ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS
&
Debate with Muslims over Caricatures Depicting the Prophet Muhammad
(Defamation or Freedom of Expression)


The cartoons, depicting the Prophet Muhammad, were reprinted in support of the Danish newspaper that created controversy by first publishing them:

September 30 2005: Danish paper Jyllands-Posten publishes cartoons.
October 20 2005: Muslim ambassadors in Denmark complain to Danish Prime Minister.
January 10 2006: Norwegian publication reprints cartoons.
February 1 & after: Papers in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Spain, and other countries reprint cartoons.

Some of the newspapers and magazines that have published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad:
Denmark
: Jyllands-Posten
Italy: Libero, La Padania
Greenland:Sermitsiaq
Hungary: Magyar Hirlap and Nepszabadsag
Spain: El Mundo, El Peiodico de Catalunya, El Pais
Belgium:De Standaard; De Morgen, Het Volk and Het Nieuwsblad
France: France Soir, Liberation; Le Figaro and Le Parisien
Switzerland: Le Temps, 24 Heures, Tribune de Geneve, Blick
Bulgaria: Novinar, Monitor
Portugal: Publico
Norway: Magazinet
Sweden: Expressen
Germany: Die Welt

MUSLIM CONCERNS OVER ART
1989: Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini calls on Muslims to kill British author Salman Rushdie for alleged blasphemy in his book "The Satanic Verses."
2002: Nigerian journalist Isioma Daniel's article about Prophet and Miss World contestants sparks deadly riots.
2004: Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh killed after release of his documentary about violence against Muslim women.

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.


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.    

© 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynews.com.tr


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.

© 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynews.com.tr


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.”

© 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynews.com.tr


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 regions 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 backgrounds and cultures.
 
I eagerly anticipate the high 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


More European Papers Print Cartoons of Muhammad, Fueling Dispute With Muslims

By ALAN COWELL

COPENHAGEN, Feb. 1 — Broadening a debate that has set Europe against the Islamic world, several European newspapers on Wednesday reprinted cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in an unflattering light, supporting a Danish newspaper that had inspired a huge outcry in the Islamic world by publishing them in the first place.

The newspapers' actions fed a sharpening debate here over freedom of expression, human rights and what the culture editor of Jyllands-Posten, the paper that first published the cartoons last September, called a "clash of civilizations" between secular Western democracies and Islamic societies.

Indeed, the culture editor, Flemming Rose, said in an interview: "This is a far bigger story than just the question of 12 cartoons in a small Danish newspaper.

"This is about the question of integration and how compatible is the religion of Islam with a modern secular society — how much does an immigrant have to give up and how much does the receiving culture have to compromise."

In recent days, Denmark has become the object of a widespread boycott of its goods in Muslim countries, its diplomats have been summoned to be dressed down in Tehran and Baghdad, and protesters have taken to the streets of Gaza.

While Jyllands-Posten has apologized for giving offense, it has not apologized for publishing the cartoons, one of which depicts the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Images of Muhammad are regarded as blasphemous by many Muslims.

The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has rejected demands by Arab governments for an official apology, saying: "I can't call a newspaper and tell them what to put in it. That's not how our society works."

Mr. Rose called the decision not to apologize for printing the cartoons "a key issue of principle."

Some Muslim leaders in Copenhagen have said they accept the apology from Jyllands-Posten, but Arab and Islamic governments in the Middle East have continued to express outrage.

In support of the Danish position, newspapers in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland reprinted some of the cartoons on Wednesday. A small Norwegian evangelical magazine, Magazinet, also published the cartoons last month.

The dispute has been likened to a string of earlier cultural confrontations between Islam and the West, beginning with the death sentence declared in 1989 on the British author Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran after the publication of "The Satanic Verses."

In 2004, a Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, was murdered after making a film called "Submission," which dealt with violence against women in Islamic societies.

Robert Ménard, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based body that monitors media developments, said in a telephone interview: "All countries in Europe should be behind the Danes and Danish authorities to defend the principle that a newspaper can write what it wishes to, even if it offends people.

"I understand that it may shock Muslims, but being shocked is part of the price of being informed."

On Wednesday, Syria became the latest Arab country to withdraw its ambassador from Denmark, saying publication of the cartoons "constitutes a violation of the sacred principles of hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims," according to SANA, the Syrian state news agency.

The Danish Embassy in Damascus was evacuated after a bomb threat on Wednesday, but no bomb was found.

In Paris, the newspaper France Soir, printed all 12 of the cartoons in question. The newspaper declared, "No religious dogma can impose its view on a democratic and secular society."

Arnaud Lévy, the editor in chief of France Soir, said there had been no coordination between European editors about publishing the cartoons simultaneously. "Absolutely not," he said in a telephone interview.

In Berlin, a senior German editor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on behalf of her employers, also said there had been no contacts among European newspapers to synchronize their coverage.

France Soir's decision to publish the cartoons drew a sharp response from French Muslims.

Dalil Boubakeur, leader of the French Council for the Muslim Religion, called the publication of the cartoons a "provocation" and an abuse of press freedom that was disrespectful of the world's more than one billion Muslims. "The publication of the cartoons can only revive tensions in Europe and the world at a time when we are trying to unite people," he said.

In Germany, the conservative Die Welt printed one image on its front page and declared in an editorial: "The protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they were less hypocritical. When Syrian television showed drama documentaries in prime time depicting rabbis as cannibals, the imams were quiet."

In Italy, the Turin daily La Stampa published the cartoons on Wednesday. Milan's Corriere della Sera printed them on Monday. In Spain, they were printed in El Periódico on Wednesday.

Dominique von Burg, the editor in chief of Switzerland's Tribune de Genève, which planned to publish the cartoons on Thursday, told Agence France-Presse: "You can understand the feelings of Muslims, but we're in a pluralist state. We have a right to do that." The Swiss newspaper Blick published two of the cartoons on Tuesday.

Freedom of expression is a closely protected right in Denmark, to the extent that the country became known in the 1970's as a haven for hard-core pornography.

Niels-Erik Hansen, a lawyer at a center offering legal support for people complaining of racial discrimination, said the debate over the cartoons raised the question of whether it would provoke attacks on Denmark's 200,000 Muslims in a nation of some 5.4 million people.

"There's a balance here between freedom of speech and the right not to be subjected to racial discrimination." he said. "It's a difficult line."

But Carsten Juste, the editor in chief of Jyllands-Posten, said the principle to be drawn from the debate was that opponents of press freedom had secured a victory. "My guess is that no one will draw the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark in the next generation, and therefore I must say with deep shame that they have won," he said in an interview with the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tiden.

Dan Bilefsky contributed reportingfrom Brussels for this article, and Judy Dempsey from Berlin.

>>

February 2, 2006

Cartoon Blasphemy Uproar Gathers Pace

By REUTERS
Filed at 11:50 a.m. ET

PARIS (Reuters) - An international row over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad gathered pace on Thursday as more European dailies printed controversial Danish caricatures and Muslims increased pressure to stop them.

A dozen Palestinian gunmen surrounded European Union offices in the Gaza Strip demanding an apology for the cartoons, one of which shows Islam's founder wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.

Afghanistan condemned the publication of the caricatures and about 400 Islamic school students set fire to French and Danish flags in protest in the city of Multan in central Pakistan.

The owner of France Soir, a Paris daily that reprinted the cartoons on Wednesday along with a German paper, sacked its managing editor to show ``a strong sign of respect for the beliefs and intimate convictions of every individual.''

But the tabloid defended its right to print the cartoons, first published last September in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten.

Le Temps in Geneva and Budapest's Magyar Hirlap ran another offending cartoon showing an imam telling suicide bombers to stop because Heaven had run out of virgins to reward them.

Several European publications, such as Spain's ABC newspaper and Periodico de Catalunya, showed photographs of papers which had published the cartoons. Other European dailies including France's Le Monde printed cartoons mocking the row.

WESTERN FREE SPEECH VERSUS TABOOS IN ISLAM?

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the issue had gone beyond a row between Copenhagen and the Muslim world and now centered on Western free speech versus taboos in Islam, which is now the second religion in many European countries.

``We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work,'' Rasmussen told the Copenhagen daily Politiken. ``One can safely say it is now an even bigger issue.''

Rasmussen's office said he and Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller had summoned foreign envoys in Copenhagen for a Friday meeting to discuss the outcry and the government's response.

Denmark's ambassador in Paris met leaders of French Muslims, who have threatened legal action. The ambassador handed over a letter of regret from Rasmussen, written in Arabic, and an apology from the director of Jyllands-Posten.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble both defended press freedom, but Douste-Blazy called for restraint and Schaeuble said the press must ``deal with what it has got into.''

European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner also urged restraint after talks in Brussels with Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Abdul-Rahman al-Attiyah, who criticized the cartoons.

``We are ... a society that likes tolerance and I think it has to be in our understanding that we have a sensitivity for other religious communities,'' Ferrero-Waldner told reporters.

Danish companies have reported sales falling in the Middle East after protests against the cartoons in the Arab world and calls for boycotts. Morocco and Tunisia confiscated Wednesday's France Soir, which is widely distributed in North Africa.

The Islamic Society of Finland said Muslims there had joined the boycott of Danish goods to protest against the cartoons.

CRITICISM MOUNTS

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Riyadh considered the cartoons an insult to Mohammad and all Muslims. ``We hope that religious centers like the Vatican will clarify their opinion in this respect,'' he told the state news agency SPA.

Afghanistan said publication of the caricatures would give ammunition to those seeking to disrupt international relations.

``Any insult to the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) is an insult to more than 1 billion Muslims and an act like this must never be allowed to be repeated,'' Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.

In Beirut, the leader of Lebanon's Shi'ite Hizbollah said the row would never had occurred if a 17-year-old death edict against British writer Salman Rushdie been carried out.

The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called on Muslims in 1989 to kill Rushdie for blasphemy against Islam in his book ``The Satanic Verses.'' Rushdie went into hiding and was never attacked.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Mohammad, and Syria have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark.

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February 2, 2006

Gunmen Angry at Cartoons Surround Gaza Office

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:06 a.m. ET

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Armed militants angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad published in European media surrounded EU offices in Gaza Thursday and threatened to kidnap foreigners as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic world.

About a dozen gunmen with ties to the Fatah Party approached the office of the EU Commission. Three jumped on the outer wall and the rest took up positions at the entrance.

In a statement read by one of the gunmen, the group demanded apologies from the governments of Norway, Denmark, France and Germany and called on Palestinians to boycott the products of these countries.

Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city of Nablus said they were searching apartments for foreigners from several European countries to try to kidnap them to protest the drawings. The claim by the gunmen could not immediately be verified independently.

In a phone call to The Associated Press, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party, said members of his group are also asking hotel owners in the city not to host citizens of five European countries, including France and Denmark.

In Paris, the daily newspaper France Soir fired its managing editor after it republished the caricatures Wednesday, and Pakistani protesters chanting ''Death to France!''

The furor over the drawings, which first ran in a Danish paper in September, cuts to the question of which is more sacred in the Western world -- freedom of expression or respect for religious beliefs. The cartoons include an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.

Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet to prevent idolatry. The drawings have divided opinion within Europe and the Middle East, where they have prompted boycotts of Danish goods, bomb threats and demonstrations against Danish facilities.

France Soir and several other European papers reprinted the pictures in a show of solidarity with the Danish daily.

