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".
please do.
An interesting look at what Muslims think about the cartoons and those who view them
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1571296/posts
Excuses are made for Muslims when their religion is made fun of.
Can you imagine the MSM response if Christians resorted to this when their religion is made fun of. /S
Time to gut our PC state department.
OMG, that was so funny. I wish I could read all the text. Muzzies are going to blow a fuse if they see that page. lol
Muslims, please get outraged over this cartoon please?
Darn, I own up to being a Bush-bot, a proud one even, but this one's way beyond me. I keep hoping I'll find out it was a statement by a rogue Clinton holdover in State, but that might be wishful thinking.
And speaking of thinking, what ARE they thinking, to issue a statement like that?
"That'd drive em' nuts."
Why even spend money on billboard space? Just start a chain e-mail with an animated GIF of the cartoon. You could call it "Mo' bombhead," lol ... "Infidel!!! If you do not forward this to ten more infidels, I'll blow my head off, Allah willing."
I turned off the television the moment he said that. I do like Bush for many things, but he has disappointed me over the fatal roadmap to peace, his PC approach to Islam (this isn’t the first time he has called Islam a religion hijacked by fanatics), and his glaring denial over the Mexican invasion.
What I don’t get is why they persist in attacking civilians who had no decision whatsoever in the publishing of those cartoons?
check the link in post 8
Too many BBC viewers.
Ouch!
I was listening on the internet, and cut the feed as soon as the President called Islam a "noble" religion. I've had enough of the nonsence.
Let’s start by driving the horde from the holy city of Bethlehem.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.