made. Al Jazeera English discusses the nature of the protests, touching on the deep-seated anger of some citizens in the region regarding US foreign policy, especially in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Syrians come out for another round of Friday protests after a week of heavy shelling

As the new UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi visits Damascus for the first time since his appointment, cities and villages across Syria have continued to endure heavy army shelling, especially in and around Aleppo and Damascus. Algerie TV reported that the most recent statistics from the UNHCR indicate the number of Syrian refugees has surpassed 250,000, with 85,000 currently in Jordan.

Despite the daily attacks, BBC Arabic reported that on Friday, anti-regime demonstrations took place across Daraa, Idlib, the countryside of Damascus-- which the Syrian government says still harbors "terrorists" that they are trying to pursue-- and al-Hasaka Province, which has a Kurdish majority.

Newly-elected Somali president escapes assassination attempt

Hassan Sheikh Mahmud, who hails from the same tribe as departing president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, is the first Somali president to be elected within the country in more than two decades. However, BBC Arabic reported that just days after his election, he escaped two bombings that targeted the Mogadishu hotel in which he was residing. He was was meeting with Kenyan Foreign Minister Samson Ongeri at the time of the attack, which came as a surprise given the number of Somali and African Union forces protecting his hotel and convoy.

Image: Tunisian protesters burn the U.S. flag during a demonstration outside the U.S. embassy in Tunis September 12, 2012. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is facing immense pressure to step down from power to end the conflict in his country. Unfortunately, ending the Syrian conflict is not that easy. Syria, like most countries in the Middle East, has kept a precarious balance of power between religious and ethnic groups for centuries. Assad stepping down may be the drastic change that the Syrian people need, but it could also have disastrous consequences for some of these groups.

Let us examine two of the largest minority groups in Syria-- Alawites and Kurds-- and see how they fit into the scene of this ongoing conflict.

Alawites

The ruling al-Assad family is part of the Alawite community, which is a minority religious group in Syria and constitutes about 12 percent of Syria's population (2.1 million people). The term Alawite or Alawi comes from the name "Ali," referring to the fact that they are followers of Imam Ali bin Abi Taleb, a cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammad.

While Alawites are classified as a distant branch of Shia Islam, many Muslims consider Alawite practices, such as drinking wine and believing in reincarnation, to be heresy. As such, Alawites have long suffered persecution, and have taken to keeping their beliefs behind a veil of secrecy.

Alawites have held a disproportionate amount of Syria's political and economic power since Bashar's father Hafez seized power in the 1970s. Sunnis, who comprise about three-quarters of the population and ruled the area for centuries, have resented this imbalance. However, the mostly-Alawite Assad government has been largely tolerant of other ethnic and religious minorities. The government has also enjoyed the support of neighboring Shiite political groups, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Aside from Damascus, the Alawites of Syria are concentrated in the country's northwest, along the Mediterranean coast, in the provinces of Latakia and Tartus. They are joined by significant Alawite minorities in Turkey's southern Antakya Province (formerly Antioch) to their immediate north, and Lebanon's northernmost district of Akkar to their immediate south.

South of Akkar, the Jabal al-Mohsen neighborhood in Tripoli (Tarabulus) is also mostly Alawite in a bastion of conservative Sunnis, and has experienced clashes with the anti-Assad Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood for decades. The fighting in Tripoli has only increased with the escalation of the war in Syria.

Many Alawites in the country fear a backlash against their community if Bashar al-Assad were to step down from power. Even if they are not pro-Assad, they fear being "massacred" by Sunnis once they are no longer under the protection of the Syrian army.

Kurds

Most of Hasaka Governorate, which is in the northeastern tip of Syria, forms a small part of the geocultural region of Kurdistan. This historically Kurdish region includes the majority of southeastern Turkey, the northern border of Iraq, most of the western border of Iran, and a small portion of Armenia. There are some 30 million Kurds living in this region, making them the largest ethnic group in the world without their own country.