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February 2, 2006

Rage at Drawings Spreads in Muslim World

Filed at 12:36 p.m. ET

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Armed militants angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad published in European newspapers surrounded EU offices in Gaza on Thursday and threatened to kidnap foreigners as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic world.

More than 300 students demonstrated in Pakistan, chanting ''Death to France!'' and ''Death to Denmark!'' -- two of the countries where newspapers published the drawings. Other protests were held in Syria and Lebanon, while officials in Afghanistan, Iran and Indonesia condemned the publication. In Paris, the daily France Soir fired its managing editor after it ran the caricatures Wednesday.

A Jordanian newspaper took the bold step of running some of the drawings, saying it wanted to show its readers how offensive the cartoons were, although its editor also said he did not want ''to promote such blasphemy.'' In an editorial, it also urged the world's Muslims to ''be reasonable.''

Foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers began leaving Gaza as gunmen there threatened to kidnap citizens of France, Norway, Denmark and Germany unless those governments apologize for the cartoon.

Gunmen in the West Bank city of Nablus entered four hotels to search for foreigners to abduct and warned their owners not to host guests from several European countries. Gunmen said they were also searching apartments in Nablus for Europeans.

Militants in Gaza said they would shut down media offices from France, Norway, Denmark and Germany, singling out the French news agency Agence France Presse.

''Any citizens of these countries, who are present in Gaza, will put themselves in danger,'' a Fatah-affiliated gunman said outside the EU Commission's office in Gaza, flanked by two masked men holding rifles.

If the European governments don't apologize by Thursday evening, ''any visitor of these countries will be targeted,'' he said.

The furor over the drawings, which first ran in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten in September, cuts to the question of which is more sacred in the Western world -- freedom of expression or respect for religious beliefs. The cartoons include an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.

Islamic law, based on clerics' interpretation of the Quran and the sayings of the prophet, absolutely forbids depictions, even positive ones, of the Prophet Muhammad in order to prevent idolatry.

The drawings have prompted boycotts of Danish goods, bomb threats and demonstrations against Danish facilities.

The Danish newspaper defended its decision to publish the caricatures, citing freedom of expression, but apologized to Muslims for causing offense.

France Soir and several other European papers reprinted the drawings in solidarity with the Danish daily. Jyllands-Posten also had put some of the drawings briefly on its Web site, and the images still can be found elsewhere on the Internet.

The Israeli newspaper Maariv published a tiny version of the Muhammad-bomb caricature Thursday, on page 16.

Foreign journalists were pulling out of Gaza on Thursday, and foreign media organizations were canceling plans to send more people in.

Norway suspended operations at its office in the West Bank town of Ram after receiving threats connected to publication of the cartoons by the Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet.

''There were threats from two Palestinian groups, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, against Danish, French and Norwegian diplomats,'' Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Rune Bjaastad said.

Jan Pirouz Poulsen, the Danish representative office's deputy head, said there were six Danes in Gaza and about 20 in the West Bank, and that all had been urged to leave.

Raif Holmboe, the head of Denmark's representative office in the West Bank town of Ramallah, said the office would be closed Friday and no decision has been made whether to reopen Monday. Holmboe said shots were fired at the Ramallah office earlier this week while the building was empty. No one was hurt.

Palestinian security officials said they would try to protect foreigners in Gaza, but police have largely been unable to do so in the past, with 19 foreigners kidnapped -- and released unharmed -- in recent months, mostly by Fatah gunmen.

Emma Udwin, a European Union spokeswoman in Brussels, said security measures have been taken in light of the threats.

Outgoing Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia condemned the caricatures, saying they ''provoke all Muslims everywhere in the world.'' He asked gunmen not to attack foreigners, ''but we warn that emotions may flare in this very sensitive issues.''

Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamic militant Hamas also demanded an apology from European countries. However, he said foreigners in Gaza must not be harmed.

Thursday's events began when a dozen gunmen with ties to Fatah approached the office of the EU Commission in Gaza. Three jumped on the outer wall and the rest took up positions at the entrance. The group demanded the apologies and urged Palestinians to boycott the products of Norway, Denmark, France and Germany.

A leaflet signed by a Fatah militia and the militant Islamic Jihad group said the EU office and churches in Gaza could come under attack and urged French citizens to leave Gaza. The gunmen left after about 45 minutes. Palestinian employees of the EU Commission had not come to work Thursday, and foreigners working at the office are based outside Gaza, and only visit from time to time.

In Multan, Pakistan, more than 300 Islamic students chanted ''Death to Denmark!'' and ''Death to France!'' and burned flags of both countries near an Islamic school.

Iraqi Islamic leaders called for demonstrations from Baghdad to the southern city of Basra following prayer services Friday.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai condemned the images, calling the publication an ''insult ... to more than 1 billion Muslims.''

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin said that while his country upholds free expression, ''such freedom cannot be used as a pretext to insult a religion.'' The Indonesian newspaper Rakyat Merdeka put the Muhammad-bomb caricature on its Web site to illustrate its story about the uproar but covered his eyes with a red banner to avoid making the image ''vulgar,'' a caption said.

Iran summoned Austrian Ambassador Stigel Bauer, representing the European Union, to protest the publication, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Bauer expressed ''sorrow'' and promised to convey Iran's protest to his government and other EU countries, IRNA said.

The Jordanian newspaper Shihan ran three of the caricatures, saying it was reprinting them to show readers ''the extent of the Danish offense.'' Next to the drawings, the weekly said: ''This is how the Danish newspaper portrayed Prophet Muhammad, may God's blessing and peace be upon him.''

Shihan's editor-in-chief, Jihad al-Momani, told The Associated Press that he decided to run the cartoons to ''display to the public the extent of the Danish offense and condemn it in the strongest terms.''

''But their publication is not meant in any way to promote such blasphemy,'' al-Momani added.

An editorial signed by al-Momani and titled ''Muslims of the world, be reasonable,'' questioned what sparked the outrage now, since the cartoons were first published in September. It said the Danish paper had apologized, ''but for some reason, nobody in the Muslim world wants to hear the apology.''

Morocco and Tunisia barred sales of France Soir's Wednesday issue.

The director of media rights group Reporters Without Borders, Robert Menard, called for calm. ''We need to figure out how to reconcile freedom of expression and respect of faith,'' he said.

Vebjoern Selbekk, editor of Norway's Magazinet newspaper, said he had received thousands of hate e-mails, including 20 death threats, since printing the drawings and was under police protection.

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Editor of French daily fired for republishing Mohammed caricature

02/02/2006 www.eitb24.com

The drawings, which first ran in a Danish paper in September, have riled the Muslim world.
The managing editor of a French daily that republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad has been fired, the paper said Thursday, as debate over the drawings mounted among French Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

The drawings, which first ran in a Danish paper in September and have riled the Muslim world, were reprinted Wednesday in France Soir and several other European papers rallying to defend freedom of expression.

The managing editor of France Soir, Jacques Lefranc, was fired after the publication by owner Raymond Lakah, an Egyptian magnate, employees of the paper said Thursday. No reason for the decision was immediately announced.

Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet to prevent idolatry. The drawings have prompted boycotts of Danish goods and bomb threats and demonstrations against Danish facilities, and have divided opinion within Europe and the Middle East.

The cartoons include an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, and another portraying him holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle.

The front page of France Soir on Wednesday carried the headline "Yes, WeHave the Right to Caricature God'' and a cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud. The publication drew a stern reaction from the French Foreign Ministry. While it said that freedom of expression is dear to France, the ministry "condemns all that hurts individuals in their beliefs or their religious convictions.''

The issue is sensitive in France, home to Western Europe's largest Muslim community with an estimated 5 million people.

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Associated Press/PARIS

By ANGELA CHARLTON
Associated Press Writer

French editor fired over Muhammad drawings

FEB. 2 7:52 A.M. ET The managing editor of a French newspaper was fired after it republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked fresh anger among Muslims, employees at the paper said Thursday.

The drawings, which first ran in a Danish paper in September, were reprinted Wednesday in France Soir and several other European papers rallying to defend freedom of expression.

The managing editor of France Soir, Jacques Lefranc, was fired after the publication by owner Raymond Lakah, an Egyptian magnate, employees said. No official reason was immediately announced.

Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet to prevent idolatry. The drawings have prompted boycotts of Danish goods and bomb threats and demonstrations against Danish facilities, and have divided opinion within Europe and the Middle East.

The cartoons include an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, and another portraying him holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle.

Angered by the drawings, Palestinian gunmen jumped on the outer wall of a European Union office in Gaza City on Thursday and demanded an apology. Masked gunmen also briefly took over an EU office in Gaza on Monday.

Syria has called for those behind publishing the cartoons to be punished. Danish goods were swept from shelves in many countries, and Saudi Arabia and Libya recalled their ambassadors to Denmark.

The front page of France Soir on Wednesday carried the headline "Yes, We Have the Right to Caricature God" and a cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud.

Germany's Die Welt daily printed one of the drawings on its front page, arguing that a "right to blasphemy" was anchored in democratic freedoms. The Berliner Zeitung daily printed two of the caricatures as part of its coverage of the controversy.

Italy's La Stampa printed a small version of the offending caricature, on page 13. Two Spanish papers, Barcelona's El Periodico and Madrid's El Mundo, also carried the photos.

The publication by French Soir drew a stern reaction from the French Foreign Ministry. While it said that freedom of expression is dear to France, the ministry "condemns all that hurts individuals in their beliefs or their religious convictions."

The issue is sensitive in France, home to Western Europe's largest Muslim community with an estimated 5 million people.

Mohammed Bechari, president of the National Federation of the Muslims of France, said his group would start legal proceedings against France Soir because of "these pictures that have disturbed us, and that are still hurting the feelings of 1.2 billion Muslims."

>>

Anger as papers reprint cartoons of Muhammad

· French and German titles risk Muslim world's wrath
· Editors defend right to freedom of expression

Luke Harding in Berlin and Kim Willsher in Paris
Thursday February 2, 2006

Guardian

Newspapers in France, Germany, Spain and Italy yesterday reprinted caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, escalating a row over freedom of expression which has caused protest across the Middle East.

France Soir and Germany's Die Welt published cartoons which first appeared in a Danish newspaper, although the French paper later apologised and apparently sacked its managing editor. The cartoons include one showing a bearded Muhammad with a bomb fizzing out of his turban.

The caricatures, printed last September in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper and reprinted by a Norwegian magazine, have provoked uproar across the Middle East. Italy's La Stampa printed a smaller version on an inside page yesterday, while two Spanish papers, Barcelona's El Periódico and Madrid's El Mundo, carried images of the cartoon as it appeared in the Danish press. The pictures also appeared in Dutch and Swiss newspapers.

There have been protests in several countries yesterday, as well as a boycott of Danish goods. Saudi Arabia has withdrawn its ambassador to Copenhagen, Syria recalled its chief diplomat, while Libya has closed its embassy. On Monday, gunmen from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade briefly occupied the EU's office in the Gaza Strip, demanding that Denmark and Norway apologise. There was a bomb hoax at the Danish embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, yesterday.

The front page of the daily France Soir carried the defiant headline: "Yes, we have the right to caricature God," and a cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud. Inside, the paper ran the drawings.

