Around 1,500 people protested in
one of the Philippines' main Muslim-majority cities on Wednesday
against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo's caricatures of the
Prophet Mohammed, police said.
Local
politicians, teenaged students and women with veils covering their faces
packed the main square in Marawi in the southern Philippines, some
raising their fists in the air as a Charlie Hebdo poster was burnt.
"What
had happened in France, the Charlie Hebdo killing, is a moral lesson
for the world to respect any kind of religion, especially the religion
of Islam," organisers said in a statement released during the three-hour
rally.
"Freedom of expression does not extend to insulting the noble and the greatest prophet of Allah."
A
group calling itself "Boses ng Masa", or Voice of the Masses organised
the rally, which attracted about 1,500 people, Marawi police officer
Esmail Biso told AFP.
He said non-government organisations and a local school owner were behind the group.
Twelve
people including eight Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and journalists and
two police officers were killed last week after Islamist militants
struck the magazine's Paris office, in an attack that has sparked
outrage worldwide.
The attacks triggered giant rallies in support
of Charlie Hebdo's victims and the right to publish images of Mohammed,
which is deemed blasphemous for Muslims.
The protest in the Philippines was one of first reported worldwide since the violence to express outrage at Charlie Hebdo.
The
protesters carried streamers in with the words "You are Charlie"
written in French, in response to the "I am Charlie" cry of those who
condemned the attack.
One of the streamers read: "France must apologise", while another read: "You mock our prophet, now you want an apology?"
Muslims
are a minority in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, with most
living in remote southern regions they regard as their ancestral
homeland.
The nation's
biggest Muslim rebel group signed a peace deal with the government in
2013, ending decades of fighting for an independent state.
However
other Islamic militant groups operate in the south, some of whom have
had backing from Al-Qaeda or pledged allegiance to the Islamic State
group.
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