Kurds are also one of the largest ethnic minorities in Syria, consisting of about 10 percent of the Syrian population (2 million people). They have been regularly discriminated against by the Syrian government, and were considered stateless for decades until earlier last year, when Bashar al-Assad granted them Syrian citizenship in a bid to prevent them from joining the growing opposition against his regime. This bid was largely unsuccessful, and many Kurds have joined the uprising with the hope of securing their autonomy as a separate Kurdish state within Syria, if not establishing Kurdistan as a nation, to the dismay of neighboring countries.

When the fighting between regime forces and the Free Syrian Army intensified in western Syria this July, Syrian forces withdrew from the Kurdish northeast to strengthen their fronts against the FSA in western urban areas such as Aleppo and Damascus. The withdrawal left Syrian Kurds almost completely in control of their own region for the first time, much to Turkey's chagrin, which fears that the Kurdish region in Syria could become a haven for the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

At the moment, the region is one of the safest and most secure in the country, due in part to Kurds preventing both the Syrian army and the FSA from entering. However, many are worried that once the greater conflict is resolved, either the Syrian regime or the opposition will try to take back the Kurdish region, something that the newly-autonomous Kurds will not take kindly to.

Possible consequences of regime change

Neighboring countries fear that the fall of the Assad regime will lead to the fracturing of Syria along ethnic and religious lines, which would almost inevitably create complications in the greater region. King Abdullah of Jordan has said that the creation of an Alawite state along the predominantly-Alawite Syrian coast may be Bashar al-Assad's "Plan B." The creation of an independent Kurdish state in Syria's east may lead to more calls for Kurdish autonomy, even for a unified Kurdistan, in the surrounding Kurd-populated areas. Additionally, the influx of Syrian refugees will change the demographic makeup of the countries surrounding Syria, which could upset other precarious balances of power and lead to new conflicts years down the line.

Images:

1. Map showing the presence of Alawites in the three countries where they are found: Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon. NordNordWest and Supreme Deliciousness / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-1.0

2. Kurdish-inhabited area, by CIA (1992)

Lebanon: The successes of the Arab Spring have inspired Lebanese youth to fight for change in their country. Young activists began a campaign under the slogan: “The people want to topple the sectarian regime.” The campaign, which aims to replace Lebanon’s sectarian regime with a secular state, is having trouble getting off the ground. Optimists believe that the movement is simply in a rest period, and will soon pick up speed. Yet many others believe there is no hope for the slow-moving revolution. 

Bahrain: The Court of National Safety held trials today and issued a number of rulings against detained protestors. The court sentenced Ahmad Jassim Mohsen Ali to three years in prison for gathering in a public place with the aim of committing crimes and disrupting public order. Bahraini courts also began the trials of a number of medical professionals charged with treating wounded protestors. The Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society issued a statement saying that prosecuting medical staff in military courts for treating patients is a human rights violation. 

Yemen: It was announced today that President Ali Abdullah Saleh will return to Sana'a in two weeks after receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia for injuries sustained during last week’s attack on the presidential complex. Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is running the country's affairs on a temporary basis. The opposition coalition said it would support the transfer of power to the vice president. The Youth of the Revolution celebrated Saleh’s departure, which they consider a sign of victory for the first phase of their uprising. 

Syria: Syrian state TV has reported that "armed gangs" ambushed government security forces near the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shighur, killing 40 members. State TV reported that despite their losses, security forces were able to lift the siege imposed on the town by the gangs. This information came after human rights activists reported that twenty-five people, including police, had been killed in clashes in the same region. Foreign and independent media are greatly restricted in the region, causing conflicting reports to emerge from the country. 

Demonstrations and marches were held throughout Palestine on the 63rd anniversary of Israel’s founding in 1948, an event known in Arabic as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” Clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces at the Beit Hanoun border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. In Ramallah, thousands of Palestinians commemorated the Nakba amid calls to restore Palestinian rights.