But last night it was reported that the paper's managing editor had been sacked and an apology issued. According to Agence France Presse, France Soir's owner, Raymond Lakah, said that he removed Jacques Lefranc "as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual".

The paper's initial decision drew condemnation from the French foreign ministry, which acknowledged the importance of freedom of expression but said France condemned "all that hurts individuals in their beliefs or their religious convictions". The rare governmental rebuke revealed domestic sensitivity; France is home to western Europe's largest Muslim community with an estimated 5 million people. Germany has about 3 million.

The centre-right Die Welt also ran the caricature on the front page, reporting that Muslim groups had forced the Danish newspaper to issue an apology. It described the protests as hypocritical, pointing out Syrian TV had depicted Jewish rabbis as cannibals. Yesterday Roger Köppel, editor-in-chief of Die Welt, said he had no regrets. He told the Guardian: "It's at the very core of our culture that the most sacred things can be subjected to criticism, laughter and satire. If we stop using our journalistic right of freedom of expression within legal boundaries then we start to have a kind of appeasement mentality. This is a remarkable issue. It's very important we did it. Without this there would be no Life of Brian."

Muslim groups in both countries were furious. "It's odious and we totally disapprove of it," said Dalil Boubakeur, president of the French Muslim Council. "It's a real provocation towards the millions of Muslims in France." The council planned legal action against France Soir, he said, and he intended to complain to Denmark's ambassador.

The "blasphemous" cartoons were reminiscent of the caricatures of Jews published by the Nazi propaganda sheet Der Stürmer, Michael Muhammad Pfaff, of the German Muslim League, told the Guardian."Press freedom shouldn't be used to insult people. We Germans need to know our history."

Denmark 's prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, on Monday begged Arab countries not to boycott Danish products. Lego and Bang & Olufsen have been boycotted, and a Danish milk firm in Riyadh has had to close. The Arab League condemned the cartoons, demanding those responsible "be punished".

On the net, Iraqi groups threatened attacks against the 500 Danish soldiers in southern Iraq. Muslim hackers have tried to shut the Danish newspaper's website and a hoax bomb threat yesterday forced its building to be evacuated.

Extract from yesterday's France Soir

It is necessary to crush once again the infamous thing, as Voltaire liked to say. This religious intolerance that accepts no mockery, no satire, no ridicule. We citizens of secular and democratic societies are summoned to condemn a dozen caricatures judged offensive to Islam. Summoned by who? By the Muslim Brotherhood, by Syria, the Islamic Jihad, the interior ministers of Arab countries, the Islamic Conferences - all paragons of tolerance, humanism and democracy.

So, we must apologise to them because the freedom of expression they refuse, day after day, to each of their citizens, faithful or militant, is exercised in a society that is not subject to their iron rule. It's the world upside down. No, we will never apologise for being free to speak, to think and to believe.

Because these self-proclaimed doctors of law have made this a point of principle, we have to be firm. They can claim whatever they like but we have the right to caricature Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, Yahve and all forms of theism. It's called freedom of expression in a secular country ...

For centuries the Catholic church was little better than this fanaticism. But the French Revolution solved that, rendering to God that which came from him and to Caesar what was due to him.

>>

Storm grows over Mohammad cartoons

(CNN) -- The international storm over cartoon drawings of the Prophet Mohammad published in European media gathered pace across the Islamic world Thursday with angry demonstrations and the shutting down of the EU office in Gaza City.

In Paris, the daily newspaper France Soir fired its managing editor after it republished the caricatures Wednesday, and in Pakistan protesters marched chanting "Death to Denmark" and "Death to France."

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying the cartoons -- one depicting the founder of Islam wearing a turban resembling a bomb --showed press freedom should have its limits.

"The cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad are an attack on our spiritual values. There should be a limit to press freedom," the state Anatolian news agency quoted Erdogan as telling French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy during talks in Ankara.

Meanwhile, Denmark summoned overseas envoys in Copenhagen for talks, Reuters reported.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the issue had gone beyond a feud between Copenhagen and the Muslim world and now centered on Western free speech versus taboos in Islam, which is the second religion in many European countries.

In continuing protests, Palestinian gunmen shut the European Union office Thursday in Gaza City, writing on the door that the office would remain closed until the Europeans apologize to Muslims, Palestinian security sources told CNN.

Wearing masks, the men -- from Islamic Jihad and the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah -- fired bullets into the air and one of them read demands.

On Monday, a similar demonstration occurred in Gaza City to protest of a series of cartoons in a Danish newspaper considered offensive by many Muslims.

Palestinian officials said the gunmen were threatening to kidnap European workers if the European Union did not apologize.

The drawings first ran in a Danish paper in September.

The same 12 cartoons were published Wednesday by two European newspapers -- Die Welt in Berlin, and France Soir in Paris -- who characterized the publications as a matter of free speech.

France Soir published the cartoons under the headline, "Yes, one has the right to caricature God."

Both newspapers said they were publishing the cartoons in solidarity with the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which both newspapers said had the right to publish the cartoons in a free society with a free press.

'Editor fired'

Following the publication in Paris, according to the authoritative daily newspaper Le Monde, the publisher of France Soir, Raymond Lakah, fired the editorial director of the newspaper, Jacques Lefranc.

According to Le Monde, which described Lakah as "Franco-Egyptian," the publisher issued a statement saying he had decided to fire Lefranc as president and director of the newspaper in "a strong sign of respect to the intimate convictions and beliefs of each individual."

The statement continued, "We present our regrets to the Muslim community and to all people who have been shocked or made indignant by this publication." Le Monde said that distribution of the edition of France Soir had been blocked in Morocco and Tunisia because of the cartoons.

On Wednesday, Iraqis urged their government to cut diplomatic ties with Denmark and Norway because of the publication of the cartoons.

The Arabic-language news channel Al-Jazeera broadcast a report with the cartoons heavily distorted.

The culture editor of Jyllands-Posten, Fleming Rose, apologized for the publication of the cartoons, saying the newspaper did not mean to offend Muslims and said the cartoons had to be understood in context.

Norway suspended operations at its office in the West Bank town of Ram, just outside of Jerusalem, after receiving threats connected to a Norwegian newspaper's publication of the cartoons.

Outgoing Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia on Thursday condemned the caricatures, saying they "provoke all Muslims everywhere in the world."

"We hope that the concerned governments are attentive to the sensitivity of this issue," Qureia told AP.

He asked gunmen not to attack foreigners. "But we warn that emotions may flare in this very sensitive issues."

Afghanistan said publication of the caricatures would give ammunition to those seeking to disrupt international relations.

"Any insult to the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) is an insult to more than 1 billion Muslims and an act like this must never be allowed to be repeated," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.

Students march

In Pakistan, more than 300 Islamic students protested, chanting "Death to Denmark" and "Death to France."

Iran's Foreign Ministry has summoned Austrian Ambassador Stigel Bauer, as representing the European Union, to protest the publication, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Bauer expressed "sorrow" over the incident and promised to convey Iran's protest to his government and other EU countries, the agency reported. Austria currently holds the rotating presidency of the 25-nation European Union.

A Jordanian newspaper took the bold step of publishing three of the caricatures Thursday, saying it was reprinting them to show readers "the extent of the Danish offense."

Next to the drawings, the Arabic weekly Shihan said in a headline: "This is how the Danish newspaper portrayed Prophet Muhammad, may God's blessing and peace be upon him."

Iraqi Islamic leaders urged worshippers to stage demonstrations from Baghdad to the southern city of Basra following main weekly prayer services Friday to condemn the caricatures.

The director of media rights group Reporters Without Borders, Robert Menard, called for calm. "We need to figure out how to reconcile freedom of expression and respect of faith," he said.

Boycott of Danish goods

In an interview with al Arabiya television, Rasmussen said he could not be held responsible for what is published in the press but that all parties should avoid escalating the row.

"We are all also responsible toward religious feelings. We have a sizable Muslim community in Denmark ... in my party there are Muslims," he said.

Syria and Saudi Arabia have recalled their envoys from Denmark and anti-Danish protests have erupted.

The Danish Foreign Ministry said it had been exposed to a flood of email from angry Muslims attempting to shut down its server. In the past week, the ministry's IT system has blocked almost one million mails, mainly the Middle East, it said.

The clash has also had commercial repercussions. Danish companies have reported sales falling in the Middle East amid calls for boycotts.

Rasmussen refused last October to meet envoys of 11 Muslim states who wanted him to punish Jyllands-Posten.

Copyright 2006 CNN

>>

February 1, 2006 New York Times

Papers Republish Controversial Cartoons

Filed at 7:35 p.m. ET

PARIS (AP) -- French and German newspapers republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad on Wednesday in what they called a defense of freedom of expression, sparking fresh anger from Muslims.

The drawings have divided opinion within Europe and the Middle East since a Danish newspaper first printed them in September. Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet to prevent idolatry.

The cartoons include an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse and another portraying him holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle.

The front page of the daily France Soir on Wednesday carried the headline ''Yes, We Have the Right to Caricature God'' along with a cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud. Inside, the paper reran the Danish drawings.

Germany's Die Welt daily printed one of the drawings on its front page, arguing that a ''right to blasphemy'' was anchored in democratic freedoms. The Berliner Zeitung daily printed two of the caricatures as part of its coverage of the controversy.

Italy's La Stampa printed a small version of the offending caricature, on page 13. Two Spanish papers, Barcelona's El Periodico and Madrid's El Mundo, also carried the photos.

The decision by French Soir drew a stern but measured reaction from the government.

''Press liberties which French authorities defend everywhere in the world cannot be questioned. However, this has to be done within the spirit of tolerance and the respect of faiths and religions,'' said French Foreign Minister FM Philippe Douste-Blazy during a visit to Ankara, Turkey.

It is unusual for the Foreign Ministry to comment on the contents of French publications, but the issue is sensitive at home. France has Western Europe's largest Muslim community with an estimated 5 million people.

France Soir, which is owned by an Egyptian magnate and has struggled to attract readers, justified its decision.

''The appearance of the 12 drawings in the Danish press provoked emotions in the Muslim world because the representation of Allah and his prophet is forbidden. But because no religious dogma can impose itself on a democratic and secular society, France Soir is publishing the incriminating caricatures,'' the paper said.

The Danish daily Jyllands-Posten originally published the cartoons after asking artists to depict Islam's prophet to challenge what it perceived was self-censorship among artists dealing with Islamic issues. A Norwegian newspaper reprinted the images earlier this month.

Angered by the drawings, masked Palestinian gunmen briefly took over a European Union office in Gaza on Monday. Syria called for the offenders to be punished. Danish goods were swept from shelves in many countries, and Saudi Arabia and Libya recalled their ambassadors to Denmark.

The Jyllands-Posten -- which received a bomb threat over the drawings -- has apologized for hurting Muslims' feelings but not for publishing the cartoons. Its editor said Wednesday, however, that he would not have printed the drawings had he foreseen the consequences.

Carsten Juste also said the international furor amounted to a victory for opponents of free expression.

''Those who have won are dictatorships in the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia, where they cut criminals' hands and give women no rights,'' Juste told The Associated Press. ''The dark dictatorships have won.''

Demonstrations and condemnations across the Muslim world continued.

Syria on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Denmark for consultations over the drawings, Syria's official SANA news agency said, and the Supreme Council of Moroccan religious leaders, led by Morocco's King Mohammed VI, denounced the drawings.

