UAE bans anti-Islam video as protests continue in the region

The UAE has blocked access to the incendiary anti-Islamic film that sparked protests across the Middle East.

Pakistani Sunni Muslims torch a US flag during a protest against an anti-Islam movie in Lahore.

ABU DHABI // The video posted on the internet that mocked the Prophet Mohammed sparking protests across the region has been banned in the UAE.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) today said links to the trailer for the US made film Innocence of Muslims had been blocked.
The authority urged residents to report any working links to Etisalat or du.
A TRA spokesman said the order had come directly from the authority's director general, Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, but did not provide further details.
Etisalat and du were not immediately available for comment.
Google, the parent company of YouTube, last week refused to take down the offending video after the White House asked it to reconsider its decision to keep it online.
It did block the video in Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Egypt and Libya. Afghanistan and Pakistan also censored the trailer last week.
Yesterday in Indonesia film protests turned violent. About 400 Indonesian protesters clashed with police outside the US embassy in Jakarta as demonstrations against an anti-Islam film spread to southeast Asia.
Police fired tear gas when the demonstrators started throwing rocks at officers outside the embassy, spokesman Rikwanto, who goes by only one name, said by telephone yesterday. The protest ended about 5pm and the street in front of the embassy has been reopened, Rikwanto said.
"Eleven officers are injured because of the rock throwing, with some protesters also using slingshots." Rikwanto said. "The area is now littered with rocks."
Arab protests against a film denigrating Islam eased yesterday after mobs stormed the American embassy compound in Tunisia and targeted diplomatic missions in Sudan and Yemen. Four Americans were killed in a September 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The Islamic Defenders Front, which has led raids on nightclubs and forced Lady Gaga to cancel a concert in June, helped organise today's protests. While Indonesia has the world's largest population of Muslims, it maintains a secular government and recognizes other religions.
The US embassy in Bangkok said it would close at noon tomorrow after Thai police informed it that "several hundred people" planned a demonstration beginning at 1pm local time. The embassy "is not aware at this time of any specific threat to US citizens in Thailand," according to a statement posted on its website yesterday.
With Bloomberg
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