U.S., French, Israeli flags burned during Baku protest against Muhammad cartoons
BAKU. Jan 21 (Interfax) - Several hundred people who gathered on a square in a Baku suburb on Wednesday condemned cartoons in French weekly Charlie Hebdo satirizing Islamic prophet Muhammad and burned flags of the United States, France, Israel and Armenia, local media said.
The protesters held up banners reading, "Islam is not defenseless," "France is afraid of Islam," and "Long Live the Prophet!"
They urged the Azeri Foreign Ministry to state its position on what they described as an insult to Muhammad, slammed the "double standards" of the United States and its alleged support for the Nagorno-Karabakh separatists, and accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of letting militants pass to Syria through Turkey.
Speakers at the rally claimed that both the attack on Charlie Hebdo's Paris headquarters and the new Muhammad cartoons were anti-Islamic conspiracies.
The rally, held in Nardaran suburb, had not been permitted by the authorities but there were no police visible anywhere near.