An anonymous caller told the Danish embassy in Syria that there was a bomb in the ambassador's office. The building was evacuated, but no bomb was found.

In Turkey, dozens of protesters from a small Islamic party staged a demonstration in front of the Danish Embassy. About 200 riot police watched the crowd from the Felicity Party.

A Norwegian official visiting Beirut, Lebanon, said the drawings encouraged distrust between people of different faiths.

''This is unfortunate and regrettable,'' Norway's deputy state secretary for foreign affairs, Raymond Johansen, said.

There was also anger in France.

Mohammed Bechari, president of the National Federation of the Muslims of France, said his group would start legal proceedings against France Soir because of ''these pictures that have disturbed us, and that are still hurting the feelings of 1.2 billion Muslims.''

>>

Denmark Cannot Use Freedom of Expression as Argument for Defamation

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government noted that freedom of expression could not be used as an argument for the Dannish mass media to insult or attack a religious symbol.

"Indonesia is also a democratic state and highly respects to freedom of expression. But such freedom cannot be used as an argument to insult a religion," a spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Yuri O. Thamrin said here, Wednesday.

Indonesia and countries in the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) such as Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, and Iran have conveyed strong protest to the Dannish government in its Extraordinary Summit in Mecca last December.

The protest, Yuri said, was a high-rank one as it was made by many Islamic countries.

OIC in the UN forum has issued a resolution on Combating Religion Defamation which was also sponsored by Indonesia.

Yuri deplored Denmark response to the protest, that they could do nothing as it would be against freedom of expression.

Earlier on Sunday, Dennish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the government could not take legal action against publication of Prophet Muhammad caricatures in a local newspaper despite the closure of Lybian embassy in Copenhagen amidst world muslims anger over the issue.

Since the Jyllands-Posten published the caricatures last September, Dennish government had repeatedly defended its mass media using the argument of freedom of expression.

The government could not influence mass media, therefore it could not be held responsible for what has been published by the media, Fogh Rasmussen said.

The caricature portrayed the Prophet Muhammad cled in time-bomb shaped turban, showing a Badui posture with staring eyes and an unsheathed sword. He was accompanied by two women in black attires.

The picture was re-printed in a Norway magazine which has sparked anger in predominantly muslim countries.

Earlier last week, Saudi Arabia has withdrawn its ambassador to Denmark and religious leaders of the country called on a boycott against Dennish products.

Similarly, Qatar has also condemned publication of such caricature which insulted Prophet Muhammad.

Muslims in Denmark and all over the world have protested the 12 caricatures published by Jyllands-Posten last September because the portraying of Prophet Muhammad is a defamation.(*)

LKBN ANTARA Copyright © 2005  

>>

January 31, 2006 New York Times

Caricature of Muhammad Leads to Boycott of Danish Goods

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 30 — A long-running controversy over the publication of caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad by a Danish newspaper boiled over in the past few days as a boycott brought sales of some Danish products to a halt in Arab countries across the Middle East, while Danish interests came under attack.

A diverse group of Muslim activists has stirred a consumer uproar in one of Denmark's fastest-growing packaged-foods markets in a case pitting freedom of the press against religious sensitivity, and which is playing out in the arenas of diplomacy and global trade.

In recent days, Saudi Arabia and Libya have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark, protests have been staged in places like Dubai, where they are virtually unheard of, and Arab and multinational companies have placed ads in Middle Eastern newspapers to deny any connection to Danish companies.

On Monday, Denmark called for its citizens in the Middle East to exercise extra vigilance. The Danish manufacturer, Arla Foods, which normally sells $1.5 million worth of dairy products a day in the region, announced that its sales there had come to a halt. And two of its employees in Saudi Arabia were beaten by angry customers, The Associated Press reported.

"This is a public uprising," said Louis Honoré, a spokesman for Arla, Europe's second-largest dairy company. "This has spread through the region like wildfire. And the boycott has been practically 100 percent."

Other Danish companies reported dramatic sales declines as well. Trade between Denmark and the Persian Gulf amounts to about $1 billion per year, said Thomas Bay, the consul general of Denmark in Dubai.

"Consumers have a lot of power today," Mr. Bay said. "I'm a little shocked we were not able to settle this issue before."

The controversy has been simmering since the September 2005 publication by the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten of 12 caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad, including one that shows him wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb with a lit fuse. Islam strictly forbids depictions of the prophet.

Flemming Rose, the newspaper's culture editor, said the works were not intended to offend, and were in keeping with a tradition of satirical cartoons. "These were not directed against Muslims, but against people in cultural life in Europe who are submitting themselves to self-censorship when dealing with Islam," he said by telephone on Monday.

Muslim groups in Denmark, and then across the Middle East, demanded apologies from the newspaper and the Danish government.

Late Monday, the newspaper issued an apology. "The drawings are not against the Danish law but have indisputably insulted many Muslims, for which we shall apologize," the newspaper's statement said, according to Reuters.

Danish authorities have expressed regret, but have refused to take action. "We have freedom of the press and the government can't get involved in these kinds of matters," said Mr. Bay, the Danish consul.

Muslim activists say the government had essentially snubbed them, hoping the issue would go away. But in the last few days, it has taken on a life of its own.

Cellphone text messages have zipped throughout the region calling for a boycott and demonstrations. A boycott began in Saudi Arabia, followed by Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other Persian Gulf countries.

On Sunday, Mohammed al-Dhaheri, the Emirates' minister of justice and Islamic affairs, called the cartoons "disgusting and irresponsible," in comments published by the official news agency, WAM.

In Gaza on Monday, about a dozen gunmen demanded an apology from the Danish government and fired automatic rifles in the air in front of the European Union office.

In Dubai, Mohammad Danani, walking Monday night past an empty shelf where Danish cheeses are usually on display, expressed satisfaction. "I will cut them off 100 percent because there is no respect," he said. "It's no longer an issue of apologizing. Now, they have to learn their lesson."

>>

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Muhammad caricatures spark freedom of expression debate in Europe
Angela A. Onikepe at 3:25 AM ET

[JURIST Europe] Caricatures of the Islamic prophet Muhammad were reprinted in newspapers on Wednesday in Italy, Germany, France and Spain, sparking a new debate over freedom of expression in Europe and drawing protests from Muslims in Europe and the Middle East. France Soir [media website in French] ran the front page headline "Yes, we have the right to caricature God" complete with a color reprint of a cartoon depicting Muhammad, but the managing editor was fired [Islam Online report; Le Monde report in French with photo] later Wednesday. The headline drew a rare rebuke from the French government, which emphasized the importance of freedom of expression but criticized that which hurts individuals' religious beliefs. Depictions of the Muhammad are considered sacrilege in Islam. The cartoons were initially printed [Guardian report] in September 2005 in Jyllands-Posten [media website in Danish], a Danish newspaper. Various protests have ensued from the boycotting of Danish goods to Saudi Arabia withdrawing its ambassador to Copenhagen and Libya closing its embassy [JURIST report]. The Guardian has more.

Angela Onikepe is an Associate Editor for JURIST Europe, reporting European legal news from a European perspective. She is based in the UK.

>>
 

Caricature Controversy Spreads Across Europe

February 2, 2006 6:30 a.m. EST www.allheadlinenews.com

Danielle George - All Headline News Staff Reporter

Copenhagen, Denmark (AHN) - European publications are fueling Islamic outrage by carrying a comic strip that features caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The publications are showing support for the Danish paper that originally showed the caricature, sparking the controversy.

BBC reports that Seven publications in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain all carried some of the drawings that is in a direct violation of Islamic tradition which prohibits all depictions of the Prophet.

Their release in Denmark has led to protests in Arab nations, diplomatic sanctions and death threats.

Media groups argue that to prevent the pictures would be a direct attack on the freedom of press.

European Muslims are outraged with the degrading depictions some of which show the Prophet saying that paradise is running short of virgins for suicide bombers.

>>
Cartoons of Muslim prophet spark free speech debate

The World Today - Thursday, 2 February , 2006  12:33:00

Reporter: Rafael Epstein

KAREN PERCY: Cartoons are supposed to make us laugh and to make us think, but in Europe one particular cartoon – a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad – is causing racial divisions.

Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet, and the cartoon's publication in Denmark has led to several protests led by Arab nations.

Newspapers across Europe have reprinted the caricature to show support for their Danish counterpart.

Seven publications in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain all carried some of the drawings.

Lisa Millar reports the controversy has now become a much wider debate about freedom of speech.

LISA MILLAR: The cartoons were first printed last September – they include drawings of Muhammad wearing a headdress shaped like a bomb, while another shows him saying that paradise was running short of virgins for suicide bombers.

The controversy was given new life when they were recently reprinted by a Norwegian magazine.

They've trigged violent protests in the Middle East, Danish products have been boycotted and death threats have been issued. Saudi Arabia and Libya have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark.

Staff at the paper which initially published the cartoons, Jyllands-Posten in Denmark, have had to evacuate their offices twice after bomb threats.

Just when they thought the row had been defused, newspapers across Europe have reprinted the cartoons.

Roger Koppel, editor of Die Welt in Germany explains why he decided to risk further inflaming the Muslim community.

ROGER KOPPEL: The point is that this is a very relevant new story. When that is happening now in Denmark, and I believe it’s important to show our readers, the audience, what actually is at stake.

LISA MILLAR: His paper argued that a right to blasphemy was part of democratic freedom.

Korsh Becschneider from the Dutch Daily deVolkskrant says his paper also published the cartoons to show readers what the debate was about, but he says it's important for editors to stand together.

KORSH BECSHNEIDER: But I think yes, it is important. Like today France Soir also published all the cartoons and published also a cartoon of itself. And the more papers do publish these cartoons, I think the harder it becomes for the critics who act against these papers.

LISA MILLAR: Roger Koppel from Die Welt he says it's now a matter of freedom of speech.

ROGER KOPPEL: Of course there is one of the core values of how our culture is at stake here. We, in the West, we even subject religious topics to satire and criticism that this is a very important value for us and that we should point it out when we think it’s threatened.

LISA MILLAR: The French newspaper France Soir published a cartoon of its own, with Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud. The headline says "Yes, we have the right to caricature God.”

Deputy Editor Arnaud Levi.

ARNAUD LEVI: I understand the argument, but then it’s all the issues here is how do you conciliate as respect such is due to personal beliefs, to religious beliefs on one hand, and on the other hand seek absolute respect that is due to the freedom of the press.

And I think everybody would agree that if exceptions and limits have to be put to freedom of the press and freedom of expression, they have to be of a very restrictive interpretation, and I’m sorry to say that I understand that religious belief might forbid representation of Hemet or Allah or even the human being, but it does not apply to the non-believers.

LISA MILLAR: The Vice-Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Muhhamad Amman Hobin, says he believes in press freedom but certain borders shouldn't be overstepped.

And he's hoping the flare-up won't have a further impact on relations between the West and the Muslim world.

MUHHAMAD AMMAN HOBIN: Well I hope that it will not lead to an outburst of violence, as it did for instance in the case of Salman Rushdie's book on the Satanic Verses. But I certainly assure that any Muslim who sees these images will feel deeply hurt and deeply disturbed, and will definitely come to the conclusion that this was done on purpose, it was done not to defend the freedom of the press but to spite the Muslims. This is the feelings that the Muslims will have.

KAREN PERCY: The Vice Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Muhhamad Amman Hobin, ending that report by Lisa Millar.

