UNDERSTANDING THE CARTOON CRISIS

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EU Drafts 'Non-Emotive' Terror Dictionary

Gareth Harding Apr 13, 2006
BRUSSELS, (UPI) -- The European Union is drawing up a lexicon of politically correct language to use when describing terrorists who claim to act in the name of Islam.

The idea was first aired in the EU's counter-terrorism strategy, which was adopted by interior ministers in December. As part of its efforts to combat radicalization and terrorist recruitment, the paper said the Union's 25 member states have to do more to "correct unfair or inaccurate perceptions of Islam and Muslims." It also called on EU officials to draft a "non-emotive lexicon for discussing the issues in order to avoid linking Islam to terrorism."

Diplomats in Brussels are currently working on the handbook, which is expected to be adopted by ministers in June.

The issue of how to discuss the link between radical Islamist groups and terrorism has shot to the top of the political agenda since the riots by immigrant offspring in French suburbs last November and the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in European newspapers earlier this year. The decision to reprint images of the prophet, which is outlawed by Islam, was denounced as a provocation by Muslim leaders and more than 50 demonstrators died in violent clashes across the Islamic world.

"There is a simplistic portrayal in the Western media of Muslims as fanatics, terrorists and extremists," says Shada Islam, Brussels correspondent for a number of Asian and Middle East papers. "There is this picture of Muslim women as all tied to the kitchen sink, wearing hijabs (veils) and totally dominated by men. Every single TV program on Islam states starts with a shot of camels in the desert and every radio show begins with the Muezzin (call to prayer.) The finer points of what Islam is about and the fact that there is an internal struggle going on within the religion are being ignored."

Arzu Donmezer, a political assistant of Turkish origin in the European Parliament and a graduate in Islamic sciences, agrees that discrimination against Muslims has intensified since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States. "When you say you are a Muslim, people take a step back and ask if you know any terrorists. For many Europeans, being a Muslim is the same as being a terrorist -- which means they are putting people like me in the same box as radical Islamists. If I'm being pushed away by the very people I want to belong to, where am I supposed to go?"

EU officials admit that there is a great deal of ignorance about Islam. "This is all part of Western society getting to know the Islamic religion a bit better," says Friso Roscam Abbing, a spokesman for European Commission Vice-President Franco Frattini. For example, the term 'jihad,' which most Europeans and Americans associate with the violent armed struggle against Western "infidels," has largely positive connotations in the Muslim world, where the term means overcoming a personal struggle.

"We want to avoid emotional wording which could hurt people or make a direct link between certain religions and terrorism," said one EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Giving the impression that one community or one religion is under the control of terrorists is no way to fight terrorism."

The guidelines, which will be non-binding and aimed at public officials rather than journalists, are likely to advise against using the term "Islamic terrorism." Roscam Abbing said his EU commissioner, who is the rough equivalent of the U.S. homeland security chief, prefers to talk about "those who have an abusive interpretation of Islam," rather than Islamists or Muslim fundamentalists. "The idea is not to use the terms Islam and Muslim in connection to something negative," added the spokesman.

The initiative was welcomed by Islam, the Brussels-based journalist, who notes that people never refer to the IRA or ETA as Christian terrorist groups. "Words are not just empty shells; they carry cultural weight. For example, when EU ministers use the same vocabulary to talk about immigrants, asylum seekers and terrorists, they create the impression that if you're an immigrant or asylum seeker then obviously you are a terrorist. So I think a certain amount of political correctness is necessary when talking about such explosive and sensitive issues. If anything can help defuse the current tensions, why not?"

EU draft calls to reject 'Islamic terrorism' term

By David Rennie
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH
Published April 12, 2006

BRUSSELS -- European governments should shun the phrase "Islamic terrorism" in favor of "terrorists who abusively invoke Islam," say guidelines from EU officials.
    Backed by diplomats and civil servants from the 25 members of the European Union, the officials are drafting a "non-emotive lexicon for discussing radicalization" to be submitted to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other leaders in June.
    The Brussels officials hope the new lexicon, which would not be legally binding, would be adopted by governments and other EU institutions, such as the European Commission and European Parliament.
    An EU official said: "The basic idea behind it is to avoid the use of improper words that would cause frustration among Muslims and increase the risk of radicalization."
    Along with civil servants from the British Home Office, the officials have reviewed the effect of terms such as Islamist, fundamentalist and jihad when describing acts of terrorism and murder.
    "Jihad means something for you and me; it means something else for a Muslim," said EU officials at a Berlin conference on radicalization. "Jihad is a perfectly positive concept of trying to fight evil within yourself."
    Though British officials have been involved in drawing up the lexicon, Whitehall sources indicated that the government was unlikely to adopt it wholesale or heed any call to ban the term "Islamic terrorist."
    The lexicon is seen in London as more likely to be of use to continental governments with limited exposure to Muslims. A Home Office spokesman said: "We believe there is a balance to be struck between raising awareness of the impact that language can have and not letting extremism go unchallenged."
    The lexicon is being discussed only at a "working group level" but has the support of Gijs de Vries, the EU counterterrorism coordinator.

Annan stresses on freedoms of speech and worship

United Nations: Observing that the recent crisis over caricatures of Prophet Mohammad reflected a trend towards extremism in Islamic and Western societies, U N Secretary General Kofi Annan has advocated increased emphasis on freedoms of worship and speech to counter the phenomenon.

"To counter it, we must all speak up for freedom of worship and for freedom of speech," Annan told the meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Istanbul today in a message delivered by Mohamed Sahnoun, his special adviser on Africa.

He also affirmed the importance of basic freedoms as well as the need for sensitivity towards other cultures.

To stop extremism and boost inter-cultural relations, he renewed his appeal for dialogue between civilizations and cultural sensitivity.

"We must stress that rights carry with them an inherent responsibility, and should not be used to degrade, humiliate or insult any group or individual," he said.

Annan also talked about the sectarian rifts in Iraq, economic progress in Afghanistan and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

"The OIC, as the leading multilateral Islamic organization, has a key role to play in addressing these and other challenges," Annan said. April 13, 2006 www.newkerala.com

Danish Muslims sue newspaper that printed prophet cartoons

3/30/2006 www.usatoday.com

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A group of 27 Danish Muslim organizations have filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper that first published the carricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, their lawyer said Thursday.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday, two weeks after Denmark's top prosecutor declined to press criminal charges, saying the drawings that sparked a firestorm in the Muslim world did not violate laws against racism or blasphemy.

Michael Christiani Havemann, a lawyer representing the Muslim groups, said lawsuit sought $16,100 in damages from Jyllands-Posten Editor in Chief Carsten Juste and Culture Editor Flemming Rose, who supervised the cartoon project.

"We're seeking judgment for both the text and the drawings which were gratuitously defamatory and injurious," Havemann said.

The lawsuit was filed in the western city of Aarhus, where Jyllands-Posten is based.

The newspaper published the 12 cartoons on Sept. 30, saying it was challenging self-censorship among artists afraid to offend Islam. The drawings were later reprinted in other Western media, mostly in Europe, in the name of free speech and news value.

The Danish newspaper apologized for offending Muslims after violent protests erupted throughout the Islamic world, but stood by its decision to print the drawings, citing freedom of speech.

OIC calls to fight racial prejudice

Habib Shaikh Khaleej Times - Dubai,United Arab Emirates 22 March 2006

JEDDAH — The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has urged the international community to strengthen cooperation to fight racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances on the bases of culture, religion, nationality, race or language.

It called for the effective implementation of all international treaties and instruments, which forbid such policies in order to ensure the prevalence of human rights, greater harmony and tolerance. In a statement issued on the 40th anniversary of the proclamation of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which fell on Monday, the OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanogul said the Organisation calls upon the international community to intensify their efforts to promote understanding between different civilisations and cultures.

He said there should be joint efforts to counter attempts at cultural and racial domination.

The secretary general lamented that despite 40 years of relentless efforts exerted by the international community to combat the scourge of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances were gaining ground. He added that contemporary forms and manifestations of racism were trying to gain moral, political or legal recognition through subtle means, under the guise of freedom of expression.

The blasphemous and derogatory cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten were a case in point.

EU, OIC urged to draft joint resolution on cartoons

March 11, 2006 SALZBURG, Austria (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chiefs urged the bloc on Friday to work with Islamic states on a joint U.N. resolution to help ease tensions caused by a row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

The call came as the head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) criticised the EU for not doing enough to heal wounds with Muslims caused by the affair.

Controversy over the cartoons first published last year in a Danish newspaper and since reprinted in other European media sparked worldwide protests by Muslims who believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet. At least 50 people were killed in violent protests.

The 25 EU foreign ministers discussed ways of rebuilding trust with the Islamic world.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner suggested in a joint paper that the EU and the OIC could draft a joint resolution at the United Nations promoting religious tolerance.

The EU and the OIC previously presented two competing resolutions to the U.N. General Assembly, but EU countries voted against the OIC text because it focused too narrowly on discrimination against Islam, an EU official said.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller told reporters he was not sure EU and OIC countries could agree on a joint text.

“It may be true that a law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and that’s pretty important”

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Neo-Nazis threaten violence
Wednesday, 22 March, 2006 - La Repubblica

ROME: The World Cup in Germany is set to become a battleground between fascists and Muslims, an Italian member of a new European neo-Nazi movement warned yesterday.
In a statement published by Italian daily La Repubblica, the member of AS Roma’s notorious hooligan group claims neo-Nazis across Europe met in Braunau in Austria to plan attacks against supporters from Muslim countries during the World Cup in Germany from June 9 to July 9.
“We are united. For the first time we are talking and planning together, with the English, the Germans, the Dutch, the Spanish, everyone with the same objective.
“At the World Cup there will be a massacre,” said the Italian.
“We will all be in Germany and there will be Turks, Algerians and Tunisians. The Turks, we can’t stand them. In our country (Italy) there are not many, but in Germany, there are many of those guys there. They are terrorists.
“We will attack them. They are all enemies that need to be eliminated, just like the police.
“If we make the Roman greeting (the fascist salute) they put us in prison. We will be tens of thousands. Nothing but the English are feared.” – AFP

OIC envoys assured of steps against blasphemy

By Qudssia Akhlaque March 11, 2006

ISLAMABAD, March 10: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has assured OIC ambassadors in Geneva that her Office was taking necessary steps to combat defamation of religions, create a culture of tolerance, explore and elaborate legal framework for respect of religions as well as freedom of expression to address the situation created by the publication of blasphemous cartoons.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louis Arbour held out the assurance to a delegation of 14 Muslim envoys who met her this week to express Islamic world’s deep concerns on publication of defamatory caricatures in Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten and their reprinting in several European newspapers, the Foreign Office said on Friday.

The OIC ambassadors sought UN High Commissioner’s help to address the concerns of Muslim countries to redress legal deficits in regard to respect for religions and mobilize human rights machinery to stem recurrence of such outrage, the Foreign Office said.

Ms Arbour’s view was that when freedom of expression hurt dignity and religious sensitivities, as in the case of publication of cartoons, the situation could not be addressed merely by laws. The viable course, she maintained, was to effectively combat the trend and promote culture of tolerance and sound political judgment.

The delegation, led by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Masood Khan, the OIC coordinator on human rights and humanitarian issues in Geneva, proposed that as the UN High Commissioner she take concrete measures such as sending a fact-finding mission and asking the Special Rapporteurs to carry out legal analysis of the questions surrounding the caricatures issue.

The OIC ambassadors also suggested hosting of dialogues to address cross-cutting legal, political and cultural issues. They advocated inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogues for promoting peace, harmony and understanding.

The UN High Commissioner told the delegation that substantive efforts were being made by her office to raise awareness in this regard through publication, information campaigns, seminars and conferences.

The OIC envoys conveyed to the High Commissioner that the publication of the caricature and their reprinting in the media could not be justified in the name of freedom of expression. It was a deliberate act of provocation.

OIC criticises EU response to cartoons

Published: Saturday, 11 March, 2006, 10:44 AM Doha Time

LONDON: The leader of the world’s largest Muslim body yesterday criticised the European Union for its ‘unsatisfactory response’ to the furor over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said that by simply regretting that Muslims found the cartoons offensive, EU foreign ministers had not gone far enough at a meeting in Brussels last week.

"We expected the EU to address the issue of cartoons in a more fair way," Ihsanoglu told a news conference in London.

"I must say that we are not satisfied with the result of last week’s meeting in Brussels. The conclusion published by the European Union fell short of our expectations." – AFP

Cartoon politics

Monday, March 27, 2006 Turkish Daily News

The controversy over the Danish caricatures of Prophet Mohammed, and the perception of Islam that resurfaced in some European circles in the name of freedom of expression, has turned into a global wave of violent protests throughout the 'Muslim world.' Demonstrations turned into ransacking of diplomatic missions and violent clashes with human casualties. However, there was a parallel agenda of the protests besides religion per se, that is less recognized by those who find it expedient to rely on the thesis of 'clash of civilizations.'

DOĞU ERGİL

  The controversy over the Danish caricatures of Prophet Mohammed, and the perception of Islam that resurfaced in some European circles in the name of freedom of expression, has turned into a global wave of violent protests throughout the “Muslim world.” Demonstrations turned into ransacking of diplomatic missions and violent clashes with human casualties. However, there was a parallel agenda of the protests besides religion per se, that is less recognized by those who find it expedient to rely on the thesis of “clash of civilizations.” This thesis foresees a bifurcated world where the civilized, progressive and affluent side of the world lives the way they do because they deserve it by way of their superiority. The remaining part of the world that is not civilized may live in its squalor, backwardness and tyranny of ignorance by their own choice, and because they also deserve it. The first world feels no responsibility for the second, and hence expends no effort to understand why its sentiments and view of the first does not match their naiveté and irresponsibility.

  First of all, what is crudely called the “Muslim world” has been the hunting ground of Western colonialism and expansionism in the previous centuries that left behind a legacy of exploitation, impoverishment and a wounded psyche, at the core of which is resentment, humiliation and feeling of inferiority. This is an explosive mixture in that if the culprit or former oppressor does not extend its hand and heart in the post-colonial era to its former colonized subjects, and does not help to repair the damage done during many centuries of domination and humiliation, the national identities in the former colonies become nothing but renouncement of anything associated with their former colonizers. The West seems never to grasp this reality because it is a hard and bitter pill to swallow. Because of this, it becomes all the more difficult to understand the real reasons and local agendas that have aggravated this crisis, which fundamentally is a mechanism to vent the reservoir of pre-existing resentment towards the West.

  The Egyptian demonstrators condemn the insolence of the West. With a strong group in parliament, the Muslim Brothers is a challenge to the secular government of Mr. Hosni Mubarak. Besides the West, they want to direct their protest against the regime they strive to replace, and the incumbent government in turn feels the need to show that they are also capable of playing on popular sentiments, so that there is no need for a more radical group to be in power. These internal tensions are easily channeled against a common target. The Iraqi demonstrators want the withdrawal of Danish troops, and Afghan tribesman that have links with the old (dis)order want NATO soldiers out of their country. What better excuse is there for these groups to express their political agenda in a public forum when there is so little legitimate opportunity to do so otherwise? Iran, Syria and the pro-Syrian Lebanese Sunnis are undoubtedly unhappy with Western pressure on them. They do not want to see Western dominance once again on their home soil. With the example American invasion of Iraq, which they see as a revival of western imperialism, anti-western and anti-American sentiment has reached boiling point.

