An estimated 10,000 Muslims protested outside of Google’s offices in London in an attempt to force the company to remove “Innocence of Muslims,” the anti-Islam film that has gained notoriety for mocking the prophet Mohammed, from YouTube in the United Kingdom, The Telegraph reported.
Masoud Alam, the organizer of the London protests, told the newspaper that, “Our next protest will be at the offices of Google and YouTube across the world. We are looking to ban this film.”
“This is not freedom of expression, there is a limit for that. This insult of the Prophet will not be allowed,” he said.
According to The Telegraph, barricades were erected in front of Google’s headquarters as the crowds carried posters saying: “We love our prophet more than our lives” and “Prophet Mohammed is the founder of freedom of speech.”
Organizer and speaker at the rally Sheikh Fayez al-Aqtab Siddiqui, was quoted by the paper as saying that, “terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well. The makers of this film have terrorized 1.6 billion people.”
“Organizations like Google are key players and have to take responsibility for civility. You can’t just say it doesn’t matter that it’s freedom of speech. It’s anarchy,” he said.
A spokesman for YouTube responded by saying, “we work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions.”
“This can be a challenge because what’s OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere. This video — which is widely available on the Web — is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube,” he said, according to paper.