>>

Muhammad cartoon row goes global
Thursday 02 February 2006 3:39 PM GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net

Muslims in Asia and Europe have joined a growing chorus of anger across the Muslim world over a series of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.

The cartoons were originally published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten then reprinted by several European papers.

In the Palestinian territories armed groups have threatened to attack Danish, French and Norwegian nationals in retaliation for what they view as an insult to Islam.

In Lebanon Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Shia movement Hizb Allah, said that few people would dare to insult Islam if an Iranian religious edict to kill British novelist Salman Rushdie in the late 1980s had been followed through.

"If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Muhammad in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so," he said.

In 1989 Ayat Allah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's revolutionary leader issued a fatwa (religious edict) demanding Rushdie's execution over his best-selling novel the Satanic Verses.

Khomeini had deemed the novel blasphemous and insulting to the Prophet Muhammad.

In Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah condemned the publication of the sketches and said it would only give ammunition to those intent on disrupting international relations.

"Printing this is an affront for ... hundreds of millions of people," he said. 

Civilisations of the world needed dialogue, he added, warning that "extremists from all sides" would exploit the controversy to damage that.

Protests

In Turkey foreign ministry spokesman described the decision to publish the cartoons as "unfortunate", and urged the press in other countries to exercise caution over what it publishes.

In Pakistan, hundreds of students set fire to French and Danish flags in protest at the drawings.

Indonesian Muslims too expressed their anger over the caricatures to a visiting Danish Red Cross official.
 
Dozens of people picketed the governor's office in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, during a visit by Jorgen Paulsen, the Danish Red Cross secretary-general.
 
The Indonesian state news agency Antara quoted Paulsen telling the protestors that the publication of the 12 sketches was a "stupid action".

However, he added: "Our government cannot stop the press from publishing materials that could offend people because the press is extremely free there."

Paulsen was in Makassar to discuss assistance related to the handling of floods in the province.

Indonesian tabloid Rakyat Merdeka took the controversial step of republishing several of the cartoons on its website, with at least one altered to be less offensive, although it still prompted criticism from a Muslim legislator.

Yuri Thamrin, the Indonesian spokesman for the foreign ministry, said freedom of expression could not justify indignity towards a religion.
>>

Q&A: Depicting the Prophet Muhammad

Protests have spread across the Muslim world over the publication in Europe of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The BBC News website looks at why the depictions have caused such offence.

What does the Koran, the holy book of Islam, say on the issue?

There is no specific, or explicit ban on images of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad - be they carved, painted or drawn.

However, chapter 42, verse 11 of the Koran does say: "[Allah is] the originator of the heavens and the earth... [there is] nothing like a likeness of Him."

This is taken by Muslims to mean that Allah cannot be captured in an image by human hand, such is his beauty and grandeur. To attempt such a thing is seen as an insult to Allah.

The same is believed to apply to Muhammad.

Chapter 21, verses 52-54 of the Koran read: "[Abraham] said to his father and his people: 'What are these images to whose worship you cleave?' They said: 'We found our fathers worshipping them.' He said: 'Certainly you have been, you and your fathers, in manifest error.'"

From this arises the Muslim belief that images can give rise to idolatry - that is to say an image, rather than the divine being it symbolises, can become the object of worship and veneration.

What does Islamic tradition say on the matter?

Islamic tradition or Hadith, the stories of the words and actions of Muhammad and his Companions, explicitly prohibits images of Allah, Muhammad and all the major prophets of the Christian and Jewish traditions.

More widely, Islamic tradition has discouraged the figurative depiction of living creatures, especially human beings. Islamic art has therefore tended to be abstract or decorative.

Why is the insult so deeply felt by some Muslims?

Of course, there is the prohibition on images of Muhammad.

But one cartoon, showing the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, extends the caricature of Muslims as terrorists to Muhammad.

In this image, Muslims see a depiction of Islam, its prophet and Muslims in general as terrorists.

This will certainly play into a widespread perception among Muslims across the world that many in the West harbour a hostility towards Islam and Muslims.

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Cartoon Inflames Muslim World

GAZA CITY, Feb. 2, 2006 

(CBS/AP) Armed militants angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad in several European newspapers surrounded the office of the EU Commission in Gaza and searched hotels for foreigners to kidnap in the West Bank, as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic world on Thursday.

Foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers began leaving Gaza as gunmen there threatened to kidnap citizens of France, Norway, Denmark and Germany unless the four governments apologize for the newspaper cartoon. Only several dozen foreigners were believed to be in Gaza. Many others had left in recent months, during a spate of abductions of foreign nationals.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, gunmen entered four hotels to search for foreigners to abduct, and warned hotel owners not to host citizens from several European countries. Gunmen said they also searched two apartments, but found no Europeans. The gunmen said foreigners had three days to leave Nablus on their own.

The cartoons, which originally appeared in a Danish newspaper, have been reprinted in other European publication -- a development that has generated a clash between Western and Muslim values.

Many devote Muslims find the cartoons to be deeply offensive, but European defenders describe the carcicatures as a legitmate expression of free speech.

"All countries in Europe should be behind the Danes and Danish authorities to defend the principle that a newspaper can write what it wishes to, even if it offends people," Robert Ménard, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, told the New York Times.

In Paris, CBS News correspondent Elaine Cobb reports that newspapers across Europe are backing the Danes, saying it's about freedom of speech. The cartoons have been reprinted in newspapers in France, Germany and Spain. And more promise to do so over the coming days.

The Danish daily Jyllands-Posten originally published the cartoons in September after asking artists to depict Islam's prophet to challenge what it perceived was self-censorship among artists dealing with Islamic issues. A Norwegian newspaper reprinted the images this month.

The depictions include an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, and another portraying him holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle. Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet to prevent idolatry.

The Jyllands-Posten — which received a bomb threat over the drawings — has apologized for hurting Muslims' feelings but not for publishing the cartoons. Its editor said Wednesday, however, that he would not have printed the drawings had he foreseen the consequences.

Carsten Juste also said the international furor amounted to a victory for opponents of free expression.

"Those who have won are dictatorships in the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia, where they cut criminals' hands and give women no rights," Juste told The Associated Press. "The dark dictatorships have won."

This wasn't the view in the Muslim world.

The Supreme Council of Moroccan religious leaders has denounced the drawings, saying "Muslim beliefs cannot tolerate such an attack, however small it may be"

In Turkey, dozens of protesters from a small Islamic party staged a demonstration in front of the Danish Embassy. About 200 riot police watched the crowd from the Felicity Party, which laid a black wreath and a book about Muhammad's life at the gates of the embassy building.

There was also anger in France, which has Western Europe's largest Muslim community with an estimated 5 million people.

Mohammed Bechari, president of the National Federation of the Muslims of France, said his group would start legal proceedings against France Soir because of "these pictures that have disturbed us, and that are still hurting the feelings of 1.2 billion Muslims."

French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope struck a neutral tone, saying France is "a country that is attached to the principle of secularism, and this freedom clearly should be exercised in a spirit of tolerance and respect for the beliefs of everyone."

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Protests in Mohammad Blasphemy Row

By Tom Heneghan

PARIS (Reuters) - An international row over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad gathered pace on Thursday as more European dailies printed controversial Danish caricatures and Muslims stepped up pressure to stop them.

About a dozen Palestinian gunmen surrounded European Union offices in the Gaza Strip demanding an apology for the cartoons, one of which shows Islam's founder wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.

The owner of France Soir, a Paris daily that reprinted them on Wednesday along with one German and two Spanish papers, sacked its managing editor to show "a strong sign of respect for the beliefs and intimate convictions of every individual".

But the tabloid staunchly defended its right to print the cartoons. Le Temps in Geneva and Budapest's Magyar Hirlap ran another offending cartoon showing an imam telling suicide bombers to stop because Heaven had run out of virgins to reward them.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the issue had gone beyond a row between Copenhagen and the Muslim world and now centered on Western free speech versus taboos in Islam, which is now the second religion in many European countries.

"We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work," Rasmussen told the Copenhagen daily Politiken. "One can safely say it is now an even bigger issue."

The clash has commercial repercussions. Danish companies have reported sales falling in the Middle East after protests against the cartoons in the Arab world and calls for boycotts.
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Anger grows over Muhammad cartoon

Protests have spread across the Muslim world over the publication in Europe of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The drawings, first printed in Denmark, sparked a fresh row when they were re-run in several newspapers, leading to the sacking of a French editor.

The man named to replace the France Soir editor has now resigned.

There have been anti-French and Danish protests in Pakistan over the cartoons but one Jordanian paper reprinted them urging Muslims to "be reasonable".

Palestinian gunmen briefly surrounded EU offices in Gaza to demand an apology over the cartoons.
Norway has closed its mission in the West Bank to the public in response to threats from two militant groups against Norwegians, Danes and French people.

Foreign ministry spokesman Rune Bjaastad told the BBC News website that the office would remain closed until further notice, but no decision had yet been made on withdrawing staff.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned that the decision by some European papers to publish the cartoons could encourage terrorists.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai also strongly condemned their publication, saying it was "an affront... for hundreds of millions of people".

Hundreds of students demonstrated in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Multan, burning flags and effigies of the Danish prime minister.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson also criticised the European papers which re-ran the cartoons, saying they were "throwing petrol onto the flames of the original issue and the original offence that was taken".

Free speech

The row intensified on Wednesday when France Soir, alongside the 12 original cartoons, printed a new drawing on its front page showing Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy figures sitting on a cloud, with the caption "Don't worry Muhammad, we've all been caricatured here."

Publications in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain also re-ran the Danish cartoons to show support for free speech.

 
Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet or Allah.

France Soir's editor, Jacques Lefranc, was dismissed by the paper's French-Egyptian owner in response to criticism from Muslim groups.

But journalists at France Soir stood by their editor's decision on Thursday, printing a front page picture and editorial in which they strongly defended the right to free speech.

The man named to replace Mr Lefranc in an interim role, Eric Fauveau, said he could not take up the post and also resigned as director general of Presse Alliance, France Soir's publishing group.

Mr Fauveau called the dismissal of Mr Lefranc "inopportune".

Jordanian independent tabloid al-Shihan reprinted three of the cartoons on Thursday, saying people should know what they were protesting about, AFP news agency reports.

"Muslims of the world be reasonable," wrote editor Jihad Momani.

"What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?"

The article in al-Shihan also included a list of Danish products.
 

Some Muslim countries are already boycotting Danish products after a paper there first printed the cartoons last September.

Danish-Swedish dairy giant Arla Foods says its sales in the Middle East have plummeted to zero as a result.

In diplomatic protests, Syria and Saudi Arabia have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark, and Libya has closed its embassy in Copenhagen.

The caricatures from Denmark's Jyllands-Posten paper included drawings of Muhammad wearing a headdress shaped like a bomb, while another shows him saying that paradise is running short of virgins for suicide bombers.

The offices of Jyllands-Posten had to be evacuated on Tuesday because of a bomb threat.

The paper had apologised a day earlier for causing offence to Muslims, although it maintained it was legal under Danish law to print the cartoons.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the paper's apology, but has rejected calls to punish the paper, saying the government cannot censor the press.

