CAIRO: Egypt President Mohamed Morsi spoke out in condemnation at the attack on the United States Embassy in Cairo on Thursday, saying violence has no place in protests. He also said he would work to ensure the safety of foreigners in the country after anti-American sentiment has grown dramatically over the past few days. “Expressing opinion, freedom to protest and announcing positions is guaranteed but without assaulting private or public property, diplomatic missions or embassies,” said Morsi in his first comments on the attack on the embassy. On Wednesday evening, another protest was attacked by security forces guarding the embassy, firing tear gas at protesters in an effort to disperse them. “We are not going to stand by and allow our faith to be kicked and beaten," one protester told Bikyamasr.com on Thursday morning as he sat near the still burning vehicle. “We wanted to protest peacefully and show our nonviolent nature, but the security forces decided that wasn't going to happen," he added. According to eyewitnesses of the clashes, a peaceful demonstration turned ugly when they approached the US Embassy, which was already cordoned off by hundreds of riot police. “We were chanting and then they fired tear gas into the crowd to move us," another witness, Saleh Hassan, told Bikyamasr.com. “Then the young activists began throwing rocks and we had clashes." Activists reported a number of injuries, but no deaths, during the few hours of violence that erupted near the Embassy and within site of Cairo's Tahrir Square. It came 24 hours after protests in Egypt and Libya erupted over an anti-Islam film produced in the United States left many Muslims angry. In Egypt, protesters climbed the US Embassy's wall and took down the American flag, replacing it with an Islamic flag that read: “There is no God but God and Mohamed is His Messenger." While the Egyptian protesters remained nonviolent, in Libya's Benghazi, violent attacks took place against the American consulate in the city, which left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American staffers dead. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood's political party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) said in a statement published on Wednesday that the film was attempting to create sectarian tensions in the country. It also “strongly condemned" what it argued was a movie produced by US-based Coptic Christians, saying the film was a “racist crime and a failed attempt to provoke sectarian strife between the two elements of the nation, Muslims and Christians," according to a statement posted on the party's website. “The film, clips of which are available on the social website YouTube, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, showing him having sex and calling for massacres," The Associated Press reported. The protesters had demanded the expulsion of the American Ambassador to Egypt, the Sheikh of al-Azhar and the Grand Mufti for their “inadequate response" to the film and the crisis. “Islam does not censor opinions, but refuses the freedom to violate the beliefs of faith," said a statement from Egypt's Ministry of Endowments in response to the crisis.
