Charlie Hebdo Latest News: Anti-Charlie Hebdo protest brings out hundreds of thousands in Chechnya

GROZNY, Russia — Hundreds of thousands of people protested in Russia's Chechnya region Monday against what their leader Ramzan Kadyrov called the "vulgar and immoral" cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published by French newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Many of the protestors held signs saying "Hands off the Prophet Mohammad" and "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest").

Demonstrators at the anti-Charlie Hebdo rally chanted while dressed in traditional Chechen dress. Others at the state-sponsored, broadcasted rally waved flags at cameras as security service helicopters flew overhead and police stood by.

"This is a protest against those who support the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad," Kadyrov, who is loyal to Russian President Vladmir Putin, said to the people. "This is a protest against those who insult the Muslim religion."

"If needed, we are ready to die to stop anyone who thinks that you can irresponsibly defile the name of the prophet," Kadyrov said while wiping his tears away on stage. "You and I see how European journalists and politicians under false slogans about free speech and democracy proclaim the freedom to be vulgar, rude and insult the religious feelings of hundreds of millions of believers."

The rally ended when a call to prayer was blasted over loudspeakers.

Russian officials estimated the number of demonstrators to be 800,000 – 60 percent of Chechnya's population – while Reuters witnesses placed the number at several hundred thousand.

The march was a response to French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, who often published cartoons mocking Mohammad and other religious figures. After Islamic extremists Cherif and Said Kouachi attacked their Paris office and killed 12 people for revenge on Jan. 7, the remaining staffers put the Muslim prophet on their cover weeping with the headline "All is forgiven."

Demonstrations have taken place in several Muslim countries since then, some turning violent. French President Francois Hollande said anti-Charlie Hebdo protesters do not understand France's attachment to freedom of speech.

Kadyrov, who is backed by the Kremlin, has cultivated his own brand of Islam in Chechnya and is banned from the U.S. for human rights abuses. He is currently fighting against an insurgency aimed at creating an Islamist state in the North Caucasus and depends on Russian money and security forces to maintain peace.