"What!"
Posted on 02/04/2006 11:31:17 PM PST by anymouse
DAMASCUS, Syria - Thousands of Syrians enraged by caricatures of Islam's revered prophet torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday — the most violent in days of furious protests by Muslims in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
In Gaza, Palestinians marched through the streets, storming European buildings and burning German and Danish flags. Protesters smashed the windows of the German cultural center and threw stones at the European Commission building, police said.
Iraqis rallying by the hundreds demanded an apology from the European Union, and the leader of the Palestinian group Hamas called the cartoons "an unforgivable insult" that merited punishment by death.
Pakistan summoned the envoys of nine Western countries in protest, and even Europeans took to the streets in Denmark and Britain to voice their anger.
At the heart of the protest: 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten in September and reprinted in European media in the past week. One depicted the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. The paper said it had asked cartoonists to draw the pictures because the media was practicing self-censorship when it came to Muslim issues.
The drawings have touched a raw nerve in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.
Aggravating the affront, Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said repeatedly he cannot apologize for his country's free press. But other European leaders tried Saturday to calm the storm.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said she understood Muslims were hurt — though that did not justify violence.
"Freedom of the press is one of the great assets as a component of democracy, but we also have the value and asset of freedom of religion," Merkel told an international security conference in Munich, Germany.
The Vatican deplored the violence but said certain provocative forms of criticism were unacceptable.
"The right to freedom of thought and expression ... cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers," the Vatican said in its first statement on the controversy.
The United States called the burnings "inexcusable" and blamed the Syrian government for security failures.
" Syria must act decisively to protect all foreign embassies and citizens in Damascus from attack," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement. "We will hold Syria responsible for such violent demonstrations since they do not take place in that country without government knowledge and support."
But Denmark and Norway did not wait for more violence.
With their Damascus embassies up in flames, the foreign ministries advised their citizens to leave Syria without delay.
"It's horrible and totally unacceptable," Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said on Danish public television Saturday.
No diplomats were injured in the Syrian violence, officials said. But Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds — whose country, along with Chile, has an embassy in the same building — said she would lodge a formal protest over the lack of security.
In Santiago, the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Chilean Embassy in Damascus was also torched but nobody was injured.
The demonstrations in Damascus began peacefully with protesters gathering outside the building housing the Danish Embassy. But they began throwing stones and eventually broke through police barricades. Some scrambled up concrete barriers protecting the embassy, climbed into the building and set a fire.
"With our blood and souls we defend you, O Prophet of God!" the demonstrators chanted. Some removed the Danish flag and replaced it with a green flag printed with the words: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God."
Demonstrators moved onto the Norwegian Embassy about 4 miles away, also setting fire to it before being dispersed by police using tear gas and water cannons. Hundreds of police and troops barricaded the road leading to the French Embassy, but protesters were able to break through briefly before fleeing from the force of water cannons.
Amid the furor, Syria's Grand Mufti urged calm, noting the demonstration had started in a "nice and disciplined way," but then turned violent because of "some members who do not understand the language of dialogue."
"We never expressed our anger in such a way, and we believe that dialogue should be done through guidance and teaching, not through killing, harming and burning," Sheik Ahmed Badr-Eddine Hassoun said in remarks carried by state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA.
In Gaza, masked gunmen affiliated with the Fatah Party called on the Palestinian Authority and Muslim nations to recall their diplomatic missions from Denmark until the government apologizes.
In the West Bank town of Hebron, about 50 Palestinians marched to the headquarters of the international observer mission there, burned a Danish flag and demanded a boycott of Danish goods.
"We will redeem our prophet Muhammad with our blood!" they chanted.
Mahmoud Zahar, leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, told the Italian daily Il Giornale the cartoonists should be punished by death.
We should have killed all those who offend the Prophet and instead here we are, protesting peacefully." he said.
Hundreds of Iraqis rallied south of Baghdad, some carrying banners urging "honest people all over the world to condemn this act" and demanding an EU apology.
Anger swelled in Europe, too. Young Muslims clashed briefly with police in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, and some 700 people rallied outside the Danish Embassy in London.
A South African court banned the country's Sunday newspapers from reprinting the cartoons.
Iran's president ordered his commerce minister to study canceling all trade contracts with European countries whose newspapers have published the caricatures, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the caricatures showed the "impudence and rudeness" of Western newspapers against the prophet as well as the "maximum resentment of the Zionists (Jews) ruling these countries against Islam and Muslims."
The leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan denounced the publication of the caricatures. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry summoned nine envoys to lodge protests against the publication of the "blasphemous" sketches.
The burka of "the religion of peace" has just had a big rip tear through its backside and the World is getting a view of how ugly she really is.
Actually no answer is necessary ......unless someone wants to post the word 'hypocrites' in HUGE letters! (Colored Green ofcourse ....it is the Islamic color, and I do not want to 'offend' them and have a Fatwa edict against me).
Seriously though, these people are just messing themselves up in Europe. Already a good part of Europe is tired of them (ranging from Austria to the Netherlands), and all the stuff they are doing now just makes it even worse for them.
This is the most stupid form of self-sabotage I have ever seen. I guess the good thing is that it will wake any Europeans who are still asleep about the danger in their midst.
Anyways, all the people protesting (and burning things,and threatening violence, and .....) are HYPOCRITES. Each and every one of them.
Wait your turn Syria........wait your turn. Iran was in line ahead of you......we'll get to you soon enough.
Mohammed and his father, Satan. Pizz be upon him.
Things are strangely quiet on the French front...
The Muslims can dish it out...but sure as hell can't take it.
Thus proving the caricatures to have been correct. They're upset by them, yet their response proves them to be an accurate depiction. Do they realize how idiotic they look?
How do the cartoons help us in the fight against the nutburgers? What do we gain by insulting them?
it is the christians fault.
Oh wait, no christians in denmark.
"We" gain the rest of the world (the sane part) understanding that Muslim fanatics are not just those few nutjobs sawing the heads off of innocents. Instead, it is becoming undeniable that muslims around the world are just plain nuts. It is becoming undeniable that muslims, as a rule, cannot exist peacefully in civilized society. They cannot be simply "tolerated".
What's unacceptable is terrorism....murdering thousands of innocent people. THAT'S unacceptable!
"The right to freedom of thought and expression ... cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers," the Vatican said in its first statement on the controversy.
So, where does the Vatican stand on a Crucifix in a jar of urine being called "art"? How about elephant dung smeared on a picture of the Virgin? Those offenses are ok? Christians and Jews are targets for torture and murder by these "believers". They believe in darkness and death. The Holy Catholic Church cannot stand with evil. God help us.
No doubt our Muzzie friends would stand up for Christians with equal valor if the tables were turned. /s
I read somewhere else that they tried to go after the British and US embassies, but both were too heavily guarded.
Golly, you are a scary fellow.
You said that Muslims can`t exist in a civilzed society.
WOW, that`s some statement.
Should we gas them, nuke them, or what?
KEWL! Thanks for posting this. I'm wondering where the French moosies are? They are sounding real quiet, seems like.
"What!"
Genocide is not the answer.
Deporting them all to wherever they can't murder anyone except themselves would be an option.
Preferably, a location where they could not cripple the world's economy, i.e., anywhere no oil reserves could be found.
If rehabilitation could be applied, those that successfully break the bonds of Koranism could be reintegrated with the rest of the world.
As it stands now, a large portion of Mohammedans seem to be begging for extinction in a nuclear exchange.
I would prefer they stop their ways long before any additional death, on either side, however I'm not hopeful.
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.