Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah warned on Monday of “very dangerous” global repercussions if an anti-Islam film is released in its entirety, as the death toll from a week of violence sparked by the movie rose to 19.
An eruption of Muslim anger over a trailer of the American-made film that appeared on the Internet has spread across the world, taking hold on Monday in Afghanistan, Indonesia, the West Bank, the Philippines and Yemen.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets of southern Beirut to denounce the film at Nasrallah’s request, and the head of the powerful Shiite Muslim group surprised supporters by making a rare public appearance.
“O Prophet, we die for you, my soul and my blood are for you,” he said, urging the crowd to repeat the words after him for the whole world to hear.
Nasrallah, whose Lebanese movement is blacklisted in the United States as a terrorist group, has called for a week of protests across the country over the film, describing it as the “worst attack ever on Islam.”
“America must understand... the US must understand that releasing the entire film will have dangerous, very dangerous, repercussions around the world,” he told Monday’s rally.