  Despite these facts, in most of the Western media the ongoing dispute has typically been treated as a further sign of the fanaticism of Muslims. But the tempest did not arise out of nowhere. First, it arose out of ignorance of the local context of these conflicts, which are mostly not about religion as much as they are about power struggles within Muslim societies. Secondly, religious nationalism exacerbated by the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq has raised suspicions that it can do the same all over the region. The ensuing turmoil that threatens almost every party in the Middle East and the Muslim World interprets this as an aggression to their being (identity, territory and sovereignty). It is not just about the cartoons.

  After the cartoons were published on Sept. 30, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen refused to meet with ambassadors from Muslim countries and lectured Muslims on their need to tolerate the caricatures. This attitude was exactly what the Muslims (or anyone outside the Western political reality) abhorred: encroachment and disrespect of the liberty to define yourself rather than being defined by the imperial West. This is exactly the source of bitterness in their collective memory that is still remembered vividly in the form of Christian missionaries preaching to local people exactly how barbaric they thought the Muslim faith was. Or signs hanging on the doors of European clubs in India only a century ago that said, "Dogs and Indians not allowed." In short, the overly critical opinion of the Muslim crowds has little to do with piety and more to do with history and its lingering legacy.

  The whole affair is a cost-free bandwagon on which everyone can jump on in search of greater legitimacy among Muslim publics. There is no downside in the Muslim world to defending Prophet Mohammed from Western insults. Pro-Western politicians can use it to burnish their nationalist image, while others use it to show how respectful they are to religion to cover their weaker flank against the religious political parties who are threatening their ruling positions.

  If the conservative, Christian West shows no ability (or willingness) to respect conservative Muslims' need to value his or her own beliefs, the West will find itself less able to speak to the Muslim world, and less able to defend freedom of expression. What will be the end result? Clash of faiths and values started by those who dread it most!

UN High Commissioner conveyed concern at blasphemous cartoons

GENEVA, March 10 : A delegation of 14 OIC Ambassadors in Geneva met the High Commissioner to express Islamic world’s deep concerns on publication of defamatory caricatures in Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten and their reprinting in several European newspapers, Pakistani mission said.

The delegation was led by Ambassador Masood Khan, who is the OIC Coordinator on Human Rights and Humanitarian issues in Geneva.

The Ambassadors urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to help address the concerns of Muslim countries to redress legal deficits in regard to respect for religions, and mobilize human rights machinery to stem recurrence of such outrage. They said that such deliberate acts are disruptive and counter productive.

The OIC delegation told the High Commissioner that the caricatures had seriously hurt the sensibilities of Islamic nations and peoples all over the world. They emphasized that publication of the caricature and their reprinting in the media could not be justified in the name of freedom of expression. It was a deliberate act of provocation and not an act of negligence.

The delegation advised the High Commissioner, that in view of her leading role in human rights, concrete measures by her office would greatly contribute to promoting respect of religions and their prophets and in avoiding future recurrence of such defamatory acts.

They suggested that such measures may include sending a fact finding mission and asking the Special Rapporteurs to carry out legal analysis of the questions surrounding the caricatures issue.

The OIC Ambassadors also urged the High Commissioner to host a dialogue to bring out complimentarily between freedom of expression and respect of religions and to address cross-cutting legal, political and cultural issues. In this regard, they expressed that intercultural and inter-religious dialogues could make useful contributions in promoting peace, harmony and understanding.

The High Commissioner assured the Ambassadors about her commitment to combating defamation of religions and building a culture of tolerance and understanding. She told the delegation that her office was devoting substantive efforts to raise awareness in this area through publication information campaigns, seminars and conferences.

She expressed the view that when freedom of expression hurt dignity and religious sensitivities, such as in the case of publication of caricatures, the situation could not be addressed by laws alone. The viable course was to effectively combat this trend and promote culture of tolerance and sound political judgment.

She drew the attention of the delegation to the recent statement by the UN Secretary General in Doha in which he said “All of us now join to renew our call for restraint, and for an immediate end to the present atmosphere, which threatens to sow deep discord between communities, societies and countries. We deeply regret the offence given by the caricatures, as well as the loss of life and damage to property in several countries”. www.pakistanlink.com

Muslims strong reaction sensitizes EU

www.kashar.net
ISLAMABAD, March 11 (SANA): Minister for Religious Affairs Ejazul Haq has said that the strong reaction of Muslims to the issue of blasphemous caricatures has sensitized the European Union about delicacy of the problem.

He was addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Saturday after his return from Brussels where he led a parliamentary delegation to apprise the EU officials about sensitivity of the issue.

The Minister was confident that the Western media too would demonstrate responsible attitude towards such matters.

He, however, was of the view that the violent protests have damaged our cause. He cautioned that some elements were engaged in conspiracies against Muslims and we must not indulge in acts that could amount to advancing their objectives.

The Minister said the parliamentary delegation demanded of the European Union to cooperate for the passage of the OIC resolution at the United Nations. He said the EU, in principle, supports the resolution but also wants introduction of some amendments to enlarge the scope of the document. The EU wants that instead of only Islam, other religions and faith should also be included in the resolution.

He said the delegation also met Brussels-based ambassadors of the Islamic countries. They were of the view that there was need to activate the OIC. It was also felt that the OIC should have its office in Brussels. The Muslim ambassadors appreciated efforts of Pakistan and said it was the only Islamic country that has sent a parliamentary delegation to Belgium on the issue of blasphemous caricatures and engaged into a direct dialogue with the European Union.

Replying to a question the Minister for Religious Affairs said he would soon visit Jeddah to brief the OIC about the outcome of the delegation's visit to Brussels.

He told a questioner that more delegations would be sent to other capitals as well and hoped that the opposition would form part of those delegation.

Ihsanoglu Slams Western "Double Standards"

"This is a Western and European problem which should be addressed properly," said Ihsanoglu. (Reuters)

LONDON, March 11, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) blasted Friday, March 10, Western governments' "double standards" which he said were exploited by extremists.

"What is going on in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and Basra, this is obviously seen as double standards," said OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu at a press conference in London, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He was referring to the notorious US prisons in Cuba and Iraq, where prisoners have been tortured and sexually abused, according to US media reports and leaked photos.

"This is a Western and European problem which should be addressed properly," he stressed, adding that global tensions could be eased if Western nations applied their professed values universally.

"If we are talking about human rights as universal, how can one say there are islands on which human rights are not applied? We have a problem here," Ekmeleddin fumed.

He went on: "Their defense of freedom of expression and human rights were undermined by the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the US-led occupation of Iraq and Israel's occupation of Palestine."

Last year, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the world must make progress on issues used by terrorists as a reason for violence such as the Middle East conflict, admitting that the Iraq war was used to recruit terrorists.

David Clark, a former British government adviser, wrote in a Guardian piece that the world should take "legitimate" Arab grievances seriously if it wanted to defeat terrorism.

Extremism

The chief of the pan-Muslim body said such double standards are fanning up extremism and help recruit terrorists, stressing that extremists did not represent the true nature of the Muslim faith.

"Why are some people supporting them? Because they tell them: 'There are double standards -- look what is taking place in Palestine, look what is taking place in Iraq'.

"They ask the people: 'Do you like this?' and they say 'No, we don't like it', and then they get the support, financial, spiritual and moral," he added.

Ekmeleddin, a Turk, further described as inexplicable the July 7 bomb attacks in London in which four presumed Muslims set off bombs on London Underground trains and a bus, killing themselves and 52 commuters.

He urged moderate Muslim leaders to speak out against radicals who praise the bombers, adding: "Nothing can justify this (attack) in the name of any religion, any ideology, any belief."

A statement issued by over forty leading mosque imams, muftis and scholars representing all sections of Muslims in Britain condemned the attacks and stressed that the four Muslim bombers can not consider themselves martyrs.

Unfair EU

Solana suggested that the EU and the OIC could draft a joint resolution at the UN promoting religious tolerance. (Reuters)

Ekmeleddin also criticized the European Union for what he described as an unsatisfactory response to the furor over the publication of Danish cartoons that lampooned Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him).

"We expected the EU to address the issue of cartoons in a more fair way," Reuters quoted Ihsanoglu as saying.

By simply regretting that Muslims found the cartoons offensive, EU foreign ministers had not gone far enough at their meeting in Brussels, he added.

"I must say that we are not satisfied with the result of last week's meeting in Brussels. The conclusion published by the European Union fell short of our expectations."

EU foreign ministers issued a strong condemnation of attacks on EU citizens and property.

Pundits said the statement was more critical of the Muslim reaction than of the cartoons themselves.

The 12 cartoons, which Ihsanoglu described as "insulting, ugly and uncivilized", were first published by a Danish newspaper and then reprinted by papers across Europe.

The furor exposed a gulf of misunderstanding between the West, which defended the publication by citing the right of free speech, and Muslims who saw it as an attack on their beliefs.

Muslim scholars and preachers demanded the Danish government anew on Friday, March 10, at a Copenhagen conference apologize for the publication of the cartoons and renewed calls for an international law banning blasphemy.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner in Salzburg, Austria, suggested on Friday in a joint paper that the EU and the OIC could draft a joint resolution at the United Nations promoting religious tolerance.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, however, told reporters he was not sure EU and OIC countries could agree on a joint text.

World Muslim body criticizes EU over cartoons

By Gideon Long

LONDON, March 10 2006 (Reuters) - The leader of the world's largest Muslim body criticised the European Union on Friday for what he described as an unsatisfactory response to the furore over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said that by simply regretting that Muslims found the cartoons offensive, EU foreign ministers had not gone far enough at a meeting in Brussels last week.

"We expected the EU to address the issue of cartoons in a more fair way," Ihsanoglu told a news conference in London.

"I must say that we are not satisfied with the result of last week's meeting in Brussels. The conclusion published by the European Union fell short of our expectations."

The 12 cartoons, which Ihsanoglu described as "insulting, ugly and uncivilised", were first published by a Danish newspaper and then reprinted by papers across Europe.

They sparked indignation and violence in the Muslim world, where images of the prophet are deemed blasphemous. At least 50 people were killed in anti-Western protests and three Danish embassies were attacked.

The furore exposed a gulf of misunderstanding between the West, which defended the publication by citing the right of free speech, and Muslims who saw it as an attack on their beliefs.

In their Feb. 27 statement, EU foreign ministers issued a strong condemnation of attacks on EU citizens and property.

Diplomats noted the statement was more critical of the Muslim reaction than one issued days earlier by the United Nations, the Arab League and the OIC, an umbrella group of 57 predominantly Muslim nations.

BRITISH INTEGRATION

Ihsanoglu, the first OIC secretary general to visit Britain since the body's foundation 37 years ago, praised the level of integration between Britain's Muslims and non-Muslims.

"I think the situation of Muslims here with all honesty is much better than the situation of Muslims elsewhere in Europe," he said. "That shows that the British model is more successful than other models."

Britain's tradition of multiculturalism has been called into question since last year's London suicide bombings, perpetrated by British-born Muslims. Critics of it say the British should be more forceful in persuading its immigrant communities to abandon their ethnic roots and conform to British traditions.

Ihsanoglu, an Egyptian-born Turk, said he had discussed the bombings and their impact on Britain's 1.6 million Muslims with British Foreign Minister Jack Straw and Home Secretary Charles Clarke during his visit.

"(Muslims) feel they are all under suspicion," he said. "The Muslim community in its entirety should not be held responsible (for the bombings)."

Pakistan, OIC, EU to move resolution in UN to stonewall recurrence of sacrilegious cartoons like incidents
Sunday March 12, 2006

ISLAMABAD: Terming his recently concluded Brussels visit highly successful, federal minister for religious affairs Ijaz-ul-Haq has held out assurances that Pakistan, OIC and European Union will jointly table a resolution in the United Nations in a bid to stonewall recurrence of tragic incidents like publication of sacrilegious caricatures.

"Freedom of expression has some limitations and we will take action against Denmark’s dailies in line with Copenhagen established rules and regulations," flanked by Asad Murtaza Gillani and Mushtaq victor, Ijaz-ul-Haq expressed these views at a press conference on Saturday.

The European Union in this connection was awaiting our visit anxiously but had the opposition joined us than the visit would have far-reaching positive impact, he regretted.

The publication of blasphemous caricatures is the issue of all Muslims, he said adding however, he would in future extend invitation to the opposition to join them in such visits.

He vowed that under section 140A and 267B of Denmark laws, the issue of cartoons publication would be taken to the Denmark courts with the cooperation of Copenhagen Muslim community.

He however, regretted that torching of some western embassies in Islamic countries in this connection had affected the image of Muslim.

"We should lodge peaceful protest. We should not create law and order," he concluded.

Western Double Standard Fueled Anger Over Controversial Cartoons

Arab News, Associated Press

LONDON, 11 March 2006 —

Western double standards demonstrated by the detentions at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay fueled anger that led to violent protests over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the head of the world’s largest Muslim group said yesterday.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, said that in many areas of policy, Western nations held themselves to one standard and Muslim countries to another.

He cited the detention without charge of hundreds of suspects at Guantanamo, prisoner abuses at the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the printing by some European newspapers of cartoons of the Prophet.

“Behind this (anger) there are so many other factors. Treating issues with different approaches, yardsticks, is the main problem. If we are talking about human rights, no one can say there are islands where human rights do not apply,” he said, referring to the Guantanamo camp.

Ihsanoglu has condemned both the cartoons and the violent protests against them.

Muslims don’t object to freedom of speech, but only want Europeans and Americans to treat Islam with respect, he said.

“They really have no issue with the freedom of opinion or expression,” he said. “Everyone is for freedom of expression, but we know that ... freedom goes hand in hand with responsibility. There is no absolute freedom.”

Scholars Urge Dialogue, Call on Denmark to Apologize

In Copenhagen, Muslim and Christian scholars and clerics agreed at a conference yesterday that the West and Islam must use dialogue to repair ties frayed by the crisis over the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) cartoons.

However, the Muslim panelists accused the Danish government of mishandling the crisis and said it must apologize to the Muslim world if wants an Arab boycott on Danish goods to be lifted.

“We request an official apology from your government to the Muslim nation and to the Muslims in Denmark,” said Tariq Al-Suweidan, an Islamic scholar from Kuwait. He also demanded that the European Union enact a law “that forbids the insult to religious figures.”

Jyllands-Posten has apologized for offending Muslims, but stands by its decision to print the drawings, citing the freedom of speech.

Some Islamic leaders have criticized the Muslim panelists for coming to Denmark, saying there could be no dialogue without an official apology from the Nordic country.

OIC-Delegation OIC ambassadors call on UN High Commissiner for Human Rights in Geneva
Tariq Bashir 'Pakistan Times' Foreign Correspondent

GENEVA (Switzerland): A delegation of 14 OIC ambassadors Friday held a meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights here to express Islamic world's deep concerns over publication of defamatory caricatures in Danish newspaper and their reprinting in several European newspapers.

The delegation was led by Ambassador Masood Khan, who is the OIC Coordinator on Human Rights and Humanitarian issues in Geneva.

The ambassadors urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to help Muslim countries to redress legal deficits in regard to respect for religions, and mobilize human rights machinery to stem recurrence of such outrage.

They said that such deliberate acts are disruptive and counter productive.

The OIC delegation told the High Commissioner that the caricatures had seriously hurt the sensibilities of Islamic nations and peoples all over the world.

They emphasized that publication of the caricature and their reprinting in the media could not be justified in the name of freedom of expression. It was a deliberate act of provocation and not an act of negligence.

