FREEDOM OF SPEECH ? - High alert at US embassies: Fear that anger at anti-Islam film may engulf Middle East

US embassies across the globe are tightening security after the ambassador to Libya died in a militia attack against the Benghazi consulate. The attack was sparked by a US film satirizing the Prophet Muhammad. Protests over the film are widening.

A US Marine Corps anti-terrorism group has been dispatched to Libya to boost security in the wake of the deadly assault, officials said Wednesday. The Tuesday night attack resulted in the death of John Christopher Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, and three other diplomatic staffers.

Besides ordering the roughly 50-member unit of the Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team to move in, Washington has also told all non-emergency US government personnel to leave the North African country and warned US citizens against travelling there.

Condemning the attack, the US urged all American embassies across the world to take extra precautions. Calls for more protests against the US-made amateur film mocking Islam are already being raised in Egypt, Afghanistan, Algeria and other countries.

In Tunisia, police fired teargas and tear bullets to disperse protesters outside the US embassy in the country 's capital. Around two hundred Salafist demonstrators gathered outside the premises in Tunis to condemn the controversial movie. Several American flags were put on fire and prayers were told for the embassy to be closed. After rallying peacefully for several hours, the demonstrators then attempted to break through the gates of the embassy compound, but were blocked by the police and army.

The Taliban called on Afghans Wednesday to prepare for a fight against Americans, and urged insurgents to "take revenge" on US soldiers.

"The Islamic Emirate calls on religious heads around the country to completely inform Muslim followers of the inhumane acts of Americans… And make them ready for a long-term fight," the group said in a statement.

Afghan authorities forced the country’s largest telecom service to restrict access to YouTube to prevent the controversial film from being viewed. Washington also asked Kabul for assistance maintaining calm over video. The service will continue to be blocked “until the video is taken down," Afghan officials said. Pakistan has reportedly followed suit.

The movie behind the recent outrage is the two-hour-long amateur film "Innocence of Muslims", which satirizes the life of the Prophet Mohammed. The movie claims the prophet was a fraud and a philanderer who, among other sins, approved of sexually abusing children.

After being uploaded to YouTube, the film sparked outrage among the international Muslim community and sent its director, Israeli-American Sam Bacile, into hiding. Bacile later commented that Islam is a “cancer” that threatens Israel, and therefore needed to be exposed to the world.

Lebanese political party Hezbollah condemned the film, calling on Muslims “to address the issue”. Dubbing the movie “an immoral act which represents the highest degree of aggression," the group urged the UN to prosecute anti-Islam acts as it does anti-Semitism.

Some 2,000 Egyptian demonstrators massed around the US embassy Tuesday night. After climbing the compound’s walls and tearing down the American flag, they hoisted a black banner bearing the traditional Islamic message: “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet.”

On Wednesday, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest political organization, urged “peaceful protests outside all the main mosques in all of Egypt's provinces.” The demonstrations are set for Friday, and “all national forces” are urged to join in, the group said.

Egyptian politicians have also voiced concerns that the film aims to incite sectarian violence in the country. Production is reported to have involved two US-based Coptic Christians, while Copts make up a powerful religious minority in Egypt.

Dubbing the movie a “racist crime,” Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party said that “both elements of the Egyptian people – Christians and Muslims – have been and will always be united in the face of such despicable attempts that seek to foment conflict in this homeland.”

iRacism: Apple refuses to sell products to US Persians (it's not all about Prophet!)

An American teen was unable to shop at an Apple store simply because she was speaking Farsi with her uncle. What seems to be a clear-cut case of ethnic profiling turns out to be in line with official company policy.

­Sabah Sabet, a 19-year old US citizen of Iranian extraction, and a student of the University of Georgia, took her uncle to buy an iPhone and an iPad at an Apple store in a mall in Alpharetta, Georgia, local news channel WSBTV reports.

But she was in for a shocker, as the store clerk refused to sell them the devices after he found out Sabet and her uncle were speaking Farsi.

“When we said ‘Farsi, I'm from Iran,’ he said, ‘I just can't sell this to you. Our countries have bad relations,’” Sabet recounted.

