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Muslim uproar spreads in Mohammed cartoon
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-04 09:22
Outrage over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad erupted in a swell of
protests across the Muslim world Friday, with demonstrators demanding revenge
against Denmark and death for those they accuse of defaming Islam's holiest
figure.
Hundreds of
Moroccan Muslims protest against the Danish and Swedish publications of
Islam's Prophet Muhammad drawings, in front of the Parliament in Rabat,
Morocco, Friday, Feb. 3, 2006. The sign says in Arabic 'But which press
freedom?, it's simply the soul's high degree of contempt'.
[AP] | In Iraq, the leading Shiite cleric
denounced the drawings first published in a Danish newspaper in September, one
of which depicted the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb. But the cleric
also suggested militant Muslims were partly to blame for distorting the image of
Islam.
Some European newspapers reprinted the caricatures this week, prompting
protests Friday in Britain, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Palestinian areas. In Sudan, some even urged al-Qaida terrorists to
target Denmark.
"Strike, strike, Bin Laden," shouted some in a crowd of about 50,000 who
filled a Khartoum square.
The U.S. and British governments criticized publication of the caricatures as
offensive to Muslims, raising questions about whether the line between free
speech and incitement had been crossed.
The Danish government tried to contain the damage. Foreign Minister Per Stig
Moeller called Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and said the Danish government
"cannot accept an assault against Islam," according to Abbas' office.
On Monday, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said his government
could not apologize on behalf of a newspaper, but that he personally "never
would have depicted Muhammad, Jesus or any other religious character in a way
that could offend other people."
Many Muslims consider the Danish government's reaction inadequate.
Clerics in Palestinian areas called in Friday prayers for a boycott of Danish
and European goods and the severing of diplomatic ties. Tens of thousands of
incensed Muslims marched through Palestinian cities, burning the Danish flag and
calling for vengeance.
"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, a
tailor who marched in the pouring rain with hundreds of other Muslims in the
West Bank city of Ramallah. "Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up,"
the protesters chanted.
Foreign diplomats, aid workers and journalists began pulling out of
Palestinian areas Thursday because of kidnapping threats against some Europeans.
In Iraq, about 4,500 people protested in the southern city of Basra, burning
the Danish flag. Some 600 worshippers stomped on Danish flags before burning
them outside Baghdad's Abu Hanifa Mosque, Sunni Islam's holiest shrine in Iraq.
Demonstrators also burned Danish journalists in effigy and torched boxes of
Danish cheese.
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