Call for Concrete Measures

The delegation asked the High Commissioner to take concrete measures by her office to contribute in promoting respect of religions and their prophets and in avoiding future recurrence of
such defamatory acts.

They suggested that such measures may include sending a fact finding mission and asking the Special Rapporteurs to carry out legal analysis of the questions surrounding the caricatures issue.

The OIC ambassadors also urged the High Commissioner to host a dialogue to bring out complimentarily between freedom of expression and respect of religions and to address cross-cutting
legal, political and cultural issues.

In this regard, they expressed that intercultural and inter-religious dialogues could make useful contributions in promoting peace, harmony and understanding.

The High Commissioner assured the ambassadors about her commitment to combating defamation of religions and building a culture of tolerance and understanding.

She told the delegation that her office was devoting substantive efforts to raise awareness in this area through publication information campaigns, seminars and conferences.

She expressed the view that when freedom of expression hurt dignity and religious sensitivities, such as in the case of publication of caricatures, the situation could not be addressed by laws alone.

The viable course was to effectively combat this trend and promote culture of tolerance and sound political judgment. http://pakistantimes.net

Even in the West, Free Speech is not an Absolute Right

By Maura Jane Farrelly
New York
06 March 2006
VOICE OF AMERICA http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2006-03-06-voa48.cfm

Freedom of speech has been a hot topic in the news lately. It is one of the pillars of Western society, but, as newspaper editors in Europe recently learned, free speech is a concept some people in the world believe ought to be limited.

Riots in predominantly Muslim countries over the publication of religiously offensive cartoons have caused some to assert that the debate is one of "The West versus The Rest." But even in Western societies, the right to express oneself is not absolute.

Next month, for example, America's Public Broadcasting system, or "PBS," will air a documentary called "The Armenian Genocide." It will explore the circumstances surrounding the deaths of an estimated 1.2 million Armenians who lived in the Ottoman Empire during and after World War I.

The overwhelming consensus among Western scholars is that these deaths constitute the first genocide of the 20th century. But the Turkish government disputes that conclusion, saying the deaths were not the result of state-sponsored extermination, and cannot, therefore, be called "genocide."

Following the documentary, PBS plans to air a 25-minute panel discussion that includes two scholars who embrace the widely dismissed view of the Turkish government.

"We're certainly concerned about this, and we feel this program really has no place on public television," says Elizabeth Chouldjian of the Armenian National Committee of America, which has called on PBS not to broadcast the panel discussion. "Just as one would not give equal time to Holocaust deniers to get up on PBS and talk about their incorrect views," Chouldjian says, "similarly one shouldn't cloud the issue and misguide viewers by bringing known genocide deniers to this type of equation."

British historian David Irving holds his book "Hitler's War" when arriving at a court in Vienna, on Monday, Feb. 20, 2006.

PBS did not respond to VOA's requests for an interview. But Elizabeth Chouldjian's assertion that the network would never give airtime to deniers of the Jewish Holocaust has captured some people's attention, particularly in light of the recent conviction of David Irving, the British historian who was sentenced in Vienna to three years' jail-time for breaking an Austrian law that forbids denial of the Holocaust.

According to Robert Kahn, a professor at Brooklyn Law School who has written extensively about laws governing Holocaust denial, free speech in the West is not an absolute right. It is tempered, Kahn says, by a complex system of legal and self-imposed censorship that's almost always derived from a society's history.

Brooklyn law professor Robert Kahn specializes on legal restrictions on holocaust denial

"The countries that tend to have the laws that specifically ban Holocaust denial -- France, Germany, and Austria --- either participated in the Holocaust or had serious problems with collaboration," he says. "Even though the United States and Canada have large Jewish communities, and have survivors and people who experienced the Holocaust, it's not the same type of thing."

It is not illegal in the United States to deny the Holocaust, just exceedingly undiplomatic, given the number of survivors who came to this country after the war, and no one who wants to enjoy mainstream credibility would ever do it. That does not mean, though, that speech in America is without any legal restrictions. Robert Kahn says there are a number of state and federal laws that limit expression.

"There are some types of speech, like cross burning, which, when done to intimidate, are illegal," Kahn says. "In a lot of states, particularly in the U.S. South, you're not allowed to demonstrate while wearing a mask. These rules are basically connected up with the role of the (Ku Klux) Klan in American history, and tend to show that societies are very concerned about speech that talks about prior acts of racism…they have committed."

But it is not just negative, or "ugly" history that causes some western societies to impose official and unofficial limits on free speech. Professor Kahn points to the fact that no major American newspapers chose to publish the cartoons of Mohammed that generated controversy when they were distributed throughout Europe. "The United States is a religious country and understands the idea of respecting or disrespecting someone else's religion," he says. "Whereas you could make an argument that Europe is much more secular, and that therefore the idea that you would run something that profanes the Prophet is not as big a deal."

Meanwhile, PBS has not announced any plans to cancel its broadcast of the panel discussion, which was taped in early February, and is scheduled to air on April 17th.

OIC Tourism and Cultural Centre proposed

By HAMISAH HAMID

March 6 2006
The proposed RM70 million Centre could enhance tourist arrivals by as much as 10 per cent in each of the OIC member countries

THE Malaysia Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Trade Chamber (MOTC) has proposed to set up a RM70 million OIC Tourism and Cultural Centre in Malaysia to boost tourism in the 57-nation body.

MOTC president Datuk Dr Raja Mohamad Abdullah said the tourism centre could enhance tourist arrivals by as much as 10 per cent in each of the OIC member countries.

"We have spoken to Negeri Sembilan state Government and they are keen about the proposal. The setting up of the OIC Tourism Centre at Port Dickson will make Malaysia a hub for tourism within the Islamic World," he said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Raja Mohamed said other OIC member countries as well as the financial arm of the OIC, the Islamic Development Bank, are also aware of the proposal.

The project, to be built on an 8ha land in Port Dickson, is expected to take off this year and will be completed in three years.

The state Government would provide land, while construction will be done by a Malaysian company, either on its own or jointly with contractors from other OIC nations.

The centre will be a platform to disseminate information about Islamic countries, their cultures, values and languages among others.

"The idea is to bring all the OIC countries under one roof. Most of the OIC members are poor and we want to help them by encouraging the rich countries to visit the poor," he said.

Poor OIC nations have many tourist attractions but lack of funds for promotions.

"Every country will rent a space at the centre and Malaysia will help promote tourism in these countries such as publishing brochures and others," he said.

There will be 57 lots within the centre, with a minimum of 2,000 sq ft area for each OIC country.

MOTC had earlier proposed to set up a RM400 million OIC Trade Centre on 24-ha land in Negeri Sembilan. That centre will be operational in as early as two years.

The trade centre, which will showcase products from OIC countries, will also house among others, an export centre, warehouse, mini expo and conference centre.

"We are working with IDB and Kuwait Finance House on the financial aspects, while the construction of the centre will be done by a Malaysian company," he said.

Support Urged for Dialogue Between Cultures
Arab News www.arabnews.com

DOHA, 1 March 2006 — The UN-sponsored Alliance of Civilizations conference ended here yesterday after three days of deliberations on a host of issues to bring about rapprochement and co-existence of different cultures and religions and overcome fanaticism, the Qatari news agency QNA reported.

Participants of the conference stressed that ignorance breeds conflict between civilizations and that extremism was present all over the world and in all cultures.

Addressing a press conference at the end of the meeting, former UNESCO director Federico Mayor Zaragoza called on the UN, the EU and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to support the dialogue between cultures and civilizations by taking actions to deal with political and religious issues such as the recent publication in Western papers of blasphemous cartoons that have caused uproar in the Muslim world.

Zaragoza said just 3 percent of Muslims protested against the cartoons angrily whereas the reactions of over 97 percent were peaceful. He said he regretted that the media had chosen to highlight only violent protests. “There is a need to present balanced visions in media and support the communication between religions, cultures and nations,” said Mayor Zaragoza.

Turkish State Minister Mohammad Eddin urged all religious and political figures worldwide to work with a spirit of tolerance to change the status quo and put an end to inter-fighting and killing. He said the freedom of expression is important but it is more important to protect the religious freedom and maintain respect to religious beliefs.

The Alliance of Civilizations was launched in response to a request from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to overcome misperceptions between cultures, especially the Muslim world and the West.

Turkey to mediate for E.U. in cartoon row

BRUSSELS, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- The European Union has called on Turkey to mediate in the cartoon conflict with the Muslim world, saying intercultural dialogue could mend the differences.

The Austrian presidency of the EU has asked Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to present his ideas for long-term solutions to the row between European countries and the Muslim world over the publication of Mohammed cartoons, Danish daily Politiken reported Tuesday.

Gul will meet with foreign ministers of the 25 member states at a meeting in March where he is expected to push for the creation of an Alliance of Civilizations. The initiative, which aims at linking Arab and Western civilizations through dialogue about cultural and religious differences, was launched by the Turkish and Spanish premiers in cooperation with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The Austrian Foreign Minister also supported the U.N. initiative, saying it would be one of the best ways to strengthen the dialogue between Europe and the Arab world.

Turkey is the only Muslim country queuing up to join the European Union.

Alliance of Civilizations meeting goes on without EU representation

There was no representation from the European Union (EU) countries at the Alliance of Civilizations meeting in the Qatari capital of Doha this weekend. The meeting focused on the recent caricature crisis stemming from caricatures of Mohammed published in the Danish Jyllands-Post newspaper.

Coming together at the invitation of UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, high level foreign ministry officials from many countries were in attendance, though without attendance by EU High Commissioner Javier Solana, one important side of the crisis was left without representation. An unnamed official from the Turkish Foreign Ministry said "The West has not shown that it understands the sensitivity attached to these caricatures, nor has it made actions to show it is sorry."

Monday, February 27, 2006 www.hurriyet.com.tr

World Needs Alliance Of Civilizations, Aydin

DOHA - Turkish State Minister Mehmet Aydin said on Sunday that the world needed projects like the Alliance of Civilizations, noting that the West and the Islam world should see the reasons that led to the cartoon crisis.

Addressing the opening session of the second meeting of High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations in Doha, Qatar; Aydin said that the initiative turned into an useful international medium to sort out critical issues by a moral and rational point of view.

Referring to the complicated essence of the cartoon crisis, Aydin compared the tension to icebergs. ''What lies beneath the first iceberg is prejudice and growing Islamphobic views (in the West). And there are many other factors under the second iceberg like unfair political and economic structures and past negative colonial experiences which cause alienation, frustration and anger among people (in the Islamic world),'' Aydin commented.

''Not only NGOs, but also leaders and institutions of the Western and the Islamic world should see these icebergs and they should develop and reform themselves to overcome the problems,'' Aydin said.

Aydin said that the High Level Group would form a concrete action plan within seven months and they believed it would contribute to formation of a deeper and broader respect and understanding.

Published: 2/26/2006 www.anatoliantimes.com

Gül to go to Doha for UN meeting

Friday, February 24, 2006
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News

The U.N. secretary-general has extended an invitation to Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül to attend a meeting in Qatar where over the weekend Annan will publicly address issues raised by the Prophet Mohammed caricatures and emphasize his opposition to violent outbursts and the need for tolerance.

Annan unexpectedly announced this week that he would take part in a high-level meeting of the U.N.-led Alliance of Civilizations in Doha.

The secretary-general decided to hold a separate meeting in Doha to address the issue together with leaders from both Europe and the Islamic world.

In addition to Gül he extended invitations to Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy chief Javier Solana, Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and Sheik Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al Thani, Qatar's foreign minister.

OIC urges equal legal protection for Muslims, Jews

Wednesday, February 22, 2006
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News

The Turkish secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) requested on Tuesday that Muslims be given the same legal safeguards that Jews have against offense.

OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu reiterated his call to European countries to pass laws banning blasphemy. “We need the same protection from European law,” he told reporters referring to an OIC campaign to have European Union countries legislate to prevent newspapers from publishing artists' impressions of the Prophet Mohammed.

“We want to be assured that ... there will be no double standards,” he said, noting that right-wing historian David Irving had been sentenced to three years in prison by an Austrian court for challenging the historical record that 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War II.

Seeking a way out of the crisis like the other international bodies are doing, the European Union decided to debate the concept of the Alliance of Civilizations during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers next month in Salzburg.

As the representative of the first and only mainly Muslim country seeking EU membership, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül will give the opening speech at the meeting in Salzburg at the invitation of EU term president Austria.

“When the issue is the Alliance of Civilizations, Turkey is almost the only country in Europe that has the right to speak in the name of mediating because it is both predominantly Muslim and an EU candidate,” said Nikola Doning, spokesman for the Austrian EU presidency, in reference to a U.N.-led initiative co-sponsored by Spain and Turkey.

Gül backs OIC’s idea of legal safeguards for Muslims

Thursday, February 23, 2006

The foreign minister highlights the need for legal tools to prevent consequences of Islamophobia, which has been superseding anti-Semitic feelings in the Western world in the wake of the cartoon crisis

ANKARA - TDN Parliament Bureau

The drawings of the Prophet Mohammed sparked harsh reactions after being reprinted in several European dailies in defense of free speech, but not when they were first printed in a Danish daily in late September, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül emphasized on Wednesday during a meeting with the parliamentary Human Rights Commission.

Yet the crisis could have been prevented where it first started, in Europe, if the politicians concerned had acted prudently, like some of the politicians and intellectuals in the rest of the bloc, Gül said.

What those prudent politicians and intellectuals did was to say, “Yes, we have freedom of press, but this doesn't mean we have the right to insult others' faiths,” Gül said, and added that reactions in those countries faded without turning into violence because of such prudence, without elaborating on the names of countries or politicians.

Stemming from the ongoing reactions there are currently many risks around the world and precautions that need to be taken in order to minimize these risks, Gül said. Turkey is focusing on this point, is currently working on legal precautions and is in contact with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), he added. “Universal values are respect for human rights, belief in democracy, freedom of religion and respect for the identity of all. Within this framework, Turkey is doing its best.”

Cartoon issue to be raised in Bush-Musharraf meeting

UN resolution proposed for respect of all religions and religious beliefs

ISLAMABAD www.onlinenews.com.pk
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri on Wednesday said issue of publication of sacrilegious caricatures would be raised on President Bush’s visit to Pakistan.

In a press conference at the Foreign Office, he informed that President General Pervez Musharraf told the national security council in the meeting that President Bush who is the head of state of the sole super power and is the leader of the western world, would be asked to play his role in bridging the gap between East and West that has widened due to the publication fo blasphemous caricatures crisis.

Mr Kasuri said OIC, UN and European Union would bring a resolution that will stress respect of all religions and religious beliefs and will prevent such future incidents.

We have asked our mission in New York to bring forward a strong resolution in the United Nations General Assembly, he mentioned.

Aguirre: Alliance of Civilizations might be helpful

Spain Herald February 23, 2006

US ambassador to Spain Eduardo Aguirre said yesterday that the Bush administration's decision to support prime minister Zapatero's Alliance of Civilizations initiative is due to the fact that the Alliance does not conflict with any American plans being put into effect. For example, Aguirre said that Zapatero's project might contribute "a grain of sand" to the resolution of the current crisis caused by the Muslim reaction to the Mohammed cartoons published in Denmark.

Aguirre told Television Española that the Bush administration has "studied" Zapatero's plan, which he proposed in September 2004 at the UN General Assembly. Aguirre said, "We think it might be complementary to two or three organizations," such as the Greater Middle East initiative proposed by the G-8.

