CAIRO ? Protests inspired by a film that denigrates Islam continued around the Muslim world on Friday, as foreign governments struggled to contain the anti-American anger of their populations after days of violence and attacks on U.S. facilities.
In Cairo, hundreds of protesters gathered after midday prayers afternoon in Tahrir Square, just 350 yards from the fortress-like U.S. Embassy that was breached earlier this week.
Demonstrators skirmished with security forces who had constructed a massive concrete wall to block off one access road to the embassy, witnesses said, and the crowd was slowly growing as residents streamed in from around the city.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian government appealed for calm, with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi appearing on state television to call for restraint. State television also repeatedly played a Thursday message from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calling the made-in-America anti-Islam film ?disgusting and reprehensible.?
But Morsi?s Muslim Brotherhood organization was clearly struggling to address two constituencies on Friday: its conservative base, still furious at the U.S. government about the film, and an international audience warily contemplating future relations with Egypt.
Even as the organization sent out an English-language tweet at 11:53 AM local time (4:53 a.m. in Washington) saying that it ?cancels Friday?s nationwide protests, announces it will be present only in�#Tahrir, for symbolic protest against the movie,? an Arabic-language statement at 12:12 p.m. from Muslim Brotherhood secretary general Mahmoud Hussein called for protests ?in front of the mosques of the whole country ? to show the whole Egyptian people?s anger.?
In Sanaa, Yemen, where protesters on Thursday broke into the U.S. embassy compound there, breaking windows and looting offices, security had been bolstered on Friday, according to statements on Twitter from a Yemeni Embassy spokesman in Washington, Mohammed Albasha.
As the anti-U.S. demonstrations spread, the administration acted on a variety of fronts to convey two messages: that it had nothing to do with the offending video and that violence was not an acceptable response to the material.
In addition to the protests outside American facilities in several countries, an attack by militants on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Tuesday resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. diplomatic personnel. Although analysts believe the attack was premeditated, and not directly linked to anger over the video mocking the prophet Muhammad, the bloodshed added to the urgency as the Obama administration tried to restore calm.
?The U.S. government had absolutely nothing to do with this video,? Clinton said at a meeting in Washington on Thursday with a delegation from Morocco. ?We absolutely reject its content and messages. But there is no justification ? none at all ? for responding to this video with violence.?
The message went out from Washington throughout the day, in White House briefings, in speeches in Arab capitals and through official Web sites, e-mails and Twitter feeds from the State Department and its embassies around the globe.
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=2b3355ce0a2d468764228aeacc92095a
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