Muslims protest weekly\\\'s prophet cartoon

NIAMEY, Jan 17 (agencies): Muslim anger flared over a French satirical weekly's latest caricature of the Prophet Muhammad, with four people reported killed and dozens injured at a protest Friday in the West African country of Niger, and violent clashes between demonstrators and police in Pakistan, Jordan and Algeria.
At least two churches were torched in Niger's capital Saturday as protests raged on against the publication of a Prophet Mohammed cartoon by the French weekly Charlie Hebdo, an AFP correspondent on the scene reported.
Around 100 helmeted riot police stood in front of the Niamey cathedral at midday, protecting it from a crowd of stone-throwing youths. Earlier, police fired tear gas to disperse some 1,000 youths in front of the city's grand mosque and AFP witnessed protesters in several parts of the city armed with iron bars and clubs.
Around 15,000 people on Saturday rallied in Russia's Muslim North Caucasus region of Ingushetia against Western publications that insult the Prophet Mohammed, authorities said, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack in France.
The crowd gathered for the officially sanctioned meeting in the regional capital Magas to protest "against cartoons of the prophet, Islamaphobia and insulting the beliefs of Muslims," the local government's press service told AFP.
Regional head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov described the publication of caricatures of the Prophet as "state extremism on the side of several Western countries" in a statement addressed to the protest.
"Instead of decisively condemning these destructive steps, the political authorities in the West are trying to set people of different religions and nationalities against each other," the statement published on the local administration's website said.
Russia's media watchdog on Friday warned publications that printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed was against the country's law and ethical norms.
Media and communications ombudsman Roskomnadzor said that publishing the caricatures could be qualified as "inciting ethnic and religious hatred" and punished under anti-extremism laws.
Many newspapers and magazines around the world reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by Charlie Hebdo, whose Paris office was attacked by Islamist gunmen on January 7, leading to the deaths of 12 people.
Supporters say the cartoon on the cover of Charlie Hebdo is a defiant expression of free speech following a terrorist attack on the publication's Paris offices that killed 12 people on Jan. 7, but many Muslims viewed it as another attack on their religion.
 The new issue has a drawing of Muhammad, with a tear rolling down his cheek and a placard that reads "Je Suis Charlie" - a saying that has swept France and the world since the killings. The depiction of the prophet is deemed insulting to many followers of Islam.
 A French cultural center was set ablaze by protesters in the town of Zinder in southern Niger, and one security officer and three demonstrators were killed in the melee, said Interior Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou. Another 20 security officers and 23 civilians were injured, he said.  The government of Niger, a former French colony, has banned the sale of Charlie Hebdo.  Many of the protests across the Muslim world began after midday prayers Friday, Islam's holy day.
 Agence France-Presse photographer Asif Hassan was shot and wounded, said AFP news director Michele Leridon, although "his life does not seem in danger." AFP said it was trying to find out whether Hassan was targeted or shot accidentally.
 Three other people, including two journalists and one police officer, were treated for minor injuries and released from Jinnah Hospital, said Dr. Seemi Jamali.
 About 1,000 people gathered in Islamabad to condemn the French publication. The demonstrators carried signs that read "Shame on Charlie Hebdo," and "If you are Charlie, then I am Kouachi" - referring to the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, who were killed after carrying out the attack on the newspaper office. They had claimed to be sent by al-Qaida in Yemen.
In Washington Friday night, dozens of Muslims primarily from Pakistan rallied to show solidarity with those demonstrating in Pakistan against terrorism and commemorating the Peshawar school attack one month ago.
Protesters carried banners saying, "I am not Charlie, I am Muhammad," and chanted slogans that date back to a banned Islamist party whose election victory in 1991 precipitated a civil war.