Aguirre added, "Civilization implies respect for others, though without sacrificing the freedom of the press and of expression, which are fundamental principles of democracy." He added that this has not been the case regarding the Mohammed cartoons, which touched off a violence he called "unjustifiable."

On relations between the US and Spain, Aguirre said they were "very fluid, because there is now a very progressive conversation, permitting the two nations to overcome their differences." He added that the Iraq question of two years ago had been left behind in the past, and "now Madrid and Washington are thinking about Iraq within two years. We want to see a free and sovereign Iraq with internal security." Regarding a possible meeting between Zapatero and Bush, Aguirre repeated that Bush's agenda is not among his responsibilities.

Rice expresses US interest in Alliance of Civilizations

Spain Herald Friday, February 17, 2006

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice sent a letter to Spanish foreign minister Moratinos expressing for the first time the United States's interest in participating in prime minister Zapatero's proposed Alliance of Civilizations. Rice, in her letter, said she had received "hopeful information" on this UN initiative, co-sponsored by Zapatero and Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"I'm looking forward to the High Level Group's final report and the application of its proposals so that we can identify specific projects to which the US can make a contribution," said Rice, leaving the door open to eventual financial contributions. Rice also expressed the Bush administration's wish to "collaborate" with Spain and participate in this "vital work" of dialogue between civilizations, and hoped that the initiative would help promote and foment greater understanding of "democratic reform, peace, and stability" in the Middle East. "We hope to support a series of concrete Alliance projects that will be compatible with our own programs and goals for the Middle East region," she said.

Rice made five concrete suggestions: an increase in understanding among different cultures, especially at the school level, the promotion of links between universities, students, media outlets, and civil society in order to promote multiculturalism, an increase in facilities for Internet use among youths and marginal groups, and regional conferences to promote interaction between experts from different cultures.

Spanish diplomatic sources indicated that Rice's letter is the result of her telephone conversation last Monday with Moratinos, in which she brought up the crisis of the caricatures of Mohammed, which caused violence in several Muslim countries. Moratinos called the letter "very positive," and called on the PP to support the initiative. He said that Washington's support for the Alliance of Civilizations "is not a novelty," since the initiative received the support of the entire international community at the UN General Assembly in September. Zapatero and Erdogan began meetings of the UN High Level Group created for the purpose in Mallorca last November.

Moratinos added that the letter confirms what he had discussed with Rice "recently," and stressed that the United States has expressed "explicitly" that it wants to "participate in and support" the project, which "reinforces it even more. And if a political party in Spain does not support it, that's its problem."

Text of the letter sent by Condoleezza Rice to Moratinos

Dear Mr. Minister:

I have heard encouraging reports about last November's meeting in Majorca of the high level group of experts tasked by un secretary-general Annan with drawing up a work plan for the alliance of civilizations. This initiative, in concert with the forum for the future, promises to encourage greater understanding and promote democratic reform, peace, and stability in the broader middle east.

We expect to support selected alliance project compatible with our own program goals for the middle east regios in area such as: (1) furthering understanding between cultures; (2)promoting understanding of different cultures in schools; (3) developing links among universities, individual scholars, media, and civil society groups interested in promoting intercultural understanding; (4) enhancing the ability to reach out to youth and marginalized groups using the internet and other means; and (5) developing regional conferences and workshops to promote interactions between experts from diverse backgrorunds and cultures.

I eagerly anticipate the higt level group,s final report and the implementation of its proposed work plan so that we can identify specific project to which the united states could make a contribution. I look forward to collaborating with you as we proceed with this vital work.

Sincerely,

Condolezza Rice

OIC rejects EU response to its proposal on Human Rights Council

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 16 (KUNA) www.kuna.net.kw

The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) troika - Yemen, Turkey and Azerbaijan - on Thursday rejected a European Union (EU) response to their proposed amendments to a General Assembly resolution draft that calls for establishing a Human Rights Council.

Yemeni envoy Abdullah Al-Saidi told KUNA following the troika meeting with EU chairman, Austria, that the EU response "did not meet our demands," adding that the issue will be further discussed by OIC members in a plenary meeting on Friday.

The amendments were introduced in response to the wave of demonstrations in the Arab and Muslim world as well as within the Muslim communities worldwide, against the depiction of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in cartoons published lately by Danish and European newspapers.

The OIC amendments to the draft resolution mainly note that "defamation of religions and prophets is inconsistent with the right for freedom of expression and is among the causes of social disharmony that leads to violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms." Another amendment stresses that "states, religious bodies and the media have responsibility in promoting tolerance and respect for religious and cultural values of all states and societies." Finally, the OIC called for promotion of universal respect for all religious and cultural values and prevent instances of intolerance, discrimination, incitement of hatred and violence arising from any action against religions, prophets and beliefs which threaten the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms. A European official said the EU response was merely to encourage dialogue. The proposed Human Rights Council is meant to replace the current Human Rights Commission.

OIC calls for UN move to prohibit blasphemy
From Habib Shaikh 16 February 2006

JEDDAH — Saudi Arabia has urged all countries and governments to respect sanctities of all religions and join hands in the efforts to ensure peaceful coexistence of civilisations, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has called for joint efforts with the European Union to adopt United Nations resolution to prohibit blasphemy of all religions. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana agreed to play a proactive role on the issue.

Solana, who was in Jeddah on a fence-mending visit after the outrage in the Muslim world over inflammatory cartoons that appeared in Denmark and some other European countries, assured that such things would never happen again. “Be sure we are going to do our utmost for this not to happen again...,” he said. SPA said that the Council of Ministers, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, at Al Yamamah Palace in Riyadh on Monday, also opposed violence while protesting blasphemous cartoons.

Culture and Information Minister Iyad Madani said the Cabinet made the comment while discussing repercussions caused by the publication of the insulting cartoons in Danish and other European dailies that have triggered a wave of protests across the world.

“Saudi Arabia expects that all countries, governments and private organisations stand one in respecting nations’ sanctities, support coexistence of civilisations and understand special attributes of other cultures,” the Cabinet statement said.

Riyadh commended all governments who had taken a positive stand on this issue, condemning the provocative cartoons. “The Islamic world is able to protect its sanctities, its identity and special attributes as it did in the past, without causing any harm to others or violating their honours,” it added.

Addressing a joint Press conference with OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Solana said that the purpose of his visit to the Kingdom was to rebuild bridges, renew dialogue and reconstruct relationship. “Your values we share, and like to have a real solid relationship with you,” he said adding that “we will work to deepen our relationship. The world needs these types of relationships,” he added.

Solana agreed with Ihsanoglu’s suggestion that the EU and the OIC should jointly make efforts to adopt a UN resolution on the lines of the existing Resolution No. 60/150, which calls for combating defamation of religions.

Ihsanoglu said that the statute of the new Human Rights Council presently being negotiated should include operative provision prohibiting blasphemy. “There is a need to cater to Islamophobia in legislations,” he said.

He said Muslims were starting to feel this was a new September 11 against them. Ihsanoglu asked for adopting a code of conduct for the European media. “The code of conduct should take into account the sensitivities of the Muslims and defamation in any form or manifestation and the core beliefs of the religions including mocking and criticising the Prophets, and it should be considered an ethical offence in the European media code,” he said. “We have decided to work together to overcome the consequences of the present crisis,” said Solana.

Pakistan-OIC urge UN to implement conducive checks for blasphemy

ISLAMABAD, February 22 www.paktribune.com

Pakistan and OIC have jointly demanded United Nations for implementation of more conducive and effective laws to check and contain issues of blasphemy.

Such laws would prohibit and contain unscrupulous and nefarious elements to hurt the religious sentiments of various religions, by taking cover behind the shield of "Freedom of Press and speech".

A joint statement by OIC Secretary General, Kamaluddin Ehsan Ogloo and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, condemned the publication of cartoons of The Holy Prophet (PBUH), and demanded unconditional and prompt apology by the editors.

Addressing a joint press conference, the two dignitaries announced that they have demanded UN for implementation of more effective and conducive laws, even if it effects current regulations and resolutions. Even an extra, new protocol or convention in this regard was welcome and imperative.

They also expressed their dislike and dismay over the stubborn attitude of the European publications responsible for publications of the blasphemous caricatures. Because, unless they don’t the Muslim countries would remain quite uncomfortable about the issue.

They, however expressed their dismay at the events of arson, looting and killings in the recent worldwide rallies held by various Muslim countries, which in no way to resolve anything, except further aggravate the impression of Muslim Ummah in the already bigoted West.

They also refuted the edict of Ulema and religious scholars, which (in accordance with Shariat) recommends killing the blasphemer.

Replying to a question about boycotting the Dutch goods the OIC Secretary General said that every sovereign Islamic country has its own right of doing so. He as the Secretary General of OIC cannot stress this collectively.

They announced that they would be meeting UN General Secretary Kofi Anan and Javier Solana, next week to discuss any further implementations of protocols and legislation about blasphemy.

Mushahid deplores publication of blasphemous cartoons

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Chairman Senate Foreign Relations Committee deploring the publication of blasphemous cartoons in Danish and other newspapers has observed that it greatly hurt the sentiments of the Muslim world.

He said that there seems to be a general perception, rightly or wrongly, that Muslims are victims at the hands of the West and that some European countries are following double standards.

Mushahid Hussain made these observations while speaking at a banquet hosted in honour of the visiting British Muslim Parliamentarians here last night.

Mushahid called upon the Muslim elected representatives of UK and other European countries to use their influence and contribute to creating an awareness about the true Islamic values and to avert any possibility of clash of civilizations.

He pointed out that most of the European countries were opposed to racist prejudices and religious discrimination.

He said that Islam is a religion of peace and calls its followers to respect the sentiments of the people belonging to other religions. This aspect, added Mr. Mushahid, needs to be projected and highlighted so as to initiate Europe-Islam dialogue and to defeat the nefarious designs of those elements who intend to pave the way for the clash of civilizations.

He said that we, the Pakistanis, value the Western values respecting the sentiments of the people and expect reciprocity that they would too respect the sanctity of our Holy Prophet (PBUH).

Lord Amir Bhatia, Leader of the British Muslim Parliamentarians’ team stated that two million Muslims are residing in UK peacefully and that no discrimination is being meted out to them on religious traits.

He said that as West lacked knowledge about Islam, there seems to be a clash of ignorance instead of civilizations. Mr. Shahid Malik, MP, Mr. Khalid Mehmood, Norwegian MP and Mr. M.P. Bhandara, MNA also spoke on the occasion. They underlined the need to show respect to the religious beliefs of others.

Turkish PM sends letter to world leaders to ease cartoon crisis (full text)

Dear Colleague,

In the face of recent developments instigated by the publication of a series of caricatures depicting Prophet Mohammed, I felt it necessary to write to you this letter and share with you my views in the hope of preventing the present situation from escalating to a point where it could further threaten international peace and stability. These unfortunate events have created tension almost bounding to a polarization between the East and the West, and between the Islamic and Christian worlds as never seen before in recent times. For the sake of global peace and safeguarding of our commonly held values, I believe it has now become essential that the statesmen and politicians act with wisdom and common sense and display leadership in taking the joint actions expected from them.

Firstly, we all should try to understand the underlying reasons behind the latest incidents. Muslims, as a rule, pay due respect to all prophets. Despite their deep respect for Prophet Mohammed and their strong belief in the Islamic teachings, they would listen to all well-meaning criticisms. They cannot, however, be expected to tolerate so-called criticisms which evidently transgress the boundaries of genuine criticism and which are, in fact, outright insults and degradation of Prophet Mohammed.

We have observed that certain parts of the media saw this whole series of unfortunate events as a test-case for freedom of expression. We have also observed an inclination to make use of the situation to probe the patience of the Islamic world and their conceptualization of freedom. Such cultural arrogance on the part of any culture or civilization cannot be justified. No culture has a given right to insult the sensitivities of other cultures. The minimum prerequisite of harmonious coexistence is that different civilizations and traditions recognize and mutually respect each others’ cultural differences that are perfectly in keeping with the commonly shared values on which our modern democratic experience is founded. This is also a requirement of the modern pluralist approach that understands the need to preserve and respect differences as enriching elements instead of abandoning them to be exploited to create enmity and hatred.

We have been strongly advocating that unless we replace the thesis of the “Clash of Civilizations” and the culture of violence and confrontation with an “Alliance of Civilizations”, conflicts will continue to rise. The recent events have unfortunately vindicated us.

Freedom of press and expression of this freedom through all available channels is an indispensable element of democracy. However, this freedom should be applied with a sense of moral responsibility. There is no freedom on earth that can be used to degrade and insult beliefs, values and sacred symbols. We need to reflect on such fundamentally sensitive issues.

On the other hand, those who resort to violence in their dismay, and those who incite or provoke violence actually undermine their own cause and forfeit their righteousness. Islam is the religion of peace and calls for the protection of the life, property and dignity of everyone living in Islamic countries. Defense of Islam and the Muslims cannot be achieved by methods which run counter, in the first place, to the teachings of Islam.

Turkey supports all genuine efforts geared for enriched dialogue, reconciliation and integration. Our ultimate goal is to bring our own unique contributions to the humankind’s ideal of achieving “unity in diversity”. The Alliance of Civilizations initiative and our determined steps to become a full-member of the European Union all aim to the fulfillment of this noble ideal.

I strongly believe that civilizations hold common values, norms and principles that can allow them to give a joint fight against the many problems that beset the world today. I also believe that the great majority, in fact, long for embracing the other and meet them around this commonality, thereby rejecting the theories of a looming confrontation. It is in this context that we must all refrain from policies that can cause “Islamophobia” to take deeper roots in the Western societies. It is paramount that we act with common sense and a heightened sense of responsibility at this critical juncture. Our common historical experiences and values show us the way. We must not only demonstrate a common resolve, but we must also ensure that we do use all available means and mechanisms at our disposal to defuse the present tensions.
02.10.2006 www.abhaber.com

Turkish PM sends letters to world leaders on cartoon crisis

2006-02-11 01:05:44 www.chinaview.cn

ANKARA, Feb. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday sent a letter to member countries of the United Nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and NATO, in an effort to overcome the cartoon crisis.

In his letter which were also sent to the leaders of the countries with Turkish embassies, Erdogan said, "in the face of recent developments instigated by the publication of a series of caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammad, it is necessary to write to you and share with you my views in the hope of preventing the present situation from escalating to a point where it could further threaten international peace and stability."

"These unfortunate events have created tension almost bounding to a polarization between the East and the West and between the Islamic and Christian worlds as never seen before in recent times," said the letter.

"We should try to understand the underlying reasons behind the latest incidents. Muslims, as a rule, pay due respect to all prophets. Despite their deep respect for the Prophet Mohammad and their strong belief in the Islamic teachings, they would listen to all well-meaning criticisms," he emphasized.

"The Muslims cannot, however, be expected to tolerate so-called criticisms which evidently transgress the boundaries of genuine criticism and which are, in fact, outright insults and degradation of the Prophet Mohammad," he said.

Erdogan noted that "certain parts of the media saw this whole series of unfortunate events as a test-case for freedom of expression. There is an inclination to make use of the situation to probe the patience of the Islamic world and their conceptualization of freedom. Such cultural arrogance on the part of any culture or civilization cannot be justified," he added.

"No culture has a given right to insult the sensitivities of other cultures," he said, stressing that "there is no freedom on earth that can be used to degrade and insult beliefs, values and sacred symbols."

