Posted on 02/03/2006 6:51:22 AM PST by Cornpone
PARIS (Reuters) - Denmark said on Friday it could not apologise for cartoons in a Danish newspaper depicting the Prophet Mohammad as outrage spread across the Muslim world from the Middle East to countries in Asia.
More European newspapers published the cartoons on Friday, arguing freedom of speech was sacred, but angry Muslims staged violent protests against jokes they consider "blasphemous".
"Neither the Danish government nor the Danish nation as such can be held responsible for drawings published in a Danish newspaper," Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after meeting with Muslim envoys in Copenhagen.
"A Danish government can never apologise on behalf of a free and independent newspaper," he said. "This is basically a dispute between some Muslims and a newspaper."
Up to 300 hardline Islamic activists in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, went on a rampage in the lobby of a building housing the Danish embassy in Jakarta.
Shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), they smashed lamps with bamboo sticks, threw chairs, lobbed rotten eggs and tomatoes and tore up a Danish flag. No one was hurt.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians attended a Hamas-organised rally, tearing up a French flag and holding up banners reading: "The assault on the Prophet is an assault on Islam".
The drawings, first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten, have sparked international fury and a debate on the clash between freedom of speech and respect for religion.
Mona Omar Attia, Egypt's ambassador to Denmark, said after a meeting with Rasmussen that she was satisfied with the position of the Danish government but noted the prime minister had said he could not interfere with the press.
"This means the whole story will continue and that we are back to square one again. The government of Denmark has to do something to appease the Muslim world," Attia said.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin said the dispute was not just between Jakarta and Copenhagen.
"It involves the whole Islamic world vis-a-vis Denmark and vis-a-vis the trend of Islamophobia," he said.
Pakistan's parliament on Friday passed a resolution condemning the cartoons as "blasphemous and derogatory".
Some Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous. Among the Danish drawings, one depicted him in a turban resembling a bomb.
"This vicious, outrageous and provocative campaign cannot be justified in the name of freedom of expression or of the press," the Senate resolution said.
Danish companies have reported sales falling in the Middle East after protests in the Arab world and calls for boycotts.
Palestinian gunmen seized and later released a German on Thursday, and a hand grenade was thrown into the compound of the French Cultural Centre in the Gaza Strip.
"UNACCEPTABLE" PROTESTS
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy condemned the protests in a television interview.
"I am totally shocked and find it unacceptable that -- because there have been caricatures in the West -- extremists can burn flags or take fundamentalist or extremist positions which would prove the cartoonists right," he said.
Rasmussen said he hoped the situation would improve soon.
"If the protests escalate further, it may have unpredictable repercussions in all the countries affected and then the problem could grow into a more global one, and I think it's in our mutual interest to find a solution to that," he said.
The editor of a Norwegian magazine which reprinted the Danish cartoons said he had received 25 death threats and thousands of hate messages.
A Jordanian editor was sacked for reprinting them, despite saying his purpose had been only to show the extent of the Danish insult to Islam. "Oh I ask God to forgive me," Jihad Momani wrote in a public letter of apology.
Iraqi Christians said they feared a new wave of attacks by Muslims, driven by anger over the images.
MEDIA FREEDOM
European newspapers said publishing the cartoons was an expression of media freedom.
"Liberation defends the freedom of expression," French daily Liberation said in a headline introducing two of the cartoons, one of which depicted an imam telling suicide bombers to stop because Heaven had run out of virgins with which to reward them.
Belgian newspaper De Standaard reproduced the pictures along with letters from readers in favour of publication.
"Two values are in conflict here. One is respect for religion and the other is freedom of speech," Editor-in-Chief Peter Vandermeersch told Reuters.
British newspapers have so far refused to publish the cartoons, earning them praise from Foreign Minister Jack Straw.
"I believe the republication of these cartoons has been unnecessary, it has been insensitive, it has been disrespectful and it has been wrong," he said.
"I place on record my regard for the British media, which has shown considerable responsibility and sensitivity."
More protests were expected in the Muslim world. In Iran, worshippers were expected to take part in a nationwide rally after Friday prayers to protest.
