CAIRO -- Egypt's president says it's up to
Muslims as part of their Islamic duty to protect embassies and foreign
diplomats who are guests in the country.
Mohammad
Morsi made the appeal on state TV on Friday, ahead of expected protests
across the Muslim world over an anti-Islam film ridiculing the Prophet
Muhammad.
As he spoke, riot police fired tear
gas and clashed with about 100 protesters a few blocks from the U.S.
Embassy in Cairo. Protests in the Egyptian capital have been ongoing
since Tuesday, when an angry crowd scaled the embassy's walls and took
down and tore the American flag.
The film Innocence of Muslims
has prompted violent protests at U.S. Embassies in the Middle East,
resulting in the death of the American ambassador and three staff in
Benghazi, Libya, on Tuesday.
In Turkey,
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the deadly attack in
Libya, saying it will harm Muslims around the world.
Erdogan
said Friday that Islam as a religion "condemns terror acts that harm
the innocent" and exhorted Muslim believers to condemn it.
But Erdogan also criticized the film.
Erdogan
told participants at an international conference in Ukraine that
"insults to Islam's noble values and to the Prophet cannot be assessed
within freedom of thought and faith."
In
Indonesia, leaders and a prominent cleric have urged calm in the world's
largest Muslim majority nation ahead of expected protests over the
film.
Jakarta police spokesman Col. Rikwanto
says the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta did not request any increased security,
but 250 riot police have been put on alert.
The
embassy issued an email to American citizens saying a demonstration
with an estimated 300 people was expected after Friday prayers.
Associated Press