Erdogan added that Turkey supported all genuine efforts geared for enriched dialogue, reconciliation and integration,

The controversial cartoons, which were first published by Danish daily Jyllands-Poste last September and later reprinted in other European press, were deemed as blasphemous by most Muslims.

Over the past few weeks, many Muslim countries have seen violent protests against Western diplomatic missions and a boycott of Danish goods.

Turkey, a Muslim-dominated but secular country, has been calling for dialogue between western countries and the Islamic world to resolve the cartoon row.

Malaysian P.M. says mistrust, fear of Islam growing, proposes dialogue
(AP) Feb 24 2006 www.thenewanatolian.com

Malaysian P.M. says mistrust, fear of Islam growing, proposes dialogue

Mistrust and fear of Islam is growing every day in the West, Malaysia's leader warned Monday, and called for a high-level dialogue between the two sides to prevent disputes such as the one over Prophet Muhammad's cartoons.

Malaysia, which currently heads the Organization of the Islamic Conference, is willing to host annual round-table discussions between Muslims and Westerners to kick-start the dialogue, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told The Associated Press in an interview.

"Bring anybody. We are not saying you shouldn't come, or you shouldn't come. Let's talk. There is a genuine need to see that there is a mutual respect between peoples," said Abdullah, the OIC chairman and a respected Islamic scholar.

However, the OIC, the world's biggest Islamic grouping with 57 members, has not considered holding such a confidence-building dialogue with the European Union, saidAbdullah.

Malaysia - a multiethnic nation of 26 million people, most of them Muslims - is hailed as a model of a progressive, wealthy Islamic nation. Three protests against the cartoons in Malaysia have been peaceful, unlike demonstrations that have turned violent and deadly in other countries.

As an important U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism, it is also respected by both sides of the religious divide, but has not played a role of peacemaker between Muslims and Westerners.

The two sides have been deeply polarized by the publication of 12 cartoons in a Danish newspaper in September, showing Islam's prophet with his turban shaped as a bomb.

Depiction of the prophet in any form is considered blasphemous in Islam.

Abdullah said the reprinting of the cartoons by some European newspapers in the name of freedom of press was grave provocation, especially when the Muslim world is gripped with a sense of injustice over the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

Asked if the cartoon controversy indicates that Europe is becoming xenophobic and anti-Islam, Abdullah said: "I fear that this feeling towards Islam is deteriorating today, and that is a very sad thing. We never know where it's going to lead to unless all of us resolve to stop it and do something about it."

"We must deal with it not only by handling the specific issue of the caricatures, but we have to look at the entire spectrum that are causing these problems."

Abdullah, however, expressed the hope that the damage caused by the caricatures to relations between the West and Islam is not irrevocable.

"We must not allow us to believe that nothing can be done to stop it, nothing can be done to create ... a new sense of mutual confidence," he said.

Abdullah blamed the media for the fear of Islam in the West. The media fail to report the moderate voices in Islam, instead focusing on terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, he said.

"When you do things moderately, it doesn't create a bang. There is no bang, there is no violence, there is no fire burning, there are no people dying. Media is not interested (because) there is no news," said Abdullah.

"But one has to remember that extremists are never a majority in any society," he said. "The majority speak for peace, they practice mutual respect, tolerance. That's the silent majority. But silence is no news. Bang is news."

German, Turkish papers in joint plea over cartoons

BERLIN - The biggest-selling newspapers in Germany and Turkey, Bild and Hurriyet, on Thursday published a joint plea for mutual respect and moderation over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

In an editorial entitled "We are friends!", the editors of the two papers, Kai Diekmann and Ertugrul Ozkok, said: "The Islamic and Christian worlds share values.

"For a Muslim and for a Christian, the most important values are charity and mercy.

"Together, we call on all Muslims and Christians to join together.

"We call on everyone to show respect for the feelings of others, to avoid offence, humiliation and malice and to build a genuine alliance of cultures."

The editorial was also published in Hurriyet on Thursday.

Germany is home to three million Turks, but has seen no protests over the cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper, including one featuring Mohammed with a bomb tucked into his turban.

Protests have raged across the Muslim world, with the most violent in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, the West Bank and Afghanistan.

02/09/2006 www.anatoliantimes.com

City News
Caricature of Prophet (SM): 37 eminent persons condemn cartoons,urge restraint
By Staff Reporter
9 Feb 2006, 10:41:00 From New Nation Online Edition

Thirtyseven eminent persons in a joint statement yesterday condemned the cartoon caricature of Prophet Muhammad (SM) in a section of the Western media but said while protesting this none should take law to their hands.

The eminent persons who included former Chief Advisor, Justice Latifur Rahman, former Chief Election Commissioner. Justice Abdur Rouf, Prof Emajuddin Ahmed, Dr Shamsher Ali and Dr. Mahbub Ullah said, the satirical caricature of the great Prophet by Danish newspaper Glands Posten shocked the entire Muslim world. Muslims all over the world are hurt and aggrieved today. What compounded their sense of resentment is the fact that newspapers of France, Germany, Norway, Holland, Switzerland, Hungary and Iceland reprinted the cartoons one after another.

They said, it seems a section of the western world is deliberately doing all this to fuel the socalled clash of civilization. This particular quarter is perhaps trying to instigate the crusade of the 21st century. This conspiracy is a challenge to what mankind has achieved - multiculturalism, religious tolerance, higher human values - over the last one thousand years.

We are extremely upset to see that a section of the western world is trying to defend these highly provocative and objectionable cartoons in the name of freedom of speech and independence of the media. Printing of the cartoons and then reprinting them in about a dozen of European newspapers cannot be justified in the name of freedom of speech. Rather it is the part of a far-reaching conspiracy against the Muslims.

"We are condemning this from the core of our hearts. We demand that the governments of the countries, where these blasphemous cartoons were printed, will seek unconditional apology to mitigate tension that is now raging all over the Muslim world. We also demand that the governments will also take appropriate steps to make sure such acts are not repeated in future. We expect the people with conscience of these countries will sympathize with our grievances. We hope OIC will get rid of its inertia and undertake diplomatic initiatives to protest the provocative act on behalf of the Muslim brotherhood.

Bangladesh today is going through a sensitive phase. A vested group is active to tarnish Bangladeshis image as a liberal democratic country. We fear that this group may take advantage of the fierce hatred and anger that have been created by these offensive cartoons.

"All those who are wounded and shocked by these highly objectionable cartoons must be thus aware against any attempts aimed to instigate a law and order situation and create anarchy in the society," they added.

Signatories to the statement also included newspaper editors, senior journalists, poets, columnists and university teachers, according to a press release. © Copyright 2003 by www.ittefaq.com

A call for respect and calm

Recep Tayyip Erdogan and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero International Herald Tribune

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2006

With growing concern, we are witnessing the escalation in disturbing tensions provoked by the publication, in European newspapers, of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that Muslims consider deeply offensive. We shall all be the losers if we fail to immediately defuse this situation, which can only leave a trail of mistrust and misunderstanding between both sides in its wake. Therefore, it is necessary to make an appeal for respect and calm, and let the voice of reason be heard.

Last year, when the heads of government of Turkey and Spain presided over the launching of work on the Alliance of Civilizations Project, we did so based on a firm belief: that we needed initiatives and instruments to stop the spiral of hatred and obfuscation that, in itself, constitutes a threat to international peace and security.

The unfortunate events that we are seeing now only reaffirm our diagnosis and our commitment to seek even more support for this cause.

Historically, Spain and Turkey have been at crossroads between East and West. Therefore, we are very aware that the way in which close contact between different cultures is handled can be enormously enriching, but it can also set off destructive contentions.

In a globalized world, in which the relationships and exchanges amongst different civilizations continue to multiply, and in which a local incident may have worldwide repercussions, it is vital that we cultivate the values of respect, tolerance and peaceful coexistence.

Freedom of expression is one of the cornerstones of our democratic systems and we shall never relinquish it. But there are no rights without responsibility and respect for different sensibilities. The publication of these caricatures may be perfectly legal, but it is not indifferent and thus ought to be rejected from a moral and political standpoint.

In the end, all of this lends itself to misunderstandings and misrepresentations of cultural differences that are perfectly in harmony with our commonly shared values. Ignoring this fact usually paves the way for mistrust, alienation and anger, all of which may result in undesirable consequences that we all have to work hard to avoid.

The only way for us to build a more just international system is through maximum respect for the beliefs of both sides. We are fully committed to observing the norms of international law and to the defense of the international organizations that embody it. But neither laws nor institutions are enough to ensure peace in the world.

We need to cultivate peaceful coexistence, which is only possible when there is interest in understanding the other side's point of view, and respect for that which it holds most sacred. These are the basic premises and main goals of the Alliance of Civilizations promoted by Spain and Turkey.

(Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the prime minister of Turkey. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is the prime minister of Spain. )

Erdogan And Zapatero Call For Respect And Calm In Cartoon Crisis

PARIS - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero made a joint plea for respect and calm on Monday as many Muslims express anger about caricatures offending Muslim world that have been published in European newspapers.

Erdogan and Zapatero said in an article in the International Herald Tribune that they were increasingly concerned by the rise in tension provoked by the cartoons.

''With growing concern, we are witnessing the escalation in disturbing tensions provoked by the publication, in European newspapers, of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that Muslims consider deeply offensive. We shall all be the losers if we fail to immediately defuse this situation, which can only leave a trail of mistrust and misunderstanding between both sides in its wake. Therefore, it is necessary to make an appeal for respect and calm, and let the voice of reason be heard,'' noted Erdogan and Zapatero.

The two premiers said in the article, ''last year, when the heads of government of Turkey and Spain presided over the launching of work on the Alliance of Civilizations Project, we did so based on a firm belief: that we needed initiatives and instruments to stop the spiral of hatred and obfuscation that, in itself, constitutes a threat to international peace and security.''

''Historically, Spain and Turkey have been at crossroads between East and West. Therefore, we are very aware that the way in which close contact between different cultures is handled can be enormously enriching, but it can also set off destructive contentions, ''Erdogan and Zapatero underscored.

The two premiers indicated, ''in a globalized world, in which the relationships and exchanges among different civilizations continue to multiply, and in which a local incident may have worldwide repercussions, it is vital that we cultivate the values of respect, tolerance and peaceful coexistence.''

''Freedom of expression is one of the cornerstones of our democratic systems and we shall never relinquish it. But there are no rights without responsibility and respect for different sensibilities. The publication of these caricatures may be perfectly legal, but it is not indifferent and thus ought to be rejected from a moral and political standpoint,'' they stated.

Turkish and Spanish premiers stressed, ''in the end, all of this lends itself to misunderstandings and misrepresentations of cultural differences that are perfectly in harmony with our commonly shared values. Ignoring this fact usually paves the way for mistrust, alienation and anger, all of which may result in undesirable consequences that we all have to work hard to avoid.''

''The only way for us to build a more just international system is through maximum respect for the beliefs of both sides. We are fully committed to observing the norms of international law and to the defense of the international organizations that embody it. But neither laws nor institutions are enough to ensure peace in the world,'' the two prime ministers said.

Erdogan and Zapatero added, ''we need to cultivate peaceful coexistence, which is only possible when there is interest in understanding the other side's point of view, and respect for that which it holds most sacred. These are the basic premises and main goals of the Alliance of Civilizations promoted by Spain and Turkey.''

Published: 2/6/2006 www.anatoliantimes.com

Turkey, Spain urge calm to defuse cartoon tension

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Erdoğan and Zapatero issue a joinjt Muslim-Christian appeal to defuse escalating tension over publication in European newspapers of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed

ANKARA - Turkish Daily News

In a joint Muslim-Christian appeal for calm, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Spanish counterpart, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said all sides would lose if mounting tension sparked by publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in European newspapers is not immediately defused.

“With growing concern, we are witnessing the escalation in disturbing tension provoked by the publication, in European newspapers, of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that Muslims consider deeply offensive,” Erdoğan and Zapatero said in an article in the International Herald Tribune.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül said Turkey was engaged in diplomatic efforts to find ways to calm tension and warned Muslim protestors against undermining their rightful cause.

The foreign minister also warned the West and said hostility against Muslims was replacing anti-Semitism in some countries there.

The mounting anger in the Muslim world over caricatures coincided with the killing of a Catholic priest in Turkey's Black Sea province of Trabzon by a teenage gunman, raising concerns that the murder could be linked to the caricature protests.

Gül downplayed the possibility of a link between the murder and the cartoons. “We really think they are not linked,” he told reporters yesterday. “We believe it is entirely an individual act, but we don't know the reason behind it or who encouraged it.” The murder drew strong condemnation in both Turkey and in Europe.

Erdoğan urges calm in cartoon row, reveals diplomacy as way out

Monday, February 6, 2006 www.turkishdailynews.com

‘Guns cannot be a solution; it [violence] is what those aiming for a clash of civilizations wishes for. As Turkey, we never want to be trapped by such discrimination,’ the prime minister says

ANKARA - Turkish Daily News

The Turkish leadership is insistently trying to keep public calm regarding the publication in European newspapers of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, despite describing its publication as a “provocation.”

Speaking at a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) held in Istanbul yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned violence as a way of reacting, saying that the way out from recent tension sparked by the publication of the cartoons should be diplomacy.

“Guns cannot be a solution; it [violence] is what those aiming for a clash of civilizations wishes for. As Turkey, we never want to be trapped by such discrimination,” Erdoğan said. He also said that the Turkish people and administration would not tolerate humiliation of any celestial prophets as they would not tolerate the humiliation of Prophet Muhammad.

He then called on Western politicians to take a firm stance against insults to Islam. “Otherwise, a shadow will be cast over the alliance of civilizations,” he added, referring to a United Nations-led initiative called “Alliance of Civilizations.”

The initiative was set in motion last November at a ceremony attended by Erdoğan and his Spanish counterpart, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Turkey and Spain are co-sponsors of the initiative designed to unite Western and Muslim states to fight radical Islam and “close the gap” between the Western and Islamic worlds.

Earlier in the weekend, Erdoğan announced that he penned an open letter with Zapatero, to be published today in the European press as part of the joint Turkish-Spanish initiative.

“We said [in the letter] that this [the cartoons] should be rejected, both ethically and politically,” Erdoğan said on Saturday. “This has no acceptable, no tolerable side,” he said. “It cannot be considered as part of freedoms either.”

Turkey, a strictly secular Muslim nation seeking to join the European Union, sees itself as a bridge between East and West and has undertaken a number of initiatives to bring the two sides closer.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül also termed the cartoons as a “provocation” and “irresponsible behavior” that has harmed efforts for reconciliation.

“Of course, freedom of press should exist everywhere but people's values should be respected,” he said. “These almost amount to provocations -- either inadvertent or deliberate on the part of some. I hope this affair will be closed without further escalation and everybody will see the mistakes they have made,” he added.

Erdoğan cautions Muslims to avoid falling into ‘trap’ of violence

Wednesday, February 8, 2006
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on Muslims around the world to show restraint over the publication in European newspapers of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed while describing the publications as a “trap” aimed at portraying Islam as violent.

The cartoons are “an open provocation, a trap ... [that aim] to show the world pictures of violence from the Muslim world,” Erdoğan said on Tuesday as he was addressing a parliamentary group meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“Neither Turkey nor the Muslim world should fall into this trap,” Erdogan said. “The Muslim world must demonstrate that it has the reason, the common sense and the maturity to fend off such provocations.”