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Comic Outrage
February 2nd, 2006

This week people have been doing more agonizing than laughing at newspaper cartoons. Not just Muslims, but now America’s military forces – and the rest of us who support our warriors – are disgusted by a cartoon. Specifically the cartoon  drawn by Tom Toles and published in the Washington Post making light of an amputee recovering from battle wounds.

Beyond being repulsed by cartoons, the two movements have nothing in common.

Here is the statement sent by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Washington Post:

We were extremely disappointed to see the Jan. 29 editorial cartoon by Tom Toles.

Using the likeness of a service member who has lost his arms and legs in war as the central theme of a cartoon was beyond tasteless. Editorial cartoons are often designed to exaggerate issues, and The Post is obviously free to address any topic, including the state of readiness of the armed forces. However, The Post and Mr. Toles have done a disservice to readers and to The Post’s reputation by using such a callous depiction of those who volunteered to defend this nation and, as a result, suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds.

Those who visit wounded veterans in hospitals have found lives profoundly changed by pain and loss. They also have found brave men and women with a sense of purpose and selfless commitment that causes battle-hardened warriors to pause.

While The Post and some of its readers may not agree with the war or its conduct, these men and women and their families are owed the decency of not having a cartoon make light of their tremendous physical sacrifices.As the joint chiefs, we rarely put our hand to one letter, but we cannot let this reprehensible cartoon go unanswered.

The letter is signed by the Chairman, Marine General Peter Pace, and all members of the JCS.

Do you notice any differences from the Islamic reaction?

First of all, consider that the JCS and our military possess overwhelming physical force, yet nowhere demand anything.

Not an apology, not even any assurance of future compliance with their sensitivities. In fact, the JCS recognize the right of the Post to publish whatever it wishes. The JCS instead point out the pain the Post and Toles have inflicted, and asks them to contemplate the demands of decency and refrain from making light of physical sacrifices.

No boycotts, no withdrawal of military resources from the Post, no beatings, no bounties placed on the head of Tom Toles,  no threats at all. If the Washington Post has augmented its security arrangements, it is news to me.

The contast could not be greater, as all the above sanctions have been brought to bear on Jylllands Posten, Denmark and Danes, including two reportedly beaten in Saudi Arabia, and death threats against some of the cartoonists.

European, but so far no American newspapers have reacted to the threat by republishing the cartoons. One brave French editor has been fired for publishing the Muhammad cartoons:

Under the headline “Yes, we have the right to caricature God”, France Soir ran a front page cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud.

It shows the Christian deity saying: “Don’t complain, Muhammad, we’ve all been caricatured here.”

The tradition of appeasement runs deep in France.

So far the Spanish, Italian, German, Norwegian and Danish editors who published the cartoons retain their jobs, as far as we know. But The Tocqueville Connection reports that Tunisian authorities have seized, France Soir.

And so far as I know, no Jewish, Christian or Buddhist groups have raised a stir over France Soir. Does anyone expect anything different? Islam seems to play by different rules, which place Islam above all others.

There is considerable evidence that a campaign was mounted to inflame the Islamic world against Denmark by certain imams located in Denmark. From the Copenhagen Post:

PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen lashed out at extremist Muslim leaders in Denmark on Thursday for speaking with two tongues in the on-going row between the country and the Muslim world.

Rasmussen said imams’ positive comments in Danish about the recent days’ thaw in the dispute over newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet Mohammed had been undermined by statements made in Arabic to the media from Muslim countries.

‘We have clearly noted that in certain situations, some people are speaking with two tongues,’ Rasmussen said after meeting the parliament’s foreign policy committee. ‘The government watches what news and information is circulated in Arabic countries very closely so we can catch false stories and correct them immediately.’

Rasmussen was referring specifically to an incident in which controversial imam Abu Laban said to television station al-Jazeera that he was happy about the Muslim boycott. Later in the day, Laban said to Danish television station TV2 that he would urge Muslims to stop the boycott immediately.

‘If Muslim countries decide to boycott, and if Muslims feel that it is their obligation to defend the prophet, then that is something we can be happy about,’ Laban said to al-Jazeera.

Other leading imams have also been accused of misleading Muslims outside of Denmark about the situation.

Earlier this week, imam Abu Bashir appeared on BBC World showing a caricature of Mohammed with a pig’s snout and ears to representatives of the Arabic League. Bashir falsely claimed that the caricature was one of the 12 Jyllands-Posten drawings.

Neither Laban nor Bashir were available for comment.

UPDATE:

The Counter-terrorism blog reports

One issue that puzzles many Danes is the timing of this outburst. The cartoons were published in September: Why have the protests erupted from Muslims worldwide only now? The person who knows the answer to this question is Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, a man that the Washington Post has recently profiled as “one of Denmark’s most prominent imams.”

Last November, Abu Laban, a 60-year-old Palestinian who had served as translator and assistant to top Gamaa Islamiya leader Talaal Fouad Qassimy during the mid-1990s and has been connected by Danish intelligence to other Islamists operating in the country, put together a delegation that traveled to the Middle East to discuss the issue of the cartoons with senior officials and prominent Islamic scholars. The delegation met with Arab League Secretary Amr Moussa, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi, and Sunni Islam’s most influential scholar, Yusuf al Qaradawi. “We want to internationalize this issue so that the Danish government will realize that the cartoons were insulting, not only to Muslims in Denmark, but also to Muslims worldwide,” said Abu Laban.

On its face, it would appear as if nothing were wrong. However, the Danish Muslim delegation showed much more than the 12 cartoons published by Jyllands Posten. In the booklet it presented during its tour of the Middle East, the delegation included other cartoons of Mohammed that were highly offensive, including one where the Prophet has a pig face. But these additional pictures were NOT published by the newspaper, but were completely fabricated by the delegation and inserted in the booklet (which has been obtained and made available to me by Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet). The delegation has claimed that the differentiation was made to their interlocutors, even though the claim has not been independently verified. In any case, the action was a deliberate malicious and irresponsible deed carried out by a notorious Islamist who in another situation had said that “mockery against Mohamed deserves death penalty.” And in a quintessential exercise in taqiya, Abu Laban has praised the boycott of Danish goods on al Jazeera, while condemning it on Danish TV. [emphasis added]

In other words, this was indeed a campaign, planned by important members of the Islamic world’s power structure, intended to force Denmark to comply with Sharia requirements. A new norm, that a western nation would conform to Sharia regardless of its free exression tradition, would be on the way to being established. Let a few more small nations succumb and someday a United States Supreme Court Justice might cite such behavior as a precedent in a decision.

Blogger Carib Pundit very helpfully directed me to the Mohammed Image Archive,  which proves beyond any reasonable doubt that images of the Prophet Muhammad have been made in various parts of the Islamic world for centuries, and, indeed, that images continue to made and sold on the streets of cities in Iran today. As religious icons.

Perusing the images, I found one that I had seen before, in the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, Italy. You will need to scroll down slightly more than halfway through the Mohammed Image Archive to see two close-ups of the fresco in the Basilica showing Muhammad being tortured in hell.

I made a point of visiting the Basilica when I learned that it was under threat of being blown up, for the crime of housing the picture of Muhammad in hell. Locating the fresco in question took some doing. It was behind a locked gate, and could be seen only from the side, with very little light shining on it. A visit to the Basilica’s gift shop found no postcards or souvenir books displaying the famous painting on sale. The owner suggested that we look for the comprehensive multi-volume history of Bologna’s great art in various bookstores if we wanted an image to bring home to America.

An afternoon spent prowling the book shops of Bologna did not yield a single copy of the particular volume of the art history series. All the other volumes in the series were in stock, but the publisher was, curiously, not selling any more copies to the bookstores.

Only when my family and I returned to the Basilica and told the gift shop manager that we hadn’t been able to find the art history volume which he suggested, did he take pity. He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a postcard containing the forbidden image. We had passed the test and were allowed to carry the forbidden image.

Global Sharia has already worked its magic in Bologna, a beautiful Medieval city with a strong Catholic heritage. The city, with its own sad experience of terror, has virtually capitulated in practice. Yes, the Basilica remains intact, for now. But the most controversial art it contains is obscured and made difficult to view, even in a reproduction.

The cartoon incident is no comic matter. Step by step, a dedicated group, numbering in the unknown millions, plans to impose Sharia everywhere. They have already succeeded to a degree that would have been impossible to imagine only a few decades ago.

Hat tip: Vasko Kohlmayer

Thomas Lifson is the editor and publisher of The American Thinker.

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Feb. 2, 2006, 11:37AM

Rage at Drawings Spreads in Muslim World

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Armed militants angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad published in European newspapers surrounded EU offices in Gaza on Thursday and threatened to kidnap foreigners as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic world.

More than 300 students demonstrated in Pakistan, chanting "Death to France!" and "Death to Denmark!" _ two of the countries where newspapers published the drawings. Other protests were held in Syria and Lebanon, while officials in Afghanistan, Iran and Indonesia condemned the publication. In Paris, the daily France Soir fired its managing editor after it ran the caricatures Wednesday.

A Jordanian newspaper took the bold step of running some of the drawings, saying it wanted to show its readers how offensive the cartoons were, although its editor also said he did not want "to promote such blasphemy." In an editorial, it also urged the world's Muslims to "be reasonable."

Foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers began leaving Gaza as gunmen there threatened to kidnap citizens of France, Norway, Denmark and Germany unless those governments apologize for the cartoon.

Gunmen in the West Bank city of Nablus entered four hotels to search for foreigners to abduct and warned their owners not to host guests from several European countries. Gunmen said they were also searching apartments in Nablus for Europeans.

Militants in Gaza said they would shut down media offices from France, Norway, Denmark and Germany, singling out the French news agency Agence France Presse.

"Any citizens of these countries, who are present in Gaza, will put themselves in danger," a Fatah-affiliated gunman said outside the EU Commission's office in Gaza, flanked by two masked men holding rifles.

If the European governments don't apologize by Thursday evening, "any visitor of these countries will be targeted," he said.

The furor over the drawings, which first ran in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten in September, cuts to the question of which is more sacred in the Western world _ freedom of expression or respect for religious beliefs. The cartoons include an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.

Islamic law, based on clerics' interpretation of the Quran and the sayings of the prophet, absolutely forbids depictions, even positive ones, of the Prophet Muhammad in order to prevent idolatry.

The drawings have prompted boycotts of Danish goods, bomb threats and demonstrations against Danish facilities.

The Danish newspaper defended its decision to publish the caricatures, citing freedom of expression, but apologized to Muslims for causing offense.

France Soir and several other European papers reprinted the drawings in solidarity with the Danish daily. Jyllands-Posten also had put some of the drawings briefly on its Web site, and the images still can be found elsewhere on the Internet.

The Israeli newspaper Maariv published a tiny version of the Muhammad-bomb caricature Thursday, on page 16.

Foreign journalists were pulling out of Gaza on Thursday, and foreign media organizations were canceling plans to send more people in.

Norway suspended operations at its office in the West Bank town of Ram after receiving threats connected to publication of the cartoons by the Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet.

"There were threats from two Palestinian groups, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, against Danish, French and Norwegian diplomats," Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Rune Bjaastad said.

Jan Pirouz Poulsen, the Danish representative office's deputy head, said there were six Danes in Gaza and about 20 in the West Bank, and that all had been urged to leave.

Raif Holmboe, the head of Denmark's representative office in the West Bank town of Ramallah, said the office would be closed Friday and no decision has been made whether to reopen Monday. Holmboe said shots were fired at the Ramallah office earlier this week while the building was empty. No one was hurt.

