Hundreds of protestors have marched outside Google’s European headquarters in Dublin, demanding the global internet giant remove the US film which mocked the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) be taken offline, it was reported.
The protests in the Irish capital consisted of hundreds of marchers chanting “Islam is peace” and “we love Mohammed”, the Irish Independent reported, and came weeks after a violent wave of protests across the Muslim world and the killing of the US ambassador to Libya.
“You should not allow these [filmmakers] to use freedom of expression to hurt the feelings of 1.5bn Muslims around the world,” cleric Alam Ghulam Rabbini of the Irish Sufi Foundation was quoted as saying outside the Google headquarters in Dublin.
The protestors also targeted the US Embassy in Dublin. While the video remains online, Google chairman Eric Schmidt said the company “has a very clear view on this”.
“We believe the answer to bad speech is more speech,” Schmidt said.
People involved in the film, an amateurish 13-minute clip which was posted on YouTube, said it was made by a 55-year old California man, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who is said to be an Egyptian Coptic Christian.