France was bracing Thursday for a backlash after a French magazine published sacrilegious cartoons, fuelling the flames of protest in the Muslim world over a US-made anti-Islam film. Paris said that on Friday, it would shutter its diplomatic missions, cultural centres and French schools in around 20 Muslim countries for fear of violent protests.
As senior officials and Muslim leaders appealed for calm, the French mission in Tunisia was closed on Wednesday, while its Egyptian mission was to shut its doors temporarily on Thursday. The criminal magazine's website was swiftly put out of action by a cyber-attack and riot police were deployed outside the magazine's Paris offices.