Thousands gathered outside Google’s London headquarters Monday morning to protest the mega-sized Internet company’s refusal to remove an anti-Muslim film from YouTube.
Police reported that more than 3,000 protesters rallied outside of Google’s downtown office for more than four hours in an effort to end what’s being called “an age of mockery.”
It’s a term many have coined as a response to the way that the much-maligned “Innocence of Muslims” film has allowed for one man, arrested Californian Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, to defame an entire religion and its billion-plus believers with something as simple as a 14-minute video trailer.
“Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well,” said Sheikh Faiz Al-Aqtab Siddiqui, a speaker at the rally. “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 a freedom of speech. It’s anarchy.”
Google-owned YouTube has faced unprecedented pressure from Muslims around the world who’d like to see “Innocence of Muslims” removed, but the company has remained unfettered in its refusal to take the clip down.
“We work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions,” a YouTube spokesman told The Telegraph.
“This can be a challenge because what’s okay 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.”
Photo via BirdEye/Flickr
