Posted on 02/03/2006 3:24:43 PM PST by Cornpone
MILITANTS threatened to kidnap or murder Western citizens as anger over the publication of caricatures of Mohammed spread around the Muslim world.
Diplomats, journalists and aid workers fled Gaza and the West Bank yesterday as Palestinian gunmen searched hotels for citizens of countries where newspapers had printed the images, warning they were now targets.
As Western governments tried to calm tensions ahead of Friday prayers in mosques across the Middle East, protesters burst into the building housing the Danish embassy in Jakarta and burned the Danish flag to show anger over the publication of the cartoons by a Danish newspaper.
The simmering row turned into a diplomatic crisis this week when the cartoons were reprinted in a Christian magazine in Norway.
The Muslim reaction prompted newspapers in France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Hungary to publish cartoons in defence of freedom of speech.
The European Union, the main financial supporter of the Palestinian Authority, stepped up security at its offices in Gaza after gunmen fired into the air outside and scrawled graffiti saying the offices were "closed until an apology is sent to Muslims".
A leaflet handed out by the Islamic Jihad and Fatah groups condemned the "vile" images and warned "infidels" that Muslims "are ready to become martyrs" and that "European provocations have placed offices and churches under fire".
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, head of the hardline Hezbollah movement, said: "I am sure there are millions of Muslims who are ready to give their lives to defend our prophet's honour."
He said people would not have dared to insult Islam if novelist Salman Rushdie, the subject of a fatwa for his novel The Satanic Verses, had been executed.
France and Denmark issued warnings to their citizens against travel in Muslim areas, and Denmark and Norway closed their Palestinian offices after receiving death threats.
A European Commission spokeswoman said: "Colleagues working in the region are there to improve the lot of Palestinian people, and those who make the threats should bear that in mind. We oppose all use of violence."
In Pakistan, 400 Muslim students chanted "death to Denmark" and "death to France". The demonstrators burned Danish and French flags and an effigy of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
The head of Pakistan's main alliance of Islamic parties, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, said: "We have called for countrywide protests on Friday."
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said sermons could fuel tensions. "Now countries such as France, Germany and Austria have published the drawings, this could stir things up."
Leaders of Islamic nations stepped up criticism about the publication of the cartoons.
A spokesman for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned of repercussions over "insults against the noble prophet".
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said: "Any insult to the holy prophet, peace be upon him, is an insult to more than a billion Muslims and an act like this must never be allowed to be repeated."
As a boycott of Danish produce spread around the Middle East, Arla Foods, the country's largest exporter to the region, announced it was laying off 125 workers.
European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson stepped back from his threat to take legal action against any government that supported the boycott. He said he could not go to the World Trade Organisation if it was "a spontaneous consumer boycott or one that is privately organised".
Denmark launched a diplomatic counter-offensive, and Mr Rasmussen summoned his country's enoys to Copenhagen.
"We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work," he said.
And Carsten Juste, editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, which originally published the 12 cartoons, said he would not have done so had he known "the lives of Danish soldiers and civilians would be threatened".
Ahhh, that's the true New York Times spirit...
So, if I get this right, they want to cut heads off.
So, it may be prudent to start thinking about, lets see, cutting... what could we cut... do they even have those???
"We oppose all use of violence."
... said the clueless pacifist, just prior to beheading.
It's obvious that muslims have declared war on the world. Why do we continue to act as if that is not the case?
These a-holes seem to have definately lost what little self control they might have ever had.
Kill or be killed, lets drop some bombs and turn some choice deserts into a sea of glass and be done with it already.
It would be nice to have a full billboard of bombhead in a busy urban area. That'd drive em' nuts.
allah is satan's bitch and muhammed is the excrement
Time for Crusades 2.0
there is no"god called allah"and mohammed was a child molester
If you think they're pissed now, just wait til mecca gets nuked.
Talk about stirring up a hornet nest.
LOL!
ROFLMAO!
Bloody brilliantly put. Would be too much to use as a tagline though.... Contact a massmailer and get the word out....
May I quote you on that?
Islam must die. There's a bumper sticker for 'em.
Given their tendency to accidentally blow themselves up in their own homes while attempting to make modern bombs using a seventh-century education, this may not be a bad thing.
"Ok...Bushbots...lets hear the excuses for your boy George.
Let's hear how GW is not pandering to the Arabs."
It is very, very hard to support this administration when its DoS comes out against freedom of the press and speech in support of Islamofascists. Unfortunately, its the only administration we have and I suspect the Dems, were they in power, would be planning a strike on Copenhagen about now like they did to Belgrade on Orthodox Good Friday. We really do need a change in the political class in this country.
Well he couldn't very well come out and say "SEE? I TOLD you were dealing with a bunch of backwards nutballs. At long last, are you through defending these nutballs, who are even more at odds with your goals than we are?"
Actions speak louder than words, and tomahawk missiles speak louder than actions...
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