In Syria, dozens of Palestinians crossed over into Majda al-Shams region of the occupied Golan Heights at the Syrian-Israeli border. Israeli sources reported that soldiers opened fire on people who entered the occupied Golan Heights region in violation of the border. Dozens were injured and killed in the clashes. Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, and Tunisia also witnessed Nakba marches in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

(Al Jazeera English: 1534 PT, May 15, 2011) Several people have been killed and scores of others wounded in the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Ras Maroun in Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as Palestinians mark the "Nakba," or day of "catastrophe."

The "Nakba" is how Palestinians refer to the 1948 founding of the state of Israel, when an estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled following Israel's declaration of statehood. Al Jazeera's Nisreen El Shamyleh reports.

Egypt Police Fire Tear Gas at Nakba Protest

(Al Jazeera English: 1707 PT, May 15, 2011) Egyptian police have fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo, after a group of demonstrators reportedly attempted to storm the building. Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith reports.

Marking Nakba

(Press TV: 0509 PT, May 16, 2011) Analysis of the Nakba protests from Iran's Press TV.

(Euronews: 0726 PT, May 11, 2011) Syrian tanks are reported to be shelling Homs, one of the country's biggest cities. Loud explosions were heard in the residential neighbourhood of Bab Amro. Syrian security forces are continuing their crackdown on anti-government protests. It's thought hundreds of people have been killed and thousands arrested after protests which began in Daraa in March.

The Syrian government says it is pursuing armed gangs of terrorists while a state news agency has reported that two soldiers have been killed in clashes in Homs and Deraa.

Weapons Sales to Syria 'Increase'

(Al Jazeera English: 0722 PT, May 11, 2011) Various weapons are available on Lebanon's black market, and arms trading is reportedly on the rise since the unrest in Syria began. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Beirut.

Today, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced the formation of a new government to be headed by Adel Safar. Current Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem and Minister of Defense Ali Habib will remain in their posts. The change will mostly affect the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Information, and the Ministry of Finance. According to the BBC, Syrian TV reported that President al-Assad also decided to release all those detained in connection to the latest events with the exception of those who committed crimes “against the homeland and the citizen.”

Al-Jazeera reports on the latest developments in Libya, where Gaddafi forces killed 23 people in the western city of Misurata. A spokesman for the revolutionaries said that most of the victims were killed while they were in line at a bakery to buy bread. The revolutionaries warned of a “massacre” in Misurata if NATO does not intervene by force to protect civilians from more shelling by Gaddafi’s battalions. 

The Bahraini Ministry of Justice has filed lawsuits to disband the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society and the Islamic Action Association, the two main opposition groups in Bahrain. Al-Alam reports that the February 14th Revolutionary Youth Coalition has called for protests in an attempt to break the siege imposed on the Suliamaniyah medical center. The coalition also called for massive sit-ins in front of the local mosques after Friday prayer. Meanwhile, joint Saudi-Bahraini forces have stormed the villages of Karizakan and Beni Jamra, fired tear gas at residents, and cut off the villages’ major roads.

Syria TV reports that a five-year-old girl in occupied Palestine was wounded when an Israeli settler hit her with his car in the West Bank town of Hebron. She was hit while playing near her home and was immediately taken to the hospital.

Today marks the 36th anniversary of the attack on a bus in Ain el-Remmaneh, considered to be the first spark of the Lebanese civil war. To commemorate the day, a group of youths are running a free bus service from Dawra to Hamra. One organizer told New TV that the free transportation service was to “allow people to tell us about their experiences and memories of the war,” so that the violent war may be “remembered but never repeated.”

Al-Jazeera reports from the coastal Syrian city of Banias, where women activists organized a protest demanding the release of hundreds of people arrested yesterday by security forces in Baida. According to the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, approximately 350 women were arrested. Eyewitnesses say that the city has been besieged by tanks and is suffering a food and fuel shortage.

The BBC reports that an international contact group on Libya met in the Qatari capital of Doha and has demanded that Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi step down. Participants of the meeting also stipulated that Gaddafi's troops withdraw from occupied cities. The British government faced criticism for allowing Libya's former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who fled to Britain last month, to leave the country to attend the international contact group meeting.