Muslims = Trouble
""I believe the republication of these cartoons has been unnecessary, it has been insensitive, it has been disrespectful and it has been wrong," he said. "
And this coming from a member of the 1984 orwellian surveillance party is somehow to be taken seriously?
Wrong!
This reminds me of parents that reward children for throwing tantrums. It only teaches them to react the same way (or worse) next time.
Oh really? And what, pray tell, would that be? More money while looking away at the death, murder and oppression islam thrives on?
Sadly, it won't. The fuse has been lit on Mohamed's explosive laden turban. INMO, The Mullahs have been looking for an excuse incite and this is it.
"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn."
"The devil . . . the prowde spirite . . . cannot endure to be mocked."
Is it just me or does that fail to meet the standards of a genuine protest? Where are the thousands...burning and looting, shooting innocent bystanders, bombing embassies, etc.?
The term "muslim outrage" used to mean something.
Apparently we are all expected to follow the rules of Islam. Next they'll be protesting the consumption of pork.
France a year or so ago banned mulim attire in public schools. I knew then that Europe would be the battle ground in the clash of civilizations. It looks like the battle is now joined, Go France, Go Denmark, Go Spain we are with you all the way.
Muslims are showing to the world their falsehood, that their "religion of peace" is a farce and they are being exposed for the terrorist, unsustainable cult that they truly are. Perhaps this is what is needed to wake people up to the dangers of this perverse cult.
Never forget....
*** AFP REPORT: Wednesday, September 12 10:25 PM SGT
Agence France Press
Excerpt: On Tuesday night, Palestinian security services barred photographers from recording scenes of joy in Nablus as crowds sang the praises of alleged Arab terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, a prime suspect in the unclaimed attacks on the United States.
*** From: Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
Date: 12 September 2001
PA Threatens to Kill News Workers If They Broadcast Photos of Celebrating
Israel Radio correspondent Danny Zaken reported on the noon news program that while hundreds of Palestinians went out to the streets in many cities in Judea and Samaria (but not Gaza) to celebrate the attacks against the United States -- distributing candy, waving flags, honking horns and shooting in the air in joy — coverage by the foreign news was typically limited to east Jerusalem. According to Zaken, at least two news organizations, a large news agency [now known to be AP] and a foreign TV network, had footage of the celebrations in Nablus and Ramallah that included Palestinian policemen shooting in the air in joy within a crowd of hundreds. They declined, Zaken reports, to broadcast the material after senior officials in the Palestinian Authority -- including PA ministers who are frequently interviewed by the media — contacted the heads of the news organizations, threatening the lives of the cameramen and stringers in the field and that if they broadcast the reports that they would not be allowed to cover events within the Authority in the future. The news agencies declined to comment to Israel Radio.
*** Jerusalem Post September 12 , 2001
(Website: Latest News): Armed Palestinians threatened photojournalists. Reports indicate armed Palestinians trapped foreign photojournalists inside a Nablus hotel late yesterday while thousands took to the streets in celebration of the terror attacks in the United States…
*** Excerpt from 9/12/01 report from Palestinian Media Watch [not to be confused with the pro-Palestinian PMW]:
Within hours after the horrific terrorist attacks in the United States, there were spontaneous outbreaks of rejoicing in the streets of the Palestinian Authority... Arafat's denunciation of the attacks, which continues to be broadcast, is in direct contradiction to the atmosphere of hatred he has been promoting through his tightly controlled media. The following are but a few examples: The suicide bombers of today are the noble successors of their noble predecessors... the Lebanese suicide bombers, who taught the US Marines a tough lesson in [Lebanon]...and then, with no preconditions, they threw the last of the remaining enemy [Israeli] soldiers out of the [security] zone. These suicide bombers are the salt of the earth, the engines of history...They are the most honorable [people] among us... [Al Hayat Al Jadida - Official Palestinian Authority daily, Sept. 11, 2001]
I just hope it is not too late for Europe
"This means the whole story will continue and that we are back to square one again. The government of Denmark has to do something to appease the Muslim world," Attia said.
Yeah right....can you say Nukes...
Me too, but in 10 or 20 years it will be to late so better now then then.
They hate the West. Why are they here ?
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