Palestinian security officials said they would try to protect foreigners in Gaza, but police have largely been unable to do so in the past, with 19 foreigners kidnapped _ and released unharmed _ in recent months, mostly by Fatah gunmen.

Emma Udwin, a European Union spokeswoman in Brussels, said security measures have been taken in light of the threats.

Outgoing Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia condemned the caricatures, saying they "provoke all Muslims everywhere in the world." He asked gunmen not to attack foreigners, "but we warn that emotions may flare in this very sensitive issues."

Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamic militant Hamas also demanded an apology from European countries. However, he said foreigners in Gaza must not be harmed.

Thursday's events began when a dozen gunmen with ties to Fatah approached the office of the EU Commission in Gaza. Three jumped on the outer wall and the rest took up positions at the entrance. The group demanded the apologies and urged Palestinians to boycott the products of Norway, Denmark, France and Germany.

A leaflet signed by a Fatah militia and the militant Islamic Jihad group said the EU office and churches in Gaza could come under attack and urged French citizens to leave Gaza. The gunmen left after about 45 minutes. Palestinian employees of the EU Commission had not come to work Thursday, and foreigners working at the office are based outside Gaza, and only visit from time to time.

In Multan, Pakistan, more than 300 Islamic students chanted "Death to Denmark!" and "Death to France!" and burned flags of both countries near an Islamic school.

Iraqi Islamic leaders called for demonstrations from Baghdad to the southern city of Basra following prayer services Friday.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai condemned the images, calling the publication an "insult ... to more than 1 billion Muslims."

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin said that while his country upholds free expression, "such freedom cannot be used as a pretext to insult a religion." The Indonesian newspaper Rakyat Merdeka put the Muhammad-bomb caricature on its Web site to illustrate its story about the uproar but covered his eyes with a red banner to avoid making the image "vulgar," a caption said.

Iran summoned Austrian Ambassador Stigel Bauer, representing the European Union, to protest the publication, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Bauer expressed "sorrow" and promised to convey Iran's protest to his government and other EU countries, IRNA said.

The Jordanian newspaper Shihan ran three of the caricatures, saying it was reprinting them to show readers "the extent of the Danish offense." Next to the drawings, the weekly said: "This is how the Danish newspaper portrayed Prophet Muhammad, may God's blessing and peace be upon him."

Shihan's editor-in-chief, Jihad al-Momani, told The Associated Press that he decided to run the cartoons to "display to the public the extent of the Danish offense and condemn it in the strongest terms."

"But their publication is not meant in any way to promote such blasphemy," al-Momani added.

An editorial signed by al-Momani and titled "Muslims of the world, be reasonable," questioned what sparked the outrage now, since the cartoons were first published in September. It said the Danish paper had apologized, "but for some reason, nobody in the Muslim world wants to hear the apology."

Morocco and Tunisia barred sales of France Soir's Wednesday issue.

The director of media rights group Reporters Without Borders, Robert Menard, called for calm. "We need to figure out how to reconcile freedom of expression and respect of faith," he said.

Vebjoern Selbekk, editor of Norway's Magazinet newspaper, said he had received thousands of hate e-mails, including 20 death threats, since printing the drawings and was under police protection.

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BBC joins cartoon controversy

Chris Tryhorn
Thursday February 2, 2006


 

The BBC has involved itself in a growing Europe-wide controversy by broadcasting cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused outrage in the Islamic world and led to the sacking of a French newspaper editor.

The corporation showed the images as they appeared in French newspaper France Soir as part of a story on the controversy on today's One O'Clock News bulletin and on the News 24 channel.

The BBC said it was using the pictures "responsibly and in full context to give audiences an understanding of the strong feelings evoked by the story".

No British news organisation had previously shown the cartoons, which were first printed back in September in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. They include a picture of a bearded Muhammad with a bomb fizzing out of his turban.

The cartoons prompted Saudi Arabia and Syria to withdraw their ambassadors to Denmark, and have led to calls for boycotts of Danish goods. Earlier this week hackers attacked Jyllands-Posten's website, making it unavailable for a time.

Since then newspapers in a number of European countries - such as Spain, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Italy - have printed the cartoons, often as a gesture in defence of free speech.

In the most controversial episode so far, the managing editor of France Soir was sacked after the paper printed the drawings in yesterday's edition, using the defiant headline, "Yes, we have the right to caricature God."

What began as a row about one newspaper in Denmark has now given rise to a major dispute about freedom of speech and the extent to which publications should respect religious beliefs.

In Britain - where just this week MPs voted to water down the government's controversial bill on religious hatred - the issue has been confined to foreign news reports until today.

The cartoons have angered Muslims because Islam forbids the human representation of the prophet, and many believe that some of the images ridiculed the prophet.

The Muslim Council of Britain said its reaction to the BBC's decision to broadcast would "depend on the context".

A spokesman said: "It depends on whether they're broadcast to illustrate the story about the row developing, or, in the same way as the European newspapers have published, to gloat about freedom.

"We recognise that the newspapers have full freedom. However, we hope that they would be able to show restraint when it comes to these images because of the enormous hurt it would cause to Muslims."

The Muslim Association of Britain, an affiliate of the Muslim Council of Britain, called on British broadcasters and newspapers not to reproduce the images.

A spokesman said: "Printing or republishing these images is not advisable, knowing that they are going to offend.

"It will only infuriate the British members of the Muslim community and Muslims around the world. It will be insult to injury. You can't reproduce these images in a sensitive manner."

The Channel Five news controller, Chris Shaw, told MediaGuardian.co.uk that his channel planned to show the cartoons in its 5.30pm bulletin, but only in the context of the images used in yesterday's edition of the French newspaper France Soir.

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BBC joins cartoon controversy

Chris Tryhorn
Thursday February 2, 2006

The BBC has involved itself in a growing Europe-wide controversy by broadcasting cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused outrage in the Islamic world and led to the sacking of a French newspaper editor.

The corporation showed the images as they appeared in French newspaper France Soir as part of a story on the controversy on today's One O'Clock News bulletin and on the News 24 channel.

The BBC said it was using the pictures "responsibly and in full context to give audiences an understanding of the strong feelings evoked by the story".

No British news organisation had previously shown the cartoons, which were first printed back in September in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. They include a picture of a bearded Muhammad with a bomb fizzing out of his turban.

The cartoons prompted Saudi Arabia and Syria to withdraw their ambassadors to Denmark, and have led to calls for boycotts of Danish goods. Earlier this week hackers attacked Jyllands-Posten's website, making it unavailable for a time.

Since then newspapers in a number of European countries - such as Spain, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Italy - have printed the cartoons, often as a gesture in defence of free speech.

In the most controversial episode so far, the managing editor of France Soir was sacked after the paper printed the drawings in yesterday's edition, using the defiant headline, "Yes, we have the right to caricature God."

What began as a row about one newspaper in Denmark has now given rise to a major dispute about freedom of speech and the extent to which publications should respect religious beliefs.

In Britain - where just this week MPs voted to water down the government's controversial bill on religious hatred - the issue has been confined to foreign news reports until today.

The cartoons have angered Muslims because Islam forbids the human representation of the prophet, and many believe that some of the images ridiculed the prophet.

The Muslim Council of Britain said its reaction to the BBC's decision to broadcast would "depend on the context".

A spokesman said: "It depends on whether they're broadcast to illustrate the story about the row developing, or, in the same way as the European newspapers have published, to gloat about freedom.

"We recognise that the newspapers have full freedom. However, we hope that they would be able to show restraint when it comes to these images because of the enormous hurt it would cause to Muslims."

The Muslim Association of Britain, an affiliate of the Muslim Council of Britain, called on British broadcasters and newspapers not to reproduce the images.

A spokesman said: "Printing or republishing these images is not advisable, knowing that they are going to offend.

"It will only infuriate the British members of the Muslim community and Muslims around the world. It will be insult to injury. You can't reproduce these images in a sensitive manner."

The Channel Five news controller, Chris Shaw, told MediaGuardian.co.uk that his channel planned to show the cartoons in its 5.30pm bulletin, but only in the context of the images used in yesterday's edition of the French newspaper France Soir.

Cartoon controversy: to publish or not?

The BBC is the first media organisation to show images of the Danish newspaper cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad with a bomb on his head which have caused controversy across Europe and in the Middle East. So far, the Guardian newspaper has not published the images, however on the website as the story has developed we have run links to the cartoons within news pieces. Here is a piece by Article 19 director Dr Agnes Callamard which intelligently highlights some of the subtleties of the case.

We know now that the Spectator website published then took down the images and steady stream of emails today has urged us to publish the cartoons in a display of solidarity with the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. However, the issue is more complex than one of straightforward freedom of expression. We all know that there are limits to the encouragement of free speech - when free speech spreads hatred and prejudice - we even ban posters from our talkboards if they post racist, homophobic or otherwise abusive language. In the absence of clear answers, it would be interesting to know what you think.
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European Jewish Press - Brussels,Belgium  www.ejpress.org
Jewish dignitaries condemn Muhammad cartoon

France’s chief rabbi Joseph Sitruk and the central Jewish Consistoire joined their Muslim and Christian counterparts on Thursday denouncing press drawings portraying Islamic prophet Muhammad.

The caricatures were printed on Wednesday in the French evening paper France Soir and in a dozen other European newspapers after their publication in Denmark and Norway raised the ire of Arab communities and countries.

France Soir’s main editor Jacques Lefranc, who was dismissed by the newspaper’s Egyptian-French owner Raymond Lakah following the publication, said the paper decided to print the caricatures out of principal in support of the Danish media and the freedom of the press.

But the initiative was criticised by the French government, by Muslims communities and countries and by Christian and Jewish religious dignitaries.

Communal condemnation

“I share the anger of Muslims following this publication,” said Sitruk after a scheduled meeting with French Prime minister Dominique de Villepin on anti-Semitism.

“I understand the hostility in the Arab world. One does not achieve anything by humiliating religion. It’s a dishonest lack of respect,” Sitruk stressed.

He added that he was a long-time opponent of those who mock Christianity and Islam. “You don’t get anywhere by insulting religion,” he said.

Sitruk said he was one of the first religious leaders who criticised Martin Scorsese’s movie, “The Last Temptation of Christ”, “which referred to Jesus in insulting terms to Christian beliefs”.

France’s chief rabbi added that in the past he denounced Salman Rushdie’s criticism over Islam. “One does not gain anything by putting religion down.”

“Free expression often trespassed its limits,” Sitruk told the press, stressing he is also hostile to caricatures of the head of state.

“Insulting” images

Rabbi Michel Serfaty, from the Jewish Muslim friendship association, said believes that press drawings of biblical figures or Jesus Christ can be printed, but not Muslim caricatures.

“The Christians and us are used to this,” he told EJP “We’ve been living in this free speech environment for centuries. They’ve just arrived. We don’t care about these caricatures but they get hurt.”

Asked whether Muslims wouldn’t feel insulted if their religion is treated differently from others, Rabbi Serfaty told EJP that “the important issue now is to reach civilian peace. We must let Muslims develop their own self-criticism by themselves”.

Many French readers didn’t get to see the controversial Muhammad drawings because France Soir was totally sold out and no other paper wished to publish them.

