MOSCOW: A Russian court has outlawed an anti-Islam film that has sparked violence around the world.    

The court in Grozny ruled on Friday that the “Innocence of Muslims” should be banned as “extremist and inciting religious and ethnic hatred’’. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the verdict would apply only to Chechnya or to all of Russia. Russia’s communications minister had warned that authorities would bar access to YouTube if its owner, Google, failed to abide by a court order to block access to the US-produced film, which mocks Muslims.

Google’s spokeswoman in Russia, Inessa Roman-Pogorzhelskaya, said the company could restrict access to the video if it received a court order outlawing it.—AP

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