NAIROBI, Kenya (AP):
POLICE SHOT and wounded one person yesterday as they sought to keep hundreds of demonstrators from marching to the residence of Denmark's ambassador to protest cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad first published in a Danish newspaper.
The Kenyan protest was the most unruly of demonstrations across Africa yesterday in response to the cartoons, some of which were satiric and all of which clashed with Muslim tradition prohibiting any depiction of Muhammad.
Police and organisers had said marchers would not be allowed near any embassy. At least 200 demonstrators tried to go to the home of the Danish envoy, triggering clashes with anti-riot police near a major highway.
The demonstrators shouted anti-Denmark slogans as they threw stones at vehicles carrying foreigners in Westlands, an upscale neighbourhood in Kenya's capital of Nairobi. The violence subsided after the protesters fled into a nearby mosque.
MARCHES, FLAG BURNING
Elsewhere, thousands of demonstrators, shouting "God is Great and Muhammad is his Prophet!" and "Down with Denmark!" marched from the largest mosque in downtown Nairobi to Kenya's Foreign Ministry, where they were expected to deliver a protest note.
Other demonstrators walked out of the Sar Ali Mosque, outside downtown Nairobi, and burned Danish flags and shouted anti-Denmark slogans there. About 300 protesters began a march to the city centre.
Protests also erupted after Friday prayers in Mombasa, an Indian Ocean port city where Muslims are the majority. Thousands gathered at the Tononoka Grounds, where they burned the U.S. and Denmark's flags.
In neighbouring Somalia, hundreds condemned the publication of the cartoons by the Western media during peaceful protests in Marka, a town in the Lower Shabelle Region.
In Dhusamareb, capital of the central Galgudud Region, dozens of protesters marched peacefully.
In Uganda, Muslim leaders condemned the publication of the cartoons in Friday sermons, and said they may hold protest marches next week.
In West Africa, thousands of Muslims marched after Friday prayers in northern Nigeria's Kano state.
Earlier this week, Kano lawmakers burned Danish and Norwegian flags inside the regional Parliament and cancelled a US$25 million (¤20 million) contract to buy 70 Danish buses. They also said Danish companies would not be allowed to bid on construction of a planned power plant.
LARGE MUSLIM COMMUNITY
Nigeria's 130 million people are about roughly split between Christians and Muslims, giving the vast, restive country one of the largest Muslim communities in Africa.
