Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made a rare public appearance today to tell the United States it would face more anger and grave repercussions across the Muslim world unless it suppressed a film that demeans the
Prophet Mohammad.
Arguing that the world had not yet grasped the depth of hurt felt by Muslims, Nasrallah called on governments to block access to websites showing the film, which was made in California and depicts Mohammad as a womaniser, homosexual and child abuser.
"They slandered the purity of his birth, slandered his faith and his morals, slandered his Quran," Nasrallah told tens of thousands of cheering supporters, who had marched through southern Beirut's Shia suburbs to protest against the film.
"The distribution of this entire film must be banned by the Americans," he said, to roars of applause.
The influential leader, surrounded by armed bodyguards, spoke to tens of thousands of Lebanese protesters waving Lebanese flags and yellow Hezbollah banners. "America, hear us - don't insult our prophet!" they shouted. "Enough humiliation!"
Nasrallah's emergence from hiding lent more drama to his warnings. Fearing assassination, the Hezbollah leader has seldom appeared in public since 2006, when the powerful Shia group's militant wing fought a month-long war with Israel.
"The world should know our anger would not be a passing outburst but it would be the start of a serious movement that would continue on the level of the Muslim nation to defend the Prophet of God," Nasrallah said.
He called for websites to stop publishing clips said to be a trailer for the amateurishly made movie called "Innocence of Muslims," although no full length film has materialised.
The greater goal, Nasrallah said, would be for the international community to agree to criminalise insults to any religion and its prophets.
Nasrallah warned of the danger of unleashing further rage if the full-length film emerged.
"America, which uses the pretext of freedom of expression..., needs to understand that putting out the whole film will have very grave consequences around the world."
The Hezbollah-led protests came after a week of violent demonstrations across Arab capitals, in which several US embassies were attacked, but they stayed well away from the US mission in Beirut and the entire procession finished peacefully.
Elsewhere, protesters in Afghanistan and Indonesia burnt US flags and chanted "Death to America" today in renewed demonstrations over the film.
Police fired in the air to break up a crowd marching on the US consulate in the Pakistani city of Karachi while in Afghanistan and Indonesia people burnt US flags and chanted "Death to America".
Pakistani prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf ordered the suspension of YouTube in the country today over the video.
Mr Ashraf's office said in a statement that the Ministry of Information had been ordered to block YouTube so that the video could not be viewed.
"The direction has been given after YouTube refused to heed to the advice of the government of Pakistan to remove blasphemous material from its site," said Mr Ashraf's office.
"The prime minister said that blasphemous material would not be tolerated and the services of YouTube would remain suspended till removal of blasphemous material."
Indonesian police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who massed outside the US embassy in Jakarta, capital of the most populous Muslim nation.
In Kabul, thousands of protesters took to the streets, setting fire to cars and shops and throwing stones at police. "We will defend our prophet until we have blood across our bodies. We will not let anyone insult him," said one protester in the Afghan capital. "Americans will pay for their dishonour."
Police put the number of demonstrators at between 3,000 and 4,000 but said police had the situation under control.
Embassies in central Kabul, including the US and British missions, were placed on lockdown and violence flared near fortified housing compounds for foreign workers.
In violence last week, the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in an attack in Benghazi and US and other foreign embassies were stormed in several cities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East by enraged Muslims. At least nine other people have been killed.
The United States has sent ships, extra troops and special forces to protect its interests and citizens in the Middle East, while a number of its embassies have evacuated staff and are on high alert for trouble.
The situation poses an unexpected foreign policy headache for US President Barack Obama as he campaigns for re-election in November, even though his administration has condemned the film as reprehensible and disgusting.
Despite efforts early in his tenure to improve relations with the Arab and Muslim world, he faces a number of problems including the continued US military involvement in Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear programme, the Syrian civil war and the fall-out from the Arab Spring revolts.
The renewed protests today dashed any hopes that the furore over the film might fade despite an appeal from the senior cleric in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines, for calm over the weekend.
Rallies also took place in London, Australia, Turkey and Pakistan yesterday, showing the global scale of the outrage.
The identity of those directly responsible for the film is still murky. Clips posted online since July have been attributed to a man named Sam Bacile, which two people connected with the film have said was probably an alias.
A White House spokesman said president Obama spoke by telephone to senior diplomats at the weekend to reassure them of his support.
"He called the chiefs of mission in Sudan, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen to let those diplomats know that he was thinking about them, that their safety remains a top priority of his, and it is something he will remain focused on," spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Agencies