Several more people were killed today in clashes between Yemeni security forces and the "Youth of the Revolution" in the cities of Sana’a and Aden. Al-Alam reports that throughout Yemen, demonstrators chanted slogans demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh immediately step down and be prosecuted. They also publicly rejected the initiative proposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council because it excludes taking legal action against Saleh and does not ensure his removal from office until the next presidential election in 2013.

Dubai TV reports that the Egyptian state prosecutor has ordered the detention of former President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons for 15 days, pending an investigation into allegations of corruption and inciting the murder of protestors. While Gamal and Alaa Mubarak were taken to Tora Prison in Cairo, Hosni Mubarak was taken to the hospital yesterday after suffering from a heart attack during questioning.

Bahraini authorities have ordered the deportation of a group of Lebanese citizens to occur within the week, according to Future TV. The Lebanese ambassador to Bahrain, Aziz al-Qazi, announced that 19 Lebanese citizens have been told to leave Bahrain without being given a reason. Among them is Anis Hamdan, the son of former Lebanese ambassador Zuheir Hamdan, who has lived in Bahrain for six years.

Syria TV reports today from the West Bank, where Israeli occupation forces continue the siege on Orda village, east of Nablus, after claiming the village was a closed military zone. According to the report, occupation forces imposed a curfew, searched a number of homes, and arrested a young Palestinian and his brother. Syria TV also interviews the Freedom Flotilla II Coalition, who say they will sail to Gaza as scheduled in mid-May despite continued threats from Israel.

French forces have been evacuating Lebanese nationals in Ivory Coast, where violence and looting is widespread. Future TV reports that several Lebanese citizens were injured and two sustained serious injuries. The Lebanese ambassador to Ivory Coast, Ali Ajami said that about 85 Lebanese evacuated the capital Abidjan onboard French military planes. Prime Minster Saad al-Hariri also met with Jordanian King Abdullah II to discuss the possibility of Jordanian forces participating in the UN intervention mission in Abidjan to provide protection and aid to the Lebanese nationals there.

The BBC reports from Libya, where the revolutionaries and Gaddafi’s troops have reached a stalemate in the eastern oil city of Brega. While the intervention by international coalition forces has prevented Gaddafi’s troops from advancing, it has not succeeded in helping the opposition make any significant progress.

Yemen’s Taiz province witnessed renewed confrontations today. Eyewitnesses said that security forces and men disguised in civilian clothing attacked thousands of protestors, who responded by throwing stones. Al-Jazeera reports that over 400 people were injured and transported to Taiz's field hospital. This escalation comes as the Yemeni authorities accepted the invitation by the Gulf Cooperation Council to hold talks in Riyadh with the opposition. Opposition leaders said they will only accept the invitation if Saleh steps down.

Tonight, al-Alam’s report focuses on Saudi Arabia and its controversial role in Middle Eastern affairs in recent months. The report accuses Saudi Arabia of undermining the security and stability of the region and of working to suppress popular uprisings of various countries.

Dubai TV reports on the assassination of political activist and director of The Freedom Theater, Juliano Mer Khamis. Palestinians described his assassination as “an attempt to assassinate the national Palestinian culture and identity.” Palestinian sources said that an unkown masked gunman shot Mer Khamis and that an investigation is underway. Mer Khamis founded the Freedom Theater in Jenin, and devoted his life to the promotion of Palestinian art and culture. Read more about Mer Khamis on Link TV's blog here. 

(Euronews: 0028 PST, March 7, 2011) Lebanese protesters have called for an end to the country's sectarian political system. Around 8,000 demonstrated outside the electricity ministry. They claimed it was a symbol of the corruption the long-established division of power among religious sects had produced.

Lebanon's constitution says the president must be a Maronite Christian, and the prime minister a Sunni Muslim. Critics say dividing power this way has fuelled self interested alliances.