- Status
An Iranian protester throws a stone at the Austrian Embassy in Tehran.
TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- A crowd of about 200 people pelted the Austrian Embassy in Tehran with petrol bombs and stones on Monday in a protest over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
The protesters, chanting "God is Greatest" and "Europe, Europe, shame on you," smashed all the diplomatic mission's windows with stones and then tried to hurl petrol bombs inside.
Austria currently holds the presidency of the European Union. Protesters also waved placards and shouted slogans against the EU's stance on Iran's nuclear program.
The bombs exploded in flames against metal grilles guarding the windows. But the building did not catch fire and the flames were quickly put out by police with fire extinguishers.
Danish diplomatic missions have been set ablaze and ransacked in Syria and Lebanon in recent days over the cartoons, which were first published in Denmark.
Dozens of police, many carrying riot shields, prevented the protesters from storming the building. The protest fizzled out after about an hour.
The Austrian Foreign Ministry said the Austrian cultural center building was also damaged but no injuries resulted.
The demonstration was announced in advance and organized by members of the official Basij militia, a volunteer force affiliated to the hardline Revolutionary Guards.
Trade ties
Iran has withdrawn its ambassador to Denmark and has said it plans to review trade ties with all countries where the cartoons were published.
But public protests about the cartoons in Iran had been limited to a few small rallies outside European embassies that have ended peacefully.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday criticized the argument of freedom of speech employed by European newspapers to justify publication of the cartoons.
"If your newspapers are free why do not they publish anything about the innocence of the Palestinians and protest against the crimes committed by the Zionists?" the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.
More than 200 lawmakers from Iran's 290-seat parliament also denounced the cartoons.
"Apparently, they have not learned their lesson from the miserable author of the Satanic Verses," they said in a statement carried on the official IRNA news agency.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual father of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa in 1989 ordering the murder of British writer Salman Rushdie for his book "The Satanic Verses" which many Muslims deemed blasphemous.
Although Iran's government promised Britain in 1998 that Tehran would not send an assassin to kill Rushdie, Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards pledge on every anniversary of the fatwa that Muslims will one day carry it out.
CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam.
Shame and Shame,
If these pictures (as some paranoid members here love to say) were a plot (by US and Zionism) to attack Muslims and insult their beliefs and try to get a violent reaction from them and thus degrading their image more in eyes of world:
Then I have to say, Job well done, they got exactly what they wanted. We just showed the world we are not capable of being civilized society and address our issues in peaceful manners. We showed them we are all about violence and burning and stone throwing and …
[FONT="]And we expect them to give us permission to have our hand on nuclear bombs[/FONT]
If these pictures (as some paranoid members here love to say) were a plot (by US and Zionism) to attack Muslims and insult their beliefs and try to get a violent reaction from them and thus degrading their image more in eyes of world:
Then I have to say, Job well done, they got exactly what they wanted. We just showed the world we are not capable of being civilized society and address our issues in peaceful manners. We showed them we are all about violence and burning and stone throwing and …
[FONT="]And we expect them to give us permission to have our hand on nuclear bombs[/FONT]
Chief said:
What's the problem you guys don't like charshanbesori!?!?!?
HeeH, that guy is really aiming for something with that stone, a future pitcher for sure
HeeH, that guy is really aiming for something with that stone, a future pitcher for sure
We know that you are ( or pretend to be) , umm, How can I put is politely, little handicap when it comes to intellectual conversation,
so no need for you to prove this fact by posting your little one liners about Charshanbeh sori under every thread of ISP.
We got it, point well taken
Chief said:
What's the problem you guys don't like charshanbesori!?!?!?
HeeH, that guy is really aiming for something with that stone, a future pitcher for sure
HeeH, that guy is really aiming for something with that stone, a future pitcher for sure
shame...
- Status