Egyptian Islamists Tear Down U.S. Embassy Flag in Protest Against Anti-Muhammad Film

CAIRO (TheBlaze/AP) -- Egyptian protesters, largely ultra conservative Islamists, have climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, made their way into the courtyard and brought down the flag. They then replaced it with a black flag with an Islamic inscription to protest a film deemed offensive to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Hundreds protested outside the embassy Tuesday against the film. Egyptian media say the movie was recently produced in the United States. The film, clips of which are available on the social website YouTube, show the prophet having sex and question his role as the messenger of God's words.

The dozens of protesters who climbed the embassy wall tried to tear the American flag apart after failing to burn it. AFP has more about how the protest unfolded:

Nearly 3,000 demonstrators, most of them hardline Islamist supporters of the Salafist movement or football fans, gathered at the embassy in protest over a film deemed offensive to the Prophet Mohammed which was produced by expatriate members of Egypt's Christian minority resident in the United States.

A dozen men scaled the embassy walls and one of them tore down the US flag, replacing it with a black one inscribed with the Muslim profession of faith: "There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God."

Demonstrators also daubed part of that slogan -- "There is no God but God" -- on the walls of the embassy compound.

Embassy officials said there was no staff inside at the time. It is most noteworthy, of course, that the incident took place on the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.