Heading a march by hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon on Thursday, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said U.S. President George W. Bush and his secretary of state should "shut up" after they accused Syria and Iran of fueling protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.Addressing some half a million Shiites who turned up despite bad weather to commemorate Ashoura, Nasrallah urged Muslims around the world to keep up the protests as long as no apology has been received for the offence. "Defending the prophet should continue all over the world. Let Condoleezza Rice and Bush and all the tyrants shut up. We are an Islamic nation that cannot be silent when they insult our prophet or our sacred beliefs."
"Today, we are defending the dignity of our prophet with a word, a demonstration but let Bush and the arrogant world know that if we have to, we will defend our prophet with our blood, not our voices," Nasrallah said, drawing heavy applause from the crowds.
Bush had urged governments Wednesday to stop the violence, including attacks on Western diplomatic missions in parts of the Muslim world. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had also accused Iran and Syria, both backers of Hizbullah facing pressure from the West, of deliberately stoking rage among Muslims. "Efforts for compromise are being made while the offensive campaign is gathering steam and more newspapers are publishing the cartoon. There will be no compromise before we get an apology," Nasrallah said.
The head of Lebanon's resistance party also said there would be no compromise until a Danish apology is served, and media laws prohibiting the insult of Muslim religious sanctities are passed around Europe. "We want European parliaments to draft laws that ban newspapers from insulting the Prophet. If they don't do this, it means they intend to go on insulting our beliefs," he said.