* State media says 16 injured in clashes near embassy
* Mursi condemns Prophet insult, vows to protect foreigners
* President in Brussels, EU says to help embattled economy
(Adds Obama, Clinton comments)
By Edmund Blair and Marwa Awad
CAIRO, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Egypt’s president said on
Thursday he supported peaceful protest but not attacks on
embassies after Egyptians angry at a film deemed insulting to
the Prophet Mohammad climbed into the U.S. embassy in Cairo and
tore down the American flag.
Highlighting the challenge facing President Mohamed Mursi,
protesters threw stones at police blocking their approach to the
fortress-like embassy near Tahrir Square, even as his televised
address was broadcast on Thursday. Police fired tear gas back.
Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered in the area, but a
smaller group of those joined battles with police. The Health
Ministry said 70 people were injured, according to the state
news agency, and 23 people were detained.
Many Muslims believe depicting the Prophet is blasphemous.
In the past, cases where the Prophet was insulted have stirred
condemnation and protests across the Islamic world.
“Expressing opinion, freedom to protest and announcing
positions is guaranteed, but without assaulting private or
public property, diplomatic missions or embassies,” said Mursi,
an Islamist who is Egypt’s first freely elected president.
He pledged to protect foreigners in Egypt, a comment he
repeated during a news conference in Brussels where he was
making his first European trip to build ties with European Union
states and secure support for Egypt’s embattled economy.
The EU offered Egypt macro-economic aid of 500 million euros
($644.4 million) and between 150 million and 200 million euros
for economic recovery.
The U.S. embassy assault will test Mursi’s handling of ties
with the West and particularly the United States, a close ally
of Egypt under ousted President Hosni Mubarak and which has long
been wary of Islamists. Washington is a major aid donor to
Cairo. Mubarak was toppled in popular protests last year.
U.S. President Barack Obama told a Spanish-language network
that Egypt’s Islamist-led government should not be considered a
U.S. ally “but we don’t consider them an enemy.” U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton said the film was “disgusting” and that
the U.S. government had nothing to do with it.
Mursi also needs to strike a balance by addressing the anger
over a film that portrayed the Prophet as a philanderer and
religious fake, enraging Muslims across the region.
CALL FOR U.S. ACTION
The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other staff were
killed when the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was attacked on
Tuesday. Since then, police have fired tear gas at protesters in
Tunisia and demonstrators stormed the U.S. mission in Yemen.
“All of us Egyptians reject any form of attack or insult to
the Prophet,” Mursi said, while offering his condolences over
the killing of the U.S. ambassador and diplomats in Libya.
Mursi said he had spoken to U.S. President Barack Obama on
Thursday. “I affirmed to him the need for deterrent legal
measures against those who want to damage relations between
peoples, and particularly between the people of Egypt and the
people of America,” he said.
In another statement, Mursi said he expects “assurances from
the U.S. government to prevent any infringement on the sacred.”
At least one of the promoters of the film “Innocence of
Muslims” is an Egyptian Coptic Christian who lives in America.
Clips of the film have circulated on the Internet for weeks.
Clashes with police flared on Wednesday and protesters
continued hurling rocks and dodging teargas canisters on
Thursday. A Reuters witness said some carried petrol bombs in
overnight scuffles. Several police vehicles were torched.
Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal el-Din visited the scene, the
state news agency reported.
The U.S. embassy in Cairo was closed for public business
again on Thursday. In a security message on its website, the
embassy urged U.S. citizens in Egypt to be vigilant and said
they should “avoid areas where large gatherings may occur”.
The U.S. embassy is close to Tahrir, the cauldron of the
anti-Mubarak protests and scene of many protests since. Streets
around the square have often become battlegrounds with police.
MIXTURE OF PROTESTERS
Washington has a big mission in Egypt, partly because of a
huge aid programme that followed Egypt’s signing of a peace
treaty with Israel in 1979. The United States gives $1.3 billion
to Egypt’s military each year and offers the nation other aid.
The demonstrators were a mixed crowd. Some were angry at the
police for barring the way to the embassy. A few were Christians
who turned up in solidarity with Muslim compatriots. Others said
their main goal was to demonstrate against police repression.
The earlier protest included many backers of ultra-orthodox
Islamist groups but there was little sign of them on Thursday.
“We came here because of the insult to the Prophet,” said
Farag Ragheb, 26, clutching stones and fleeing a gas plume. “We
were next to the American embassy in a peaceful protest and the
police intervened. Don’t we have the right to protest?”
The scene was similar to other street battles, though less
intense, since Mubarak fell. “They are just the same as before,”
shouted one young man, pointing to the police cordon.
“We are all revolutionaries and here because of repression
of the police,” said 25-year-old Yahya, who had stripped off his
T-shirt to wrap round his face to protect himself from tear gas.
He added: “The Prophet is more important than anything.”
A few who were asked said they had seen clips of the film.
Several said they had not seen it and did not know its name.
Some said it would be wrong to watch the film at all.
The Coptic Orthodox church and Egypt’s highest seat of
Islamist learning, Al-Azhar, have both condemned the film.
($1 = 0.7759 euros)
(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed, Tamim Elyan, Mohamed
Abdellah and Omar Fahmy in Cairo and Charlie Dunmore in
Brussels; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
