Al Jazeera.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has made a rare public
appearance to address tens of thousands of supporters who took to the
streets of southern Beirut to denounce a film mocking Islam and the
Prophet Mohammed.
Monday's address was only Nasrallah's fifth public appearance in six
years, and the first time he made a full speech in person to thousands
of his supporters since 2008.
The gathering in a predominantly Shia suburb of Lebanon's capital was one of many protests that continued around the world on Monday.
"O Prophet, we die for you, my soul and my blood are for you," the
leader of the powerful Shia movement said, urging the crowd to repeat
the words after him for the whole world to hear.
"America must understand ... the US must understand that releasing
the entire film will have dangerous, very dangerous, repercussions
around the world.
"It's a very big protest - one of the biggest if not the biggest I
have seen here," said Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut.
"Hassan Nasrallah himself showed up, joined the protests, took the
podium and delivered a live speech."
Our correspondent said the fact that he was physically there "was a
sign how significant this issue is and was only the beginning of what
they would do to protest".
"He said anger should not be directed towards Christians, but that
it's a political issue with anger directed towards the the US and
Israel. They didn't target anyone [violently] or make any sign they
would target US businesses or citizens."
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