Iran faults U.S. for anti-Islam film

TEHRAN, Sept.15 (MNA) – The Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned on Wednesday a U.S.-made film which is insulting to the Prophet Muhammad (S), calling it an outrageous move. “The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns insult to Islamic sanctities and sympathizes with the Islamic ummah whose feelings have been hurt (by the film),” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. The film made by a California-based filmmaker has sparked violent protests in Libya, Egypt, and Egypt. According to Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew and who said he produced, directed, and wrote the two-hour film, “Innocence of Muslims,” the movie cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors. A number of students from universities across Tehran held a demonstration outside the Swiss Embassy on Thursday to condemn the sacrilegious act. Mehmanparast said the Islamic Republic of Iran considers the United States’ “systematic and continued silence” toward such outrageous moves as the main reasons for repetition of such sacrilegious acts. He added different documents by the United Nations and UNESCO insist on governments’ commitment to avoid cultural hatred and the U.S. is morally obliged to prevent the spread of cultural hatred and insults to lofty sanctities of the Islamic ummah. Angry protests across Middle East, North Africa On Thursday, protesters angered by the anti-Islam film briefly stormed the grounds of the U.S. embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. Police shot in the air in an attempt to hold back the crowds, but failed to prevent them gaining access to the compound and setting fire to vehicles. On Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, was killed in a fire started after the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was stormed. Three other U.S. consul staff and several Libyans died in that attack, along with the ambassador, who is believed to have died from smoke inhalation. According to the BBC, there have also been clashes over the past three days in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. On Wednesday, demonstrators in Cairo angry at the film breached the walls of the U.S. embassy and tore down the flag. The clashes, which began on Tuesday, continued in the early hours of Thursday morning.