AKIPRESS.COM - Tens of thousands of people staged a rally on Monday in Russia's Chechnya region against French magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which the predominantly Muslim region's leader denounced as "vulgar and immoral".

Carrying signs declaring "Hands off the Prophet Mohammad", men in traditional Chechen dress and women and children shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as they streamed down the main thoroughfare of Chechnya's capital, Grozny, rebuilt after two separatist wars in the North Caucasus region, reports Reuters.

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a picture of Mohammad weeping on its cover last week after gunmen stormed its offices, killing 12 people. The gunmen said the attack was revenge for cartoons the magazine had published mocking Islam.

"We will launch a decisive protest against the vulgarity, immorality, lack of culture and shamelessness of those who drew the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him)," Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov wrote online before the rally. "We publicly warn that we will not tolerate similar actions," he said.

Kadyrov said he expected up to 1 million people to attend the rally.