Nigerian Muslims appear not to be in a hurry to put an end to their protests over the controversial American film that paints Prophet Muhammad in bad light. The movie entitled Innocence of Muslims is produced by an Egyptian American known as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula and depicts Prophet Muhammad as a womaniser and a fraudulent person.

While the wave of global protests that greeted the movie has died down, Muslims in the city of Zaria, Kaduna State, in Nigeria’s north-central, today embarked on their own protest, during which they burnt American and Israeli flags. The filmmaker had earlier claimed to be a Jew but this was later found to be untrue.

A report this afternoon in the Lagos-based PM News said that thousands of Muslims participated in the Zaria protest.

“The protesters under the auspices of the pro-Iranian Shiite group Islamic Movement of Nigeria carried banners and placards denouncing the United States and Israel while calling for the prosecution of the film producers,” the report said, adding:

“They dragged the US and Israeli flags along the dusty streets and burnt them at the end of the 10-kilometre (eight-mile) march amidst cries of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel.’

“The film, apart from outward mockery on tenets and beliefs of Islam, presented Prophet Mohammed in a display of an unspeakable immoral manner and personality,” read a leaflet circulated by the group during the protest.

Armed policemen in vans escorted the protesters to ward off potential violence in the northern city that is home to Nigeria’s Vice President Namadi Sambo.

Zaria thus becomes the fourth Nigerian city to launch a protest against the film after Jos, Katsina and Sokoto.

News Express recalls that at least ten people have lost their lives in the protests trailing Nakoula’s film, among them the US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other diplomats during an attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, last week Wednesday.

*Photo shows a group of Nigerian Muslims during one of last week's protests.

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