Turkish PM slams anti-Muslim film, violent reactions

YALTA

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (not pictured) in Kiev, Ukraine, 13 September 2012. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in Kiev on 13 September on a three-day official visit. EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

Insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad cannot be considered freedom of speech, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said today in relation to protests that are sweeping the world in response to an anti-Islam film. At the same time, however, such insults do not provide people with the right to attack others, Erdoğan said in the Ukrainian city of Yalta.“Those who made this movie should be condemned in the harshest terms. But insulting religion cannot be an excuse to attack people,” Erdoğan said, according to daily Hürriyet."It is not within freedom of speech to insult the high values of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. It cannot be seen as freedom of speech to insult religions, prophets, sacred values of people. That movie is openly provocative and hostile," Erdoğan said.The film, “The Innocence of Muslims,” has touched off a storm of protests across the Muslim world and led to a violent attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11 that killed four U.S. diplomats, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.