The prime minister emphasized that Turkey would remain a land of religious tolerance and urged Turkish society to “not be fooled by provocation.”

Erdoğan expressed hope that Turkey's eventual membership in the European Union would help efforts to reconcile people from different cultures and religions.

“We have argued in favor of that [Turkey's EU membership] as an antidote for the culture of confrontation that threatens global peace,” he said. “And because we believe in that, we will stick to our EU target and continue to advocate our project for the alliance of civilizations with an ever stronger voice.”

Turkey wants EU Troika meeting:

On Monday night Erdoğan told reporters that he would ask the EU to hold a Troika meeting on the issue. He said he would also send separate messages to all global leaders, including prime ministers of EU member states and the leaders of Muslim countries. He didn't elaborate on the context of the messages, but he is expected to portray Turkey's stance favoring the alliance of civilizations.

On the same day Erdoğan addressed AKP deputies, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal also addressed his parliamentary group and touched on the issue of the Prophet cartoons. Baykal said Parliament should convene a plenary session and thoroughly discuss the crisis that has appeared in the wake of the cartoons' publication.

“We expect the government to make a serious attempt,” Baykal said. “We should all know that this issue [the crisis in the wake of publication of cartoons] is a time bomb that could hurl the world in a state of alarm and confusion.” He also urged the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to apologize to the Muslim world.

The drawings, first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper and reprinted in Norway, France and other European countries, include a portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban and one showing him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by two women shrouded in black.

Baykal, whose CHP is a member of the Socialist International (SI) association of left-wing political parties, said he recently had a telephone conversation with Greek politician George Papandreou (the recently elected president of the SI). He made a proposal to Papandreou that the SI should take the initiative on the issue and should call for common sense.

Zapatero condemns caricatures, calls for "Alliance of Civilizations"

Spain Herald February 07, 2006

Spanish Socialist prime minister Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero yesterday published a letter to the International Herald Tribune, in which he made "a call for respect and calm," while "morally and politically rejecting" the publication of the controversial cartoons depicting Mohammed. Zapatero called for an "Alliance of Civilizations" to "stop hate," and weakly defended the freedom of expression by saying, "There are no rights without responsibility and respect for different sensitivities." Zapatero's letter was also signed by Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In the letter, Zapatero and Erdogan said, "Initiatives and instruments to put an end to this spiral of hate and obfuscation that threatens international peace and security are needed." Along with Iranian prime minister Khatami, Zapatero and Erdogan are two of the sponsors of the "Alliance of Civilizations" project, proposed by Zapatero at the UN in 2004. After the "unfortunate events" of the last several days, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment "to the search for more support for this goal. Spain and Turkey have traditionally represented two decisive points in the East and the West. We are sure that contacts among different cultures can be enormously enriching, though at the same time they can set off destructive controversies."

Said the letter, "In a world in which interchanges among civilizations are multiplying, the cultivation of the values of respect, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence are highly important." It continued, "We must build a more just international system through maximum respect for the beliefs of both parties. We need to cultivate peaceful coexistence, which is only possible if there is interest in and understanding for the point of view of the other and respect for what it considers sacred. These are the basic premises and the main objectives of the Alliance of Civilizations, promoted by Spain and Turkey."

People's Party president Mariano Rajoy called on Zapatero to "take into account" the rioting that is sweeping the Middle East when he calls for an "Alliance of Civilizations," and defended the freedom of speech as a Western value. "I think these things the prime minister says about the Alliance of Civilizations are very nice, but he should take some of the things that are happening into account," he said, Rajoy expressed his "solidarity" with all those who exercise the freedom of speech, "even if I don't like what they say and write about me, even if they go against me." He also expressed his solidarity with the citizens whose embassies have been sacked and burned. "It is possible that there are people who do not understand, but the West has principles and values, and freedom of expression forms part of them. It is a value we must preserve, whose limit is the law," he said. Rajoy reminded his listeners that one of the supporters of the Alliance of Civilizations is Iran.

The Iranian embassy in Spain said, "The action by some European newspapers of publishing caricatures and being disrespectful to the prophet of Islam, as well as their republishing by some Spanish newspapers, is ugly and offensive." The embassy said, "It is necessary that those who committed these actions apologize to the Muslims of the world." It expressed its "indignation," and asked media outlets to "stop the repetition of similar actions, whose result will be nothing else but distancing between peoples. It is surprising and sad to observe that the Europe that brags of its civilizations authorizes offending the faith and the belief of others. Under no concept are these unworthy actions, and the offense to the beliefs of more than one billion Muslims, acceptable."

Spanish national police director Victor Garcia Hidalgo said yesterday that the crisis has forced the government to declare a state of "maximum alert" in all Spanish embassies and consulates in Islamic countries. He added, "It's very difficult to increase security since it has always been at a high level." The Spanish foreign ministry said yesterday that it is in "permanent contact" with Spanish diplomats and that it is following the conflict "very closely." Ministry sources said that "for the moment" no Spanish embassies have suffered any sort of problems, with the only incident being the burning of Spanish flags in Iraq.

UN, EU, OIC Issue Joint Statement to Overcome Crisis
By Suleyman Kurt, Ankara
Published: Wednesday, February 08, 2006
zaman.com

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, and European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) Javier Solana have issued a joint statement calling for dialogue in order to overcome the caricature crisis causing tension between the Muslim World and the West.

The trio defining the caricatures as "offensive" in the joint statement they issued yesterday said, "We understand the deep hurt and widespread indignation felt in the Muslim World."

Annan, Ihsanoglu and Solana said the cartoon events make the need for renewed dialogue, among and between communities of different faiths and authorities of different countries, all the more urgent and called for restraint and calm, "in the spirit of friendship and mutual respect".

The text, prepared as a result of frequent diplomatic contacts, includes the following declaration:

"The anguish in the Muslim World at the publication of these offensive caricatures is shared by all individuals and communities who recognize the sensitivity of deeply held religious belief. In all societies there is a need to show sensitivity and responsibility in treating issues of special significance for the adherents of any particular faith, even by those who do not share the belief in question. We fully uphold the right of free speech. But we understand the deep hurt and widespread indignation felt in the Muslim World. We believe freedom of the press entails responsibility and discretion, and should respect the beliefs and tenets of all religions. But we also believe the recent violent acts surpass the limits of peaceful protest."

The statement strongly condemned the violent acts that took place during the international protests and it underlined that these kinds of attacks will only damage the image of a peaceful Islam. "These events make the need for renewed dialogue, among and between communities of different faiths and authorities of different countries, all the more urgent," the statement read.

EU, OIC could meet to quell cartoon furor
The New Anatolian / Ankara www.thenewanatolian.com

Turkish FM Gul talks with Austrian counterpart Plassnik and OIC secretary-general, asking for support to convene EU-OIC ministerial troika

'In principle all sides are showing willingness to come together and we're working on details,' says Turkish diplomat. Ankara suggests hosting meeting in Istanbul

Turkish PM Erdogan criticizes published cartoons, saying, 'This is open provocation; a trap. We shouldn't be deceived by this trap.' Erdogan warns cartoon protesters not to use violence

The New Anatolian / Ankara

The European Union and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday positively responded to Turkey's proposal for a high-level meeting between the two organizations with the aim of calming down the cartoon controversy.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul yesterday talked with his Austrian counterpart Ursula Plassnik, representing the EU term presidency, and asked for support for the meeting to be convened as soon as possible.

Gul also had talks with OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qerbi.

"In principle all sides are showing willingness to come together and we're working on the details," a Turkish diplomat told The New Anatolian yesterday. He said that Ankara has suggested hosting the meeting in Istanbul as soon as possible but also added that Turkish side is flexible and ready to meet at any other agreed place.

Turkey's initiative aims to bring the EU-OIC ministerial troika together and issue a joint statement to calm down the cartoon controversy. Diplomats are still in discussions over the details with their interlocutors, Turkish sources said yesterday.

EU's Solana to travel to Muslim states over cartoon row
Wed Feb 8, 2006

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's foreign policy chief plans to travel to Arab and Muslim countries in an attempt to calm anger over the publication in Europe of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, an EU official said on Wednesday.

Javier Solana's trip, dates and details of which are still being finalised, will include a visit to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Saudi Arabia, the EU's Austrian presidency said.

Austria asked Solana "to explore with the OIC how best (it) can help reduce the tensions", a presidency statement said.

Solana joined U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and OIC head Ekmelettin Ihsanoglu in a joint statement on Tuesday deploring violent protests against the cartoons and urging governments to guard embassies and foreigners from attack.

"We believe freedom of the press entails responsibility and discretion, and should respect the beliefs and tenets of all religions. But we also believe the recent violent acts surpass the limits of peaceful protest," the three leaders said.

Solana's trip is part of a drive by EU leaders to seek cooperation with moderate leaders in the Islamic world in overcoming the clash of values between Europeans and many Muslims exacerbated by the cartoons.

Depicting the Prophet Mohammad is prohibited by Islam. One of the cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper and then in several European newspapers showed him with a turban resembling a bomb.

Protesters have attacked Danish missions in Syria, Lebanon and Iran as well as the Gaza office of the EU. An Iranian newspaper has launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust in response to the cartoon of the Prophet.

Austria's Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel called for an end to the "spiral of mutual provocations and insults."

"Neither cartoons that vilify Prophet Mohammad nor denying the Holocaust or joking about the Holocaust fit into a world in which cultures and religions should live together with mutual respect," he said.

EU officials have said Solana was also in touch with the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council to seek assistance.

On Monday, Austria instructed its embassies in 19 countries of the Middle East, Asia and Africa to demand increased security measures for European citizens and premises after a wave of anti-European violence by angry Muslim protesters.

Turkey takes initiative to ease cartoon crisis
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-09 02:27:34

ANKARA, Feb. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan said on Wednesday that Turkey continued to take the initiative in preventing escalation of the cartoon crisis.

Speaking at a weekly news conference, Tan said that the reaction of some Muslim countries to the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad was tough.

"Public opinion in Muslim countries considered the printing of the caricatures as an attack on the sacred values of Islam, on the other hand the issue was taken from a freedom of press and expression perspective in European countries," he said.

Tan stressed that lack of dialogue between the West and the Muslim world was being manipulated by fanatics at both sides.

"Freedom of expression is one of the basic principles of democracy. But one should act responsibly while exercising that right. On the other hand Turkey can in no way approve acts of violence," Tan added.

On whether the diplomatic missions of European countries in Turkey requested additional protection, Tan said that Turkey attached great importance to their security and the security forces were taking extensive measures in that regard.

Danish daily Jyllands-Poste first published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad last September, one of which depicted him wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

The cartoons, which were reprinted in some other European press, have provoked widespread protests and boycott of Danish products in the Muslim world. Enditem

UN Secretary General : Annan appeals to Muslims to accept apology over cartoons

(DPA) www.khaleejtimes.com

6 February 2006

DUBAI - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on Muslims Monday to accept apologies offered over the recent publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in European newspapers.

The appeal came in a speech in Dubai, where he was acknowledging receipt of the Zayed International Prize for Global Leadership on the Environment.

“I can think of no better place than here, in the heart of the Middle East, to add a few words about the anger felt by many Muslims about the recent publication of caricatures which they see as insulting to their religion,” Annan said.

“I understand, and share, their anguish. But it cannot justify violence, least of all attacks on innocent people.

“Once again, I appeal to Muslims to accept the apology that has been offered, and to act as I am sure Almighty God, who is compassionate and merciful, would wish them to do - that is, to act with calm and dignity, to forgive the wrong they have suffered, and to seek peace rather than conflict.”

He also urged all with authority or influence in different communities, both religious and secular, and men and women of goodwill in all faiths and communities, to engage in dialogue and build a true alliance of civilizations, founded on mutual respect.

ARAB LEAGUE CALLS FOR CALM

Cairo, 6 Feb. (AKI) - As violent Muslim protests against cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed continue to spread, the Arab League has made an appeal for calm. As well as expressing concern "for the violence which has erupted in the region and which has overflown into the assault on diplomatic missions of Denmark and Norway", the secretary general of the league, Amr Moussa, has invited Muslims to exercise self-control, despite "the publication of images that insult Mohammed, the prophet of Islam."
In a statement, the secretary general underlined how dialogue must have the upper hand over violence but calls for "an end to the defamation of Islam and insults towards our Islamic brothers." Muslims are encouraged to refrain from reactions which would only make dialogue more difficult.

League of Arab States urges protesters to keep from violence
www.itar-tass.com

CAIRO, February 6 (Itar-Tass) -- The League of Arab States on Monday addressed a call to Moslems the world over to show calm and restraint. The statement circulated by the general secretariat of the biggest inter-Arab organization says dialogue must prevail over violence, despite Muslims indignation over the publication of insulting cartoons on Prophet Mohammad.

At the same time the statement points to the impermissibility of the insult to Islam and Muslims, which may adversely affect that dialogue.

The League of Arab States deplores the events in the Syrian and Lebanese capitals past weekend. Considerable damage was done to the Danish and Norwegian embassies during massive actions of Muslims in Damascus on Saturday. Crowds of protesters enraged with the publication of satirical cartoons burst the police cordon, seized the buildings of the diplomatic missions and set them on fire. The Danish consulate in Beirut was similarly attacked on Sunday and was gutted almost completely by flames. The Lebanese authorities had to send army units into the streets to disperse thousands of protesters.

European Union presses Muslim states to ensure security

BRUSSELS: The European Union stepped up pressure on Arab and Muslim countries to control protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, reminding 19 nations of their treaty obligation to protect diplomatic missions.

In a strongly worded statement issued late yesterday, EU president Austria said it had instructed its embassies in the Middle East, Asian and African countries to demand increased security measures for European citizens and premises after a wave of anti-European violence by angry Muslim protesters.

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said national authorities must take the necessary steps to ensure security.

''The authorities in Egypt, Algeria, Ethiopia, Iran, Jordan, Indonesia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Territories were also reminded of their obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to protect the diplomatic missions of the EU Member States,'' the statement said.

It followed the torching of Danish diplomatic missions in Damascus and Beirut at the weekend, attacks on the EU office in Gaza last week and the petrol bombing of the Danish embassy in Tehran yesytday.

EU ambassadors held emergency talks yesterday to discuss a response to the violence triggered by the republication in several European newspapers of cartoons first published by a local Danish daily last September.

Depicting the Prophet Mohammad is prohibited by Islam. One of the cartoons showed the Prophet with a turban resembling a bomb.

''Following the violence of the last few days, Austria's diplomatic representatives in Damascus, Ramallah and Beirut have also protested to the governments concerned,'' the statement said.

''In the name of the EU, they have demanded that protection for European citizens be ensured and further acts of violence prevented under all circumstances.'' Austria also summoned the representative of the country chairing the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and ''the concerns of the EU were once again clearly expressed to the member countries of the OIC'', the Austrian statement added.

An EU official said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was in touch with the main international organisations in the Muslim world -- the OIC, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council -- to urge them to help restore calm.

The official said EU institutions should focus on trying to get Arab and Muslim states to control their streets and rein in violence rather than engaging in a divisive debate over the limits of freedom of speech and respect for religion. www.newkerala.com

OIC urges UN watchdog to defuse tension

Wednesday, February 08, 2006 Staff Report www.dailytimes.com.pk

ISLAMABAD: The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) to include the Danish government and representatives of Danish civil society in the ongoing debate on the publication of caricatures of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to defuse mounting tension over the issue.

