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http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Thousands-gather-to-protest-caricatures-in-6024709.php
 



GROZNY, Russia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands marched through the Chechen capital 
on Monday to protest the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which again 
put a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad on its cover. 

Demonstrators in Grozny, capital of the predominantly Muslim region in southern 
Russia, released balloons and carried posters that read "Hands off our beloved 
prophet" and "We love the prophet, we don't love Charlie." 

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on his official Instagram account Friday 
that those who defended the weekly Charlie Hebdo were his "personal enemies" 
and vowed that at least 1 million people would join the government-sponsored 
protest in Grozny. 

On Monday, Kadyrov spoke from a stage wearing a vest with "We Love the Prophet 
Mohammed" written on it. 

A police spokesman told Interfax news agency that 800,000 people attended the 
protest Monday, although those numbers were impossible to verify. 

Russia, which has a large and restive Muslim population and waged two 
devastating wars against Chechen separatists in the 1990s, offered its 
condolences to France after the Paris terror attacks earlier this month. It has 
warned Russian publications, however, against reprinting any Charlie Hebdo 
cartoons that featured the Prophet Mohammed. 

Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications oversight agency, sent letters to 
several local publications barring them from re-publishing the French 
caricatures and published a warning to nationwide publications on its Facebook 
page. 

"Roskomnadzor calls on all national media to choose other methods of expressing 
their solidarity with their tragically killed French colleagues, rather than 
inflaming sectarian tensions in Russian society," the agency said in the 
statement. 

According to Russian news agencies, 15,000 people joined a similar anti-Charlie 
Hebdo demonstration Saturday in the neighboring region of Ingushetia. 
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