Sabet said the incident, which she describes as “discrimination” and “racial profiling,” was very hurtful and just as embarrassing.

“I actually walked out in tears,” she recalled.

Her experience is not unique. Zack Jafarzadeh was unable to buy an iPhone for his Farsi-speaking Iranian friend, studying in the US on a visa, at another Apple store in the Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, Georgia.

“We never talked about him going back to Iran or anything like that,” he noted. “He was just speaking full-fledged Farsi and the representative came back and denied our sale.”

He also stressed that the sales clerk was only concerned with the ethnicity of their client and not where the iPhone was going.

“I feel like this is a bit of racial profiling against Iranians, and I'm appalled,” Jafarzadeh said. “I would say if you're trying to buy an iPhone, don't tell them anything about Iran. That would be your best bet.”

The vendors at the stores in question said the decision not to sell the products to anyone from Iran was within the framework of the company’s policy.

Apple’s policy, posted on its official website, prohibits the exportation, sale or supply of any Apple goods, technologies to Iran, as well as North Korea, Cuba, Sudan and Syria without prior authorization from the US government. The policy also applies to a “US person, wherever located.”

However, the policy doesn’t seem to be very consistent. When Sabah Sabet called corporate customer relations, an employee apologized and said she would be able to buy what she wanted online.

American Muslim and Iranian advocacy organizations have already reacted to the surprising case of discrimination.

“Unfortunately, this is part of an escalating pattern in which increasingly broad sanctions on Iran are hitting the wrong people,” said Jamal Abdi, the Policy Direct of the National Iranian American Council, “Some of it is by design of Congress and the Administration, some of it is a lack of clarity about what is permitted, and some of it is over-enforcement of sanctions by private companies worried about running afoul of the law.”

“Apple must revise its policies to ensure that customers do not face discriminatory treatment based on their religion, ethnicity or national origin,” Nahad Awad, the National Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations stressed. “If the actions of these Apple employees reflected company policy, that policy must be changed and all employees retrained.”

Russia - Muslims lash out at ban on religious books

The Russian Council of Muftis has voiced its protest against banning some Muslim religious books in the country as extremist.

“We consider the prohibition of religious literature as an attempt at the revival of total ideological control,” the body said in a statement published on its website. “Such practice is unacceptable in a democratic society…and is an alarm signal for Russian citizens,” the council pointed out.

The Islamic scholars’ anxiety followed a ruling made earlier by a district court in Orenburg which banned 65 religious and historic books issued by “almost all Islamic publishers in Russia.”

According to the council, the prosecutor and the judge made the decision “behind-the-scenes”: not a single author, translator or publisher was invited to the trial as a defendant.

The copy of the ruling that came into force back in April was presented to booksellers at a recent book fair in Kazan, the muftis stated.

The body noted that Russian Muslim organizations do appreciate the law enforcement agencies’ efforts in countering extremism. However, there are occasions when Islamic religious literature is being put on the banned list. According to the Muftis Council, quite often the reason behind that is the lack of “unbiased, well-grounded, and thorough” and full expert conclusions.

“Russian Muslims believe that defining the list of extremist religious literature is the internal affair of each religious confession,” the Muftis’ statement reads. The expertise of religious organizations it required, they said, adding that it was the reason why expert councils – including that on religious literature – were created.

Muslim scholars stressed that religious literature “should not be blamed for existing social and political problems.” Only activities of organizations that violate the law must be legally suppressed, they underlined.

The Russian anti-extremism law has repeatedly come under fire for the lack of clarity. Last week, the Public Chamber together with representatives of Russian religious confessions urged amendments to the law. Under the initiative, all holy texts of registered religious organizations should be freed from accusations of extremism, wrote Kommersant daily.

“It’s not clear to anyone where exactly extremism begins,” said Aleksandr Verkhovsky, the director of the Sova Center for analysis. “The level of threat of an activity is not taken into account either. The law covers both terrorism and drawing filth on walls.”

In near future, the Public Chamber is set to come up with proposals on the improvement of the law, reported gazeta.ru.

If the initiative is supported by the State Duma deputies, the federal list of banned extremist materials might be reconsidered or even canceled.