The OIC contact group on Human Rights and Humanitarian Issues has written to the UNHCHR, Lousie Arbour. In the letter, the group has asked the UNHCHR to help diffuse the outrage caused by the Danish newspaper's printing of the drawings of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

Ambassador Masood Khan, coordinator of the Geneva-based group, in the letter, requested that the UNHCHR plead with the Danish government and relevant actors of civil society to contain the damage caused by the publication of the caricatures

"The Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is not just an icon. He lives in the hearts and minds of Muslims all over the world and is revered as a divine messenger, a lawgiver and a spiritual leader. To distort his message and persona is to insult the 1.3 billion Muslims living in the world today."

Masood urged the High Commissioner to play a role in resolving the situation in accordance with the Commission on Human Rights' resolution to combat defamation of religions.

Cartoon row a 'global crisis'

Tuesday 07 February 2006 8:05 PM GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net

Violent protests over cartoons of Prophet Muhammad are being fanned by extremists and risk spinning out of control, Denmark's prime minister has said.

"We're facing a growing global crisis that has the potential to escalate beyond the control of governments and other authorities," Anders Fogh Rasmussen said as anti-Danish protests spread in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

The cartoons first appeared in a Danish newspaper last year, but have since been republished in several papers across Europe, as well as some in the Middle East.

Accusing "radicals, extremists and fanatics" of fanning the flames of Muslim wrath to "push forward their own agenda", he repeated a call for dialogue with offended Muslims.

"I want to appeal and reach out to all people and countries in the Muslim world. Let us work together in the spirit of mutual respect and tolerance," he said.

Rasmussen received a call of support from George Bush, the US president, and the backing of European Union allies, but there was no sign of the row abating.

Growing outrage

Protests in Muslim countries over the offending cartoons have led to violent clashes, resulting in the deaths of at least 10 people in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Somalia.

UN peacekeepers from Norway, which has also attracted Muslim wrath after a Norwegian paper reproduced the cartoons, were attacked by mob in Afghanistan, while people and buildings from other European nations were also attacked.

Rasmussem said this showed that "this is not a matter between the Muslim world and Denmark alone", but it was above all Danish embassies and flags being stoned and burnt by Muslims.

After Denmark's Iranian embassy was attacked for a second day, Per Stig Moeller, the Danish foreign minister, called on Tehran to protect foreign diplomats. The prime minister warned Iran that it could be blocked from joining the World Trade Organisation if it carried out a threatened Danish trade boycott.

Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten has apologised for the cartoons published last September and the Danish government has tried to mollify Muslims without apologising for the newspaper.

The cartoonists have gone into hiding with police protection.
Some Danes fear the row has heightened the risk of a terrorist attack in Denmark, which has 530 troops in Iraq.

Danish fears

In a poll by Epinion for Danish radio, about four in 10 people said publication of the cartoons meant that there was now a serious risk of an attack. More than half said the gap between Muslim and non-Muslim Danes had widened because of the cartoons.

The cartoon row raised concerns for the safety of Danish troops in Afghanistan and in Iraq, though there are no plans to pull out.

Soren Gade, the defence minister, said: "We have to change the patterns of how they patrol and take precautions to make sure we don't put them in danger." As well as troops in Iraq, Demark plans to double its 178-strong Afghan mission this year.

Gade also said Danish troops on UN peacekeeping missions in Muslim countries had changed into uniforms without the Danish flag for their own safety and aid workers in Pakistan had also removed the Danish flag from their camp.

Cancelled trips

Heeding security advice from their government, thousands of Danes cancelled plans to travel to the Middle East and Indonesia. Arla, a large Danish dairy company, has sent some workers home because of the Middle East boycott.

Fie Sandfeld of travel agency Star Tour said a dozen clients were being evacuated from Bali and about 3000 Danes had cancelled trips to Egypt, but most of those already abroad wanted to stay.

"We currently have 500 guests in Egypt and 200 in Morocco. We have offered to bring them home, but the vast majority are staying," Sandfeld said. "Only four from Egypt want to come home, otherwise we are hearing that things are calm and that they are not affected by the conflict."

Turkey, Spain call for calm in cartoon crisis
Reuters 06 Feb 2006

MADRID, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The prime ministers of Turkey and Spain made a joint plea for respect and calm on Monday after violent Muslim protests at the weekend against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan and Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in an article in the International Herald Tribune that they were increasingly concerned by the rise in tension provoked by the cartoons.

"We shall all be the losers if we fail to immediately defuse this situation, which can only leave a trail of mistrust and misunderstanding between both sides in its wake," they wrote.

"Therefore, it is necessary to make an appeal for respect and calm, and let the voice of reason be heard," they added.

Muslim protesters set ablaze the Danish consulate in Beirut on Sunday, a day after Syrians set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and tried to storm the French mission in the Syrian capital.

Protests against the cartoons flared in Afghanistan on Monday and one person was killed and two were wounded when shooting erupted in an eastern town, police said.

Islam prohibits any depiction of the Prophet Mohammad.

In November, Zapatero and Erdogan launched the "Alliance of Civilizations" initiative to promote greater understanding between the Western and Arab worlds, citing Spain and Turkey's positions as historic crossroads between East and West.

"The unfortunate events that we are seeing now only reaffirm our diagnosis and our commitment to seek even more support for this cause," they said in the letter.

The publication of the cartoons in newspapers in a dozen countries, mainly European, has turned into a clash between press freedom and religious respect. The images, one showing the Prophet with a turban resembling a bomb, first appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten.

Zapatero and Erdogan said that in a globalised world, a local incident can have worldwide repercussions.

"Freedom of expression is one of the cornerstones of our democratic systems and we shall never relinquish it. But there are no rights without responsibility and respect for different sensibilities.

"The publication of these caricatures may be perfectly legal, but it is not indifferent and thus ought to be rejected from a moral and political standpoint," they wrote.

Bush Calls for Halt to Violent Protests Over Cartoon

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said governments in Islamic countries must halt the violence sparked by cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad and said press freedoms also mean the responsibility ``to be thoughtful about others.''

``I call upon the governments around the world to stop the violence, to be respectful, to protect property, protect the lives of innocent diplomats who are serving their countries overseas,'' Bush said during a meeting in the Oval Office with King Abdullah II of Jordan.

The king reinforced his criticism of the images while calling for peaceful protests. ``With all respect to press freedoms, obviously, anything that vilifies the prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, or attacks Muslim sensibilities needs to be condemned,'' Abdullah said. ``I hope lessons can be learned from this regretful issue.''

Calls for peace were ignored as four more protesters were shot dead during rioting in Afghanistan, Agence France-Presse reported, bringing the global death toll to 13. Eleven demonstrators have been killed since Friday in Afghanistan, with one death each in Somalia and Lebanon, the news agency said.

Warnings

Violence erupted in Muslim countries after a Danish newspaper printed cartoons depicting Islam's holiest figure, the prophet Muhammad. The cartoons also were published in other countries, including Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland and the U.S. European embassies have been attacked and the Danish government told its citizens to leave Indonesia, Lebanon and Syria and warned them against travel through most of the Middle East.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan joined with representatives of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the European Union issued a joint statement calling for calm and for a recognition of the ``sensitivity of deeply held religious beliefs.''

Separately, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused the governments of Iran and Syria of encouraging the violence.

``I don't have any doubt that given the control of the Syrian government in Syria and given the control of the Iranian government, which by the way hasn't even hidden its hand in this, that Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes,'' Rice said in Washington.

Expressions of Protest

Bush said the U.S. rejects the use of violence ``to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press.''

``Islam, like Christianity and Judaism is a religion of peace,'' Abdullah said. Rather than tolerance, ``the word that we should be talking about is acceptance.''

People who protest should do it thoughtfully, articulately and peacefully, he said.

``When we see a protest, when we see destruction, when we see violence, especially if it ends up taking the lives of innocent people, is completely unacceptable,'' the king said.

Some European newspapers have reprinted the cartoons to assert freedom of speech, and a French satirical weekly published a new Muhammad cartoon on its cover today and printed the 12 Danish cartoons on inside pages, a step that may inflame the issue.

Bush yesterday called Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark to express U.S. ``support and solidarity'' in the wake of violence, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Bush and Abdullah dined at the White House last night, along with some members of Congress, and Bush said they also conferred on Iraq, Iran and the Palestinians. Abdullah also met with U.S. Senate leaders today.

Bush asks governments stop violence over cartoons

By Tabassum Zakaria Reuters 08 Feb 2006

(Bush, Abdullah comments)

WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday said governments around the world should protect the lives and property of diplomats against the violence that has erupted over published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

Bush said he and Jordan's King Abdullah discussed the Muslim reaction to the cartoons that he called "a topic that requires a lot of discussion and a lot of sensitive thought."

"We believe in a free press, and also recognize that with freedom comes responsibilities. With freedom comes the responsibility to be thoughtful about others," Bush said.

But, he added: "We reject violence as a way to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press."

Violence has flared around the Muslim world after caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad were first published in a Danish daily, and then reprinted across Europe. Muslims view the portrayal as blasphemous.

An Iranian newspaper in retaliation has launched a competition calling for cartoons about the Holocaust.

As he sat with King Abdullah after the two met in the Oval Office, Bush said, "I call upon the governments around the world to stop the violence, to be respectful, to protect property, to protect the lives of innocent diplomats who are serving their countries overseas."

Abdullah condemned the cartoons, but said protests should be conducted peacefully.

"With all respect to press freedoms, obviously anything that vilifies the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, or attacks Muslim sensibilities I believe needs to be condemned," Abdullah said.

Respecting both free speech and Muslims' faith can bring peace

We must resolve the cartoon conflict through respectful dialogue.
Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Spain's José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

By Helena Cobban February 09, 2006 edition www.csmonitor.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. - From northern Europe to Afghanistan and beyond, the row over the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad has escalated. Four anticartoon demonstrators were killed in Afghanistan, Monday; others have died in Lebanon and Somalia. Protesters in Syria and Lebanon burned the embassies of Denmark and Norway. Feelings of fear and victimization on this issue remain raw.

How welcome, then, is a call for calm issued jointly by the prime ministers of predominantly Christian Spain and predominantly Muslim Turkey, Feb. 5.

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Spain's José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero wrote in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune that, "We shall all be the losers if we fail to immediately defuse this situation.... Therefore, it is necessary to make an appeal for respect and calm, and let the voice of reason be heard."

The two men - one a socialist, the other the leader of a moderate Islamist party - pointed out quite rightly that in today's interconnected world, "a local incident may have worldwide repercussions." Recalling the role their countries historically played at the "crossroads between East and West," they have called for strengthening the Alliance of Civilizations project that was established last year.

Because of the huge escalatory potential of this issue, it's helpful to step back a bit and recall how the current situation developed. We also need to "unpack" what is at stake for advocates of the different viewpoints.

The cartoons in question were published last September by Denmark's largest daily newspaper. The newspaper's cultural editor had invited cartoonists to submit for publication drawings of the prophet Muhammad. He knew full well that nearly all the world's 1.3 billion Muslims consider pictorial representations of the prophet sacrilegious - but he wanted to test the social limits, in ultra-liberal Denmark, around that taboo. Twelve cartoonists submitted pictures, and all were published. At least one represented the prophet (and, by extension, his followers) as a very violent personality.

Denmark's small Muslim community protested immediately. In addition, the ambassadors of a dozen Muslim countries and members of other Muslim groups wrote to Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen explaining how offended they felt by the images and asking him both to demand an apology from the paper and to apologize himself, on Denmark's behalf. Mr. Rasmussen said he would not intervene but advised them to sue the paper under Denmark's antiblasphemy laws. They reportedly did so, but, between October and today, reports of the Danish paper's sacrilege and the prime minister's refusal to apologize have circulated ever more broadly through the Muslim world. Rasmussen still has not apologized, though in a recent satellite-TV interview he said he was "deeply distressed that many Muslims have seen the drawings ... as a defamation of the prophet Muhammad," which falls short of an apology. In the meantime, more newspapers in Europe have taken up what they claim is a fight purely "for free speech," and have republished the images.

So isn't this really an issue of "freedom of speech" clashing with the desire to protect the sacred? And as the world's cultures interact ever more closely, how can such conflicts be resolved? One ground rule must be to forswear all use of violence, and to try to resolve these questions through respectful dialogue. Beyond that, we should reexamine our definition of violence and inject into our dialogue a discussion of "sacredness" itself.

Regarding violence, I think it's helpful to consider "symbolic violence" - that is, attacks against certain very dearly loved symbols of things - to be a very serious matter. The publication of sacrilegious images, like the trashing of religious images or the burning of national flags, might all be seen as acts of such "symbolic violence," and should surely be forsworn in the interests of nonviolence and mutual respect among peoples.

Regarding sacredness, many people in the West could constructively join a reexamination of what sacredness really is, and where it can be found. Is free speech "sacred" in the same way that a sincere believer's religion is sacred? (Personally, I don't think so: Even liberal societies accept constraints on the freedom of speech.)

Where the demands of religion and free speech conflict, how should that conflict be resolved? We can't even start to figure that out unless we build a clear, shared understanding of the nature of the sacred - something many Europeans now find hard to come to.

But most important now, we all, as global citizens, need to deescalate this crisis and to establish clear and respectful ways of discussing our concerns. Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Zapatero have led the way. All other world leaders should follow.

• Helena Cobban is writing a book on violence and its legacies.

Artist says Danish paper refused Jesus cartoons

Thursday, February 9, 2006

COPENHAGEN - Reuters

The Danish newspaper which first published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that have angered Muslims worldwide had previously turned down cartoons of Jesus as too offensive, the artist said on Wednesday.

Twelve cartoons of the Prophet published last September by Jyllands-Posten newspaper have outraged Muslims, stoking violent protests in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

"My cartoon, which certainly did not offend any Christians I showed it to, was rejected because the editor felt it would be considered offensive to readers -- readers in general, not necessarily Christians," said cartoonist Christoffer Zieler.

Unlike Muslims, who consider depictions of the Prophet to be deeply offensive, many Christians adorn churches with images and sculptures of Jesus. But Christian congregations have protested at sacrilegious portrayals, especially in the cinema.

In an email to Reuters, Zieler said his drawings were rejected by the newspaper's Sunday edition three years ago. One sequence of his cartoons published by a Norwegian paper this weekend lampoons the Christian tradition of Jesus' resurrection.

"This was not the same editor who later chose to publish the caricatures of Mohammed that offended so many," he added.

The newspaper referred questions to the former Sunday editor who still works at Jyllands-Posten, but he was not immediately available for comment.

The editor of Jyllands-Posten has apologized for offending Muslims, but defended his right to print the cartoons in the interests of free speech. Dozens of newspapers in Europe and elsewhere have reproduced them with the same justification.

But Zieler said he no longer believed "a discussion of Jyllands-Posten's lack of judgment" was any longer relevant to the global uproar unleashed by the cartoons.

"Perhaps explaining my story of three years ago in its proper context at least won't make matters any worse," he said. "Perhaps ignoring it may be better."

Bloomberg Suspends Muslim Chaplain, but Defends Free Speech

By MARIA NEWMAN
and SEWELL CHAN

Published: March 14, 2006

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said today that the First Amendment protected the right of a Muslim imam who serves as the top chaplain for the city's Correction Department to make remarks such as ones he made in a speech last year that "the greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House."

Keith Meyers/The New York Times

Umar Abdul-Jamil, an imam employed by the Correction Department, at his mosque in Harlem on Monday.

