AFP/Amman


Muslims marched yesterday in Middle Eastern cities against a new cartoon of Prophet Muhammad published by French magazine Charlie Hebdo, as Gulf states warned the drawing could fuel hatred.
The largest rally was in Jordan, where around 2,500 protesters took to the streets of the capital Amman amid tightened security, while demonstrations also took place in East Jerusalem and Khartoum.  
The crowd, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood and youth groups, set off from Al-Husseini mosque in central Amman holding banners that read “insulting the Prophet is global terrorism”.
The latest issue of Charlie Hebdo, published on Wednesday, features a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad on its cover.
It was the first edition of the satirical magazine to be published since Islamist gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on its Paris offices on January 7 over such cartoons.
Qatar condemned the cartoon, which was also reprinted by several European papers.
“These disgraceful actions are in the interest of nobody and will only fuel hatred and anger,” the foreign ministry warned, describing them as a “violation of human values of peaceful co-existence, tolerance, justice, and respect among people”.
Bahrain’s foreign ministry echoed the warning, saying publication of such cartoons “will create fertile ground for the spread of hatred and terrorism”.
Charlie Hebdo’s latest cartoon is “disgraceful” and no more than an attempt to “provoke” Muslims and “mock” their beliefs, it said.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Thursday said the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo was “irresponsible and reckless”.
Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound yesterday, some with banners reading “Islam is a religion of peace!” and “Our leader will forever be Muhammad”.
Israeli security forces, which control access to the compound—the focal point of months of Jewish-Muslim tensions in the Holy Land—said Friday prayer passed off without incident, and there were no initial reports of violence linked to the demonstration afterwards.
In Khartoum, hundreds of demonstrators poured out of the Grand Mosque and marched across the adjacent square, chanting “Expel the French ambassador, victory to the Prophet of God!”.
One banner in Arabic said: “The French government should apologise and the French government must stop insults to religious figures”.
In Lebanon’s northern flashpoint city of Tripoli, 70 people staged a march carrying banners bearing the name of the Prophet and chanting “Allahu Akbar”.
In Baddawi, on the northern outskirts of the city, prayer leader Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahimi addressed hundreds of worshippers saying: “May God punish this newspaper and those who back it.”  
A protest against the cartoon in Tehran was cancelled, with no official reason given, as senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ali Movahedi Kermani told worshippers its publication amounted to “savagery”.
In Tunis, worshippers at El Fath mosque interrupted prayer leader Noureddine Khadmi as he delivered a sermon saying: “We are all against insults made against our Prophet but it is not a reason to kill.”
Charlie Hebdo journalists “deserved to be killed because they insulted our Prophet many times”, the worshippers cried out.
Saudi Arabia’s top religious body, the Council of Senior Ulema, also criticised the new publication of Muhammad cartoons that it said “have nothing to do with the freedom of creativity or thought”.
Its secretary general Fahd al-Majid warned that publishing such images would only “serve extremists who are in search of excuses for killing and terrorism”.