Lebanese Burn Danish Embassy
Denmark is urging its citizens in Lebanon to leave as soon as possible. According to the BBC, 2,000 riot police were needed to disperse the crowd, using tear gas and water cannons. 18 people were injured. The embassy caught fire when protesters broke into it.
According to ABCNEWS protesters also threw stones at a Maronite church. According to the same source, protests have also turned up in New Zealand of all places as the anger spreads across the earth like a wild fire.
Protesters also took to the streets in Afghanistan, the West Bank, Iraq and New Zealand, a day after demonstrators in Syria charged security barriers outside the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and sent the buildings up in flames.
What's more is that Syria ("secular" Syria) has blamed Denmark for the violence that took place there yesterday, because the Danes have not apologized for the cartoons. I wouldn't be surprised if the Syrian government arranged for those rallies to start with.
The Lebanese PM, Fuad Seniora has called for peaceful protests, and the BBC article notes that many that were present at the rally had not expected the sort of barbarism that occurred.
"Those who are committing these acts have nothing to do with Islam or with Lebanon," he said. "This is absolutely not the way we express our opinions."
What is very troubling is that the protesters did not even stop at destroying the Danish embassy, they stoned the St. Maron Maronite church and destroyed property in a Christian neighborhood. It seems just to be mindless violence, overtaking any reasonable thought or condition. The violence against the Christian church and neighborhood likely stems from the longstanding inter-communal tension in Lebanon, and the "cartoon crisis" has probably not done much to alleviate these.
Who wants to reckon where the next embassy will burn?
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