But the mayor said the chaplain, Umar Abdul-Jalil, would nevertheless be suspended for two weeks without pay because he did not make it clear to his audience of Muslim students in Tucson last year that he was not speaking for the city.

At a City Hall news conference, the mayor said Mr. Abdul's comments, which have drawn fire, could not be equated with inciting violence.

"Just because someone criticizes the government does not mean that that person is an agent of violence or an enemy of the United States," the mayor said.

"We must permit and demand that our government protect free speech even when — especially when — that speech criticizes the government itself," he said. "In fact, that is what the First Amendment is about.

"Take away the right of free speech, and America as we know it would not exist," Mr. Bloomberg said.

His attorney, Norman Siegel, said Mr. Abdul-Jalil may challenge the suspension.

"Any reasonable person would have known he was not there on behalf of the city and was there as an individual," Mr. Siegel told The Associated Press.

The imam was placed on a two-week paid leave last week when The New York Post reported comments he made at the conference of Muslim students in April . The remarks were recorded by a participant, at the request of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a private research organization in Washington.

A transcript of one of Mr. Abdul-Jalil's speeches in Tucson has him urging American Muslims to stop allowing "the Zionists of the media to dictate what Islam is to us."

In a longer speech, he criticized the United States, saying it had one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, and he cited the plight of Muslims who had been detained indefinitely, without being charged.

"We know that the greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House, without a doubt," he said.

He also spoke in that speech about "the draconian Rockefeller drug laws," which, the imam said in an interview with The New York Times on Monday, played a large role in his life.

Mr. Abdul-Jalil, 55, was originally named William Bostick. He said he was born in Danville, Va., was raised by his grandmother in Scranton, S.C., and moved to New York City when he was 11.

At age 23, he said, he was arrested for selling cocaine and heroin, and was sentenced to 15 years to life. According to the State Department of Correctional Services, he was convicted in Brooklyn on five counts of selling drugs and one count of possession and was imprisoned from November 1975 to February 1989, when he was paroled.

Mr. Abdul-Jalil said he embraced Islam soon after entering prison, inspired by the example of Malcolm X. He later earned two associate degrees from Ulster County Community College.

The City Correction Department hired Mr. Abdul-Jalil as a chaplain in June 1993 and promoted him in April 2002 to oversee 40 chaplains who provide weekly and holiday religious services for inmates, counseling for employees, and death notification.

Two years later he was given a new title, executive director of ministerial services, and expanded responsibilities, which included overseeing 500 volunteers and coordinating visits by children in the child welfare system to their incarcerated parents. His annual salary is $76,602. Until he was placed on paid administrative leave last Thursday, he worked at Rikers Island.

Other clerics, including Catholic, Protestant and Jewish chaplains at the department, have expressed support for Mr. Abdul-Jalil. Several took part in a rally for him on Sunday, as did Norman Seabrook, the president of the city's 11,000-member union of correction officers.

Diplomatic initiatives, world leaders, and international organizations seek to alleviate global crisis
to calm fury over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad

Leaders to Make a Call for Calm

By Suleyman Kurt, Ankara

Published: Tuesday, February 07, 2006
zaman.com

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and the European Union (EU) Common Foreign Policy and Security High Representative, Javier Solana, will call on the international community for "calm" to bring an end to the incidents caused by the publication of cartoons insulting Islam's Prophet Mohammed.

Annan, Ihsanoglu, and Solana in a joint declaration will emphasize the cartoons that insult the beliefs of Muslims cannot be assessed within the limits of freedom of _expression

The OIC continues its works to overcome the tension. Ihsanoglu called for an emergency ambassadors meeting on February 14. At the three-party meeting, a decision for an emergency meeting of foreign ministers will also be concluded. There has been no written demand so far, but Iranian Foreign Minister Manucher Mouttaqi conveyed the suggestion to Ihsanoglu a couple days ago. Ankara on the other hand does not like the idea of an extraordinary gathering at this stage.

Ambassadors of OIC member countries will also come together with the ambassadors to the UN today in New York and will work on the initiatives in the frame of the UN. Islamic countries ambassadors will determine the status of the prospective Human Rights Council and will ask for the insertion of a paragraph on "combating discrimination against Islam" into the Council's by-law. The UN will also be reminded of the decision to remove every kind of discrimination and intolerance reached on 16 December 2005 at the UN General Assembly.

UN chief joins with European and Islamic officials to urge calm on cartoon dispute

7 February 2006 – Responding to an increasing number of violent attacks in many parts of the world over cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, the Secretary-General of the United Nations joined today with senior officials from the Islamic world and Europe in calling for calm and dialogue among communities of different faiths.

In a joint statement, Kofi Annan, along with the head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the European Union’s (EU) senior representative for foreign and security policy, said there should be a “spirit of friendship and mutual respect” not only between countries but also between believers of different religions.

“We are deeply alarmed at the repercussions of the publication in Denmark several months ago of insulting caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed and their subsequent republication by some other European newspapers and at the violent acts that have occurred in reaction to them,” said the statement, which was endorsed by Mr. Annan and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the OIC and Javier Solana of the EU.

“We fully uphold the right of free speech. But we understand the deep hurt and widespread indignation felt in the Muslim World. We believe freedom of the press entails responsibility and discretion, and should respect the beliefs and tenets of all religions.”

The three signatories to the statement went on to say that the “anguish of the Muslim World” was shared by all individuals and communities who recognize the sensitivity of deeply held religious belief, but called for an immediate end to the violence.

“In particular, we strongly condemn the deplorable attacks on diplomatic missions that have occurred in Damascus, Beirut and elsewhere. Aggression against life and property can only damage the image of a peaceful Islam. We call on the authorities of all countries to protect all diplomatic premises and foreign citizens against unlawful attack.”

Today’s joint statement on the cartoons is the latest move by the Secretary-General to try and defuse the explosive situation that has led to protests and concerns in many parts of the world.

In a separate news release, also issued today, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) urged “all parties to avoid acts and statements that might further inflame the current situation.”

“Respect for Afghanistan’s pluralistic culture, values and history, based on Islam, is a fundamental principle of the work of the international community in Afghanistan,” UNAMA added.

Joint un, European Union, Islamic conference statement shares ‘anguish’ of muslim world at mohammed caricatures, but condemns violent response

Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York www.un.org

Following is the text of a joint statement issued today by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan; the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu; and the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, Javier Solana:

We are deeply alarmed at the repercussions of the publication in Denmark several months ago of insulting caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed and their subsequent republication by some other European newspapers and at the violent acts that have occurred in reaction to them

The anguish in the Muslim world at the publication of these offensive caricatures is shared by all individuals and communities who recognize the sensitivity of deeply held religious belief. In all societies there is a need to show sensitivity and responsibility in treating issues of special significance for the adherents of any particular faith, even by those who do not share the belief in question.

We fully uphold the right of free speech. But we understand the deep hurt and widespread indignation felt in the Muslim world. We believe freedom of the press entails responsibility and discretion, and should respect the beliefs and tenets of all religions.

But we also believe the recent violent acts surpass the limits of peaceful protest. In particular, we strongly condemn the deplorable attacks on diplomatic missions that have occurred in Damascus, Beirut and elsewhere. Aggression against life and property can only damage the image of a peaceful Islam. We call on the authorities of all countries to protect all diplomatic premises and foreign citizens against unlawful attack.

These events make the need for renewed dialogue, among and between communities of different faiths and authorities of different countries, all the more urgent. We call on them to appeal for restraint and calm, in the spirit of friendship and mutual respect.

Kofi A. Annan

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu

Javier Solana

Global diplomacy to curb Muslim cartoon protests

08.02.2006 - 09:56 CET | By Lisbeth Kirk www.euobserver.com

In a historical move, leaders of three major international organisations have deplored the violent protests following the publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.

The joint statement from the UN, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the EU also urged governments to guard embassies and foreigners from attacks.

"We are deeply alarmed at the repercussions of the publication in Denmark several months ago of insulting caricatures of the prophet Mohammed and their subsequent republication by some other European newspapers and at the violent acts that have occurred in reaction to them," said the statement.

The text was endorsed by UN secretary general Kofi Annan, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the OIC and Javier Solana of the EU.

"We fully uphold the right of free speech. But we understand the deep hurt and widespread indignation felt in the muslim world. We believe freedom of the press entails responsibility and discretion, and should respect the beliefs and tenets of all religions," they said.

The EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana is now considering travelling on a peace mission to a number of muslim countries to mediate in the conflict, according to Danish daily Berlingske Tidende.

While the US president George W. Bush on Tuesday (7 February) lent his full support to the Danish government, his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, urged the Danish government to apologise.

Speaking on a visit to Spain Mr Putin said "One must think twice before printing, making, or drawing something."

"If a country is not in a position to prevent it, it must at least apologise for not being able to do so," the Russian president said and expressed the hope that muslim religious figures and muslim leaders will manage to take control of the situation.

The European Parliament president Josep Borrel issued a statement together with members of ten Mediterranean parliaments, including the Syrian, Jordanian and Lebanese houses.

The joint statement from The Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly Bureau (EMPA) called for "responsible use of the freedom of the press and of expression" and condemned "any disrespect for religions as well as any attempt to incite religious hatred, xenophobic or racial remarks."

The use of violence against European diplomatic representations was strongly condemned in the statement.

EMPA brings together MEPs and their counterparts from ten countries around the Mediterranean (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey) as part of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership.

Call for editor's resignation
Meanwhile Danish daily Jyllands-Posten has come under growing domestic pressure with the country’s former foreign minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen calling for the resignation of the editor in chief.

The conflict started when Jyllands-Posten in September printed 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed in order to test the limits of European freedom of expression.

"When an editor in chief admits he has made a failure of judgment and says he would not have done what he did, had he known the consequences, then he ought to resign," Mr Ellemann writes in a comment printed in Berlingske Tidende (8 February).

Mr Ellemann described the cartoons as an adolescent tantrum and said the Danish government cannot be held responsible.

But just as all diplomatic efforts are being focused on dampening down the conflict, French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has added fresh fuel to the fire.

In today's edition it reprints all 12 controversial cartoons plus a new one – on the front page - depicting a crying prophet burying his face in his hands and saying "it’s too hard to be loved by fools."

O.I.C. Parliamentary Union To Convene In Turkey In April, Arinc

Published: 2/6/2006 www.turkishpress.com

BURSA - ''The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Parliamentary Union will convene in Turkey in April,'' Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc said on Monday.

Replying to a question about publication of the caricatures offending the Islam world, Arinc said OIC Parliamentary Union would convene in April, stating that, ''I will host the meeting. Those issues will be discussed there. We will issue an Istanbul declaration to the whole world.''

Arinc remarked that a second saddening incident occurred in Trabzon on Sunday, and emphasized that, ''this is very saddening as regards to internal and external repercussions. All our nation condemn this murder. The reason of the murder should be clarified and the assailants should be punished.''

-MURDER IN TRABZON AND CARICATURE CRISIS-

Arinc said he did not know whether the murder of the priest was linked to the ''caricature crisis'', stating that the protests should be reasonable and should not include violence.

Asked, ''this incident incites clash of civilizations. What will Turkey do?'' Arinc said, ''there are some circles who desire dispute between religions. However, Turkey, being a point where civilizations meet, esteemed religions and beliefs throughout its history and considered differences as wealth. Turkey will again be a leader and the best example at the meeting of civilizations.''

Arinc said apart from the OIC meeting, there would be a meeting of European Parliament Speakers, ''the meeting will take place in Denmark. I will have the opportunity to express Turkey's views as the only Muslim country at the meeting.''

Erdogan And Zapatero Call For Respect And Calm In Cartoon Crisis

Published: 2/6/2006

PARIS - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero made a joint plea for respect and calm on Monday as many Muslims express anger about caricatures offending Muslim world that have been published in European newspapers.

Erdogan and Zapatero said in an article in the International Herald Tribune that they were increasingly concerned by the rise in tension provoked by the cartoons.

Erdogan and Zapatero added, ''we need to cultivate peaceful coexistence, which is only possible when there is interest in understanding the other side's point of view, and respect for that which it holds most sacred. These are the basic premises and main goals of the Alliance of Civilizations promoted by Spain and Turkey.''

Prime Minister Zapatero to meet top Muslim leaders
El Pais Spain | STAFF REPORTER February 9, 2006 www.inadaily.com

Madrid

In an attempt to ensure "mutual understanding and dialogue" with the Muslim community in the wake of the controversy unleashed by the publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will meet today with the country's most prominent Islamic leaders - the first time he will meet with representatives of the Islamic community since he took office in 2004.

NATO, EU Islam anti-cartoon violence

BRUSSELS, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- The European Union and NATO have condemned weekend violence against Europeans in the Middle East, stressing the importance of press freedom in democracies.

The Union's foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana, urged local, political and religious authorities to put an end to the violent demonstrations in the Muslim world against the publication of 12 caricatures of Mohammed, saying such acts can only harm the peaceful image of Islam.

"It is now time for everyone to act to calm the situation and to help consolidate the relationship of friendship and mutual respect sought by all the governments of the European Union," he said.

NATO's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer joined the chorus, condemning the attacks on Scandinavian embassies in Syria and Lebanon.

"While I understand that many Muslims have been offended by the recently published editorial cartoons, there is absolutely no justification for this violence," said the alliance chief, adding: "Nor can the freedom of the press in our countries ever be called in any way into question."

Iran Urges Islamophobia Meeting

Latin American News Agency www.plenglish.com

Teheran, Feb 7 (Prensa Latina) Iran has convened Islamic Conference Organization foreign ministers to an emergency meeting to discuss "Islamophobia."

IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki submitted the request to ICO acting President, Yemenite Abubaker al Qirbi.

“Unfortunately, Islamophobia and Western insults to Islamic values and Muslim sanctity is currently spreading through Europe in various forms at alarming speed,” said Al Quirbi.

Iran hosted one of the most violent protests against cartoons featuring Mohammed in European publications, turning the anti-Islam campaign "the top challenge on the ICO´s 10-year program," added the Foreign Minister.

"Disrespect for the holy prophet of Islam has been given broad media coverage like well calculated plots from European states " and some cases even involve government officials, said Al Quirbi.

Iran calls for OIC emergency session

Tehran, Feb 6, IRNA www.irna.ir

Iran on Monday called on foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to hold an emergency session to discuss Islamophobia in West.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki made the request in a letter to Yemen's Foreign Affairs Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi who is rotatory chairman of the OIC foreign ministers.

"Unfortunately, Islamophobia is currently spreading in Europe in different forms and at an alarming speed.

"Insult to Islamic values and Muslims' sanctity in the West has been now turned into a main challenge facing the Islamic nations now. It is vital to seriously confront this challenge," Mottaki said.

Pointing to the OIC duties, he added, "Campaign against Islamophobia is among the main priorities of the OIC's 10-year programs. This issue (Islamophobia) is currently taking place in certain Western states and in certain cases it involves officials of those states.

"Given the new approach of the OIC towards insult to Muslims' sanctity and the sensitivity of the issue, I propose foreign ministers of the OIC hold an emergency session to discuss various aspects of recent aggressions and adopt an appropriate decision.

Mottaki wrote, "It is hoped that timely action of the OIC and its firm stance against enemies' Islamophobia will result in their setback and promotion of Islamic solidarity."
He referred to the blasphemous moves and well-calculated plots hatched by certain European states against Islamic beliefs and said, "Disrespect for holy prophet of Islam, which received wide media coverage later, provoked the outrage and strong sentiments of millions of Muslims."

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