Muslims gather after Friday prayers to protest Charlie Hebdo's latest issue

 By 
Megan Specia
 on 
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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Muslims gathered after Friday prayers, in cities from Algiers to Karachi, to protest against the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo.

They denounced the depiction of Prophet Muhammad, who is holding a sign that reads "Je suis Charlie," on the satirical magazine's cover. The demonstrations followed last week's attack on Charlie Hebdo's Paris office, which left 12 dead. Some Muslims view depictions of Muhammad as an insult to Islam.

In Algeria, police were struggling to contain more than 1,000 protesters in the streets of the capital. Chanting, "I am not Charlie; I am Muhammad," demonstrators left mosques after Friday prayers, and gathered in downtown Algiers' May 1 square, where hundreds of riot police attempted to keep them contained.

On Thursday evening, video emerged -- allegedly from the town of Kafr Takharim in the Idlib province of northwestern Syria -- which showed a model of the Eiffel Tower and a French flag being burned by protesters who had staged a large rally against Charlie Hebdo.

Violence erupted during student-led protests in Pakistan's largest city when police fired warning shots and water cannons to disperse demonstrators. A photographer with the Agence France-Presse was shot and wounded in the clashes.

AFP news director Michele Leridon said photographer Asif Hassan was shot and wounded. He underwent surgery, and "his life does not seem in danger," she added.

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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Karachi police officer Naseer Tanoly said some of the protesters were armed, and opened fire on the police, who fired into the air to disperse the crowd. The demonstrators were mostly students affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami political party.

In Turkey, which is officially secular but has a population that is 99% Muslim, people gathered in Istanbul to hold funeral prayers for Cherif and Said Kouachi, the gunmen responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attack.

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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Some 160 people -- all of them men -- shouted "God is great!" They held a banner showing former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's picture on one side, and the Kouachi brothers superimposed over the Parisian skyline on the other.

Smaller posters with the words "We are all Cherif" and "We are all Said" were bounced up and down, as the men chanted in unison.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press

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