France Soir, a paper trapped with financial problems, might completely disappear in a few days. The paper’s newsroom criticised the owner’s decision to dismiss the editor, and explained this move could have been linked to his business contacts in Egypt.

He was also criticised by political figures but the government however criticised the editor of France Soir following the publication.

“France condemns everything that hurts individuals in their religious beliefs,” said a foreign ministry press release.

Feedom of expression

In Brussels, European Commission vice-president, Franco Frattini, said in a statement issued Thursday: “I can understand the feelings of indignation, frustration and sadness of the Muslim communities. Such events do not facilitate dialogue between faiths and cultures and provide barriers to the integration process to which the member states of the Union are committed.”

However the EU official, responsible for integration policy as well as the promotion and respect of fundamental rights, recalled that “one of the founding principles of our Europe is freedom of expression, including the right to criticise.”

“A difference of opinion, even if it is bitter and disrespectful, often feeds into free polemic debate, in which satire plays a full part,” he added.

“I personally regard the publication of the cartoons as somewhat imprudent, even if the satire used was aimed at a distorted interpretation of religion, such as that used by terrorists to recruit young people to their cause and turning them into fanatics, sometimes to the point of sending them into action as suicide bombers,” Frattini said.

He sharply criticized reactions and calls for boycott against Denmark and others, including the European Union.
More newspapers in France, Germany and Spain have reprinted Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, saying press freedom was more important than protests from the Muslim world.


2 February, 2006 www.asianews.it

Threats and dismissals over Muhammad cartoon strips

The French, Danes and Norwegians are “targets”, warn some Palestinian militant groups Dismissed the director of  France Soir who published them, but there are still numerous European papers who are carrying them.  Hezbollah leaders evoke the Khomeini fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

 

Beirut (AsiaNews) –The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and popular resistance committee are warning that “all those who are of these nationalities or who work in the diplomatic corps of these countries are targets”, the leaders of Hezbollah in Lebanon are evoking the Khomeini fatwa against Salman Rushdie, tolerant Morocco has banned the circulation of a French newspaper that reproduced them, home ministers from Arab nations, meeting in Tunis have asked the Danish government to take “strong measures” in sanctioning the authors of the Muhammad cartoons published last September by the daily Jyllands-Posten. These are the latest chapters in a wave of reaction that encompasses the entire Islamic world, from Lebanon to Indonesia, along with street protests and a supermarket boycott of all Danish products.  Copenhagen has witnessd counter protests.  

For the most part, the European press is coming out against what it sees a san attack on freedom of expression, but at the same time the director of  France Soir is fired for having published the strips and the editor of  Jyllands-Posten sends out letters excusing and explaining himself.  The 12 cartoons in the strip make fun of Muhammad, have been replicated, in full or edited versions, in Italy (Corriere della sera e La stampa), Germany (Die Welt), Spain(El Periodico), Switzerland (Blick e le annuncia La Tribune de Genève), Holland (De Volkskrant, De Telegraaf e NRC Handelsblad) and the Czech Republic (Dnes).

The clash, because it has now got to this point, is between a “lay”concept of freedom and the need to respect a religious conviction.  But to the latter point of view is added the threat of violent repercussions which breeds concern.  Such as the sentence uttered by  Hassan Nasrallah, leader of  Lebanon’s Hezbollah, according to whom western papers would “never have dared to mock the Prophet, considering that Muslims had had the courage to carry out the fatwa of Imam Khomeini against Salman Rushdie”. The protests held in Gaza, in Indonesia and in Malaysia echo his words.

In his defense the director of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, in an open letter published in full by the Middle East Times, he writes that “the publication of the cartoon strips has been viewed in the light of an anti Islam campaign”, while the original intent of their publication was “as part of the debate for the right to freedom of expression, a right that is considered of fundamental importance in Denmark”. “It was never the papers intention to offend the religious convictions of  any person, as unfortunately has happened”. The letter ends with a reminder that on many occasions the paper has apologized for having involuntarily caused offence to believers..

In Europe, the press is examining the incident in some cases calling it an attack on freedom of expression . France Soir, in an editorial writes : “Islam forbids any form of representation of the Prophet ”, “the question one must ask, then is the following: are even non Muslims constrained to respect this ban?”.  But Raymond Lakah, owner of the Parisian daily, has announced the dismissal of director Jacques Lefranc.

The confrontation has also invaded political realms.  Some Islamic nations, such as Libya and Saudi Arabia have taken official diplomatic steps, requests for Danish government intervention have arrived from many corners of the Islamic world.  

The western governments called to give explanation have replied citing the case for freedom of the press. “The publication only concerns those in direct charge of the  paper”, said the French Minister for foreign affairs Philippe Douste-Blazy. Similarly the spokesperson for the Danish government. But it does not seem to quieten the anger of Islam, at least not for the time being.


When Arab papers vilify Jews –
freedom of press is claimed

February 1, 2006 

ZOA: Arabs & Muslims Demand Apology For Offensive
Cartoon Of Mohammed, While They Routinely
Demonize Jews In Their Cartoons

    New York - The ZOA has highlighted the gross hypocrisy exhibited by much of the Arab and Muslim worlds in demanding an apology from a Danish newspaper, Jylland-Posten, which published cartoons of Mohammed that offended Muslims, while they routinely demonize Jews, Judaism and the Jewish state of Israel in newspaper cartoons in their societies. The Danish cartoonist of the Jylland-Posten produced 12 caricatures of Mohammed, including one which depicted him wearing a turban made of bombs and has received death threats. Arab foreign ministers last month lashed out at the Danish government, issuing a statement expressing their "surprise and indignation" at the reaction of the Danish authorities (yahoo.com News, Jan. 5). Additionally, there were calls for a boycott of Danish products and, following the republication of the cartoon in a Norwegian publication, Magazinet, the 57-member nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) stated that it "strongly denounces what the Norwegian newspaper has done by publishing again caricatures that mocked Prophet Muhammad" (Jerusalem Post, January 20).

    The Jylland-Posten apologized yesterday for publishing the cartoon and the Danish government and Arab League held discussions on the matter before agreeing to "close the affair." The Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller stated, "We naturally respect Islam as a major religion." The Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, also said that his government could not apologize on behalf of a newspaper, but said he personally "never would have depicted Muhammad, Jesus or any other religious character in a way that could offend other people" (Jerusalem Post, January 30).

    The high sensitivity and anger shown by Muslim groups, the Arab League and the OIC contrast strongly with the deafening silence about and lack of responsiveness to the toxic depiction of Jews, Judaism and the Jewish state of Israel in newspaper cartoons in their societies. Newspapers across the Arab and Muslim world not only publicize Holocaust denial and vicious diatribes against Israel, Judaism and Jews but regularly depict these as monsters and satanic creatures. Below is a short list of vicious cartoons appearing in the last three years in the major Palestinian Authority (PA) newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Media Watch, January 7):
 

  • Jan. 7, 2006 – An evil-looking caricature of a Jew depicted wreaking havoc beneath the Temple Mount and thus threatening the Dome of the Rock above.
  • Sep. 3, 2005 - Text: "Israel" penetrates Pakistan – Israel in scare quotes, depicted as devious vermin trapping Pakistan in to its orbit.
  • Apr. 10, 2005 – A Magen David shape is depicted turning the Dome of the Rock and an Arab in front of it in a prison.
  • Feb. 5, 2005 - An Israeli soldier depicted as a Nazi, complete with helmet, shaking a blood-soaked hand with a clean-handed Palestinian.
  • Dec. 10, 2004 – An Israeli flag, flying from the devil's three-pronged spear and with a corner of its Magen David symbol transformed into a blood-soaked claw, wrapped like a coil around an injured dove of peace.
  • Dec. 1, 2004 – Text: "The search for terror is still ongoing" – A figure representing the UN is seen wasting his time looking with a magnifying glass for terrorism while ignoring the figure of a monstrous ape with a caricature of Ariel Sharon's face as the devil.
  • Aug 2, 2004 - Jews in Judea Samaria are depicted as a Medusa-like serpent threatening an Arab.
  • July 14, 2004 – An anti-Semitic stereotype of a hideous, hook-nosed Israeli soldier, with a uniform and helmet pattern of human skulls.
  • April 20, 2004 – Ariel Sharon depicted as a wild bull, pierced with the spears of different Palestinian terror groups.
  • March 22, 2004 – Ariel Sharon depicted eating Palestinian children from a bowl of children's corpses.
  • Oct. 11, 2003 – A European diplomat is confronted by Israel depicted as an enormous snake.
  • Oct. 11, 2003 – An Israeli is depicted as a caveman dripping with blood.
  • Oct. 9, 2003 – Israel is depicted as a crocodile about to devour a Palestinian.
  • Oct. 4, 2003 – Israel is depicted as a wolf about to devour the Palestinian government.
  • Oct. 4, 2003 – The world is depicted as an apple consumed from within by two worms – Israel and the United States, with the text on the apple: Arab world Israel to the USA: "Be strong-we've got a lot of work to do."


    ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, "There is a deafening silence around the world about the constant incitement to hatred of Jews, Judaism and the Jewish state of Israel in the official government-controlled media of much of the Arab and Muslim worlds, especially in the societies that produce this venomous hate material. We have now witnessed the hypocrisy of how, on one hand, the Arab and Muslim worlds protest vociferously about a single series of offensive cartoon depictions of Mohammed, calling for action at the highest levels, threatening boycotts and demanding apologies yet, on the other hand, say nothing and do nothing about how their own societies are awash with Jew-hatred, including viciously anti-Semitic cartoons.

    "The list of cartoons provided above that demonize Jews in the crudest ways is merely a selection from a much longer list of examples provided by Palestinian Media Watch. Some examples we did not list include depictions of Israel as a rat, a Satanic figure, lice and as an octopus. It is clear that we are not dealing here with something that is merely offensive or even merely racist, but a particularly Nazi-like type of demonization and dehumanization that normally appears in the Western world today only in the publications of far right-wing hate groups and is frighteningly reminiscent of the infamous Nazi publication, Der Stuermer.

    "It is deeply ironic that the OIC chose to complain about the Danish cartoons of Mohammed when the OIC itself was addressed in 2003 by the outgoing Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mahatir, who made one of the worst anti-Semitic speeches of recent times and then received a standing ovation from the delegates of all member states present. Clearly, the OIC thinks it right to criticize something offensive to Muslims while regarding vicious anti-Semitism as acceptable. Arab leaders like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Jordan's King Abdullah and Yasser Arafat have told American Jewish leaders that they allow freedom of the press, but this ignores the fact that Arab governments exercise much control over their media. Mubarak personally appoints newspaper editors to the Egyptian government-controlled press and journalists belonging to the PA's Al-Hayat Al-Jadida are on the PA payroll. Clearly, if Arab leaders were genuinely concerned about democracy and racism, they would take steps to prevent their media inculcating their societies with hatred and toxic ideologies.

    "It is vital, now that Hamas has won the Palestinian Authority elections and the issue of Palestinian hatred and violence has drawn public attention, that the fight against incitement to hatred and murder of Jews and Israelis is put on the agenda in any context in which Israel, the US and the world seeks to advance negotiations for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. There can be no prospect of peace in the foreseeable future if Arabs and Muslims, particularly Palestinians, are fed a steady diet of hateful propaganda that depicts Israelis as monsters to be eliminated, not human beings with whom they must make peace."

    The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.


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."

© 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc  www.turkishdailynews.com.tr



 

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