Pakistanis Rampage Over Cartoons

BBC ^ | 2-13-2006

[blam]

Pakistanis rampage over cartoons

The protests in Peshawar were the first to turn violent there

Police in Pakistan have fired tear gas to disperse at least 3,000 students demonstrating against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. Sixteen people were held for damaging public property in the protest in the north-western city of Peshawar.

Students also smashed hoardings advertising the Norwegian telecom giant, Telenor, and chanted "Death to America" and "God is Great".

The controversial cartoons were first published in Denmark last year.

They have sparked protests across the Muslim world.

Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday again tried to soothe the row, insisting his nation was "an open and tolerant society, a tolerant society which respects all faiths".

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, was also trying to build bridges.

He told the head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that there was never any intent to cause offence.

In other developments:

In response to the row, popular Hamshahri newspaper in Iran launches a contest for cartoons of the Holocaust

Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov warns that members of Danish NGOs may be the victims of "revenge attacks" there if Denmark does not apologise

Thousands of students of Egypt's al-Azhar University protest against the cartoons at campuses in Cairo and in the southern city of Assiut

Hundreds of Palestinian students protest in the West Bank city of Hebron shouting "Death to Jews and Denmark".

'Oblivious'

The protests in Peshawar were the first there to turn violent, although there have been many since the controversy erupted at the end of last month, the BBC's Haroon Rashid in the city says.

Shopkeepers pulled down their shutters and shoppers abandoned the city's main bazaar as protesters went on the rampage, he says.

In Islamabad, President Pervez Musharraf said newspapers that printed the cartoons were "oblivious" to the consequences for peace and harmony in the world.

"I don't see how any civilised person can take the issue of freedom of press to hurt the feelings of such a large population of the world," he told visiting journalists.

"Whether an extremist or a moderate or an ultra-moderate, we will condemn it."

At least 12 people died in demonstrations last week against the cartoons in Afghanistan.

The cartoons include an image portraying Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits any depiction of Allah and the Prophet.

The cartoons were first published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September, but have since been reprinted in several other European publications.

Denmark has temporarily shut its missions in Indonesia, Iran and Syria and urged its nationals to leave Indonesia over fears they may be targeted in the row.

Mr Rasmussen, the Danish premier, met members of a new association called "Democratic Muslims" in a fresh effort to defuse the row.

He told reporters there had been "false pictures, false stories, false rumours of Denmark".

In Jeddah, Mr Solana met Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and afterwards told reporters: "In the EU we feel a profound respect yesterday, today and tomorrow, and we never wanted in any case to offend their feelings".

Mr Ihsanoglu has called on the EU to pass laws banning blasphemy.

[Peach]

Islam is an army disguised as a religion.

[kromike]

Perhaps the title should simply read, "Muslims rampage over anything and everything."

[RolandBurnam]

but why are they rioting in their pajamas?

[Paloma_55]

Cheney is about to start burning buildings I am sure...

[boomop1]

As long as they don't stampede.

[taxcontrol]

Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits any depiction of Allah and the Prophet.

This article continues to keep the LIE going. The Quran does NOT prohibit pictures of Mohammad and in fact, there are many early pictures of Mohammad.

The concept that Islam prohibits depictions of Mohammad is a recent.... i.e not traditional view.

[magslinger]

"Whether an extremist or a moderate or an ultra-moderate, we will condemn it."

Condemning the cartoons is quite acceptable, feel free to do it.

Condemning the cartoonists to death is quite a different story. The suppression of free speech is something we feel strongly about.

[goldstategop]

I can see another Leslie Nielsen picture in the works: The Naked Cartoon.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[half-cajun]

To me it doesn't even matter if the Quran does prohibit the depiction. The press is secular and shouldn't have to abide by religious dictates, anyway.

[milestogo]

At least 12 people died in demonstrations last week against the cartoons in Afghanistan.

Riots that were instigated by Pakistanis.

41 Pakistanis detained in Zabul

KABUL: Afghan authorities have arrested more than 40 Pakistani workers for inciting violence during a protest against cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in which four people were killed, an official said Thursday. The men were arrested with their Arab boss in Qalat in southern Zabul province where police opened fire to quell rampaging demonstrators Wednesday. “The protests were supposed to be peaceful. But we have proof that these men were involved in turning it to violence,” said provincial spokesman Gulab Shah Alikhil. Alikhil said 16 of the 41 arrested men had confessed to having had a “hand in violating the protests”. All would go on trial, he said. The Arab boss was a Saudi national, he said.

[AmericanChef]

"Death to America"?? Darn, they ended up at the wrong protest again. Oh, well, never waste a crowd, they always say.

[lOKKI]

I've come to the conclusion that this we are seeing the beginning of the next world war - as inevitable as the WW I became.

In that case it was triggered by the (surprisingly similar) anarchist movement which had no center that could be attacked or removed - a movement like as the islamist movement.

There were more than a dozen assassinations of world leaders before the Arch Duke Ferdinand's killing triggered the events that began the war. (Recall President McKinley).
Because the movement had no 'leaders' or central organization, it was impossible to stamp out.

The only thing that ended it was the exhaustion caused by WW I.

Here I tend to believe that the only thing that will end the problems with the Islamist movement is War with Iran, and (no doubt) their ally Syria.

I don't think this will happen tomorrow, but I've come to believe that it's ultimately unavoidable. How do you otherwise stop this clash of civilizations, except by war?

[Uncle Miltie]

"Death to America"?? Darn, they ended up at the wrong protest again. Oh, well, never waste a crowd, they always say.

Waste 'em, I say! < / sarcasm>

[El Gato]

chanted "Death to America"

Always, even though we had nothing to do with any of it. For which I'm greatly ashamed.

[blam]

"Here I tend to believe that the only thing that will end the problems with the Islamist movement is War with Iran, and (no doubt) their ally Syria."

I agree...and, the sooner the better.

[B.O. Plenty]

What I am afraid of is that it will not be soon enough. The admin is going to screw around, let the U.N. show it's ass one more time and all the while Iran is busy making several nuclear bombs. When they get them, everyone here knows that they will use them, certainly on Israel, and if they can, the U.S. Israel will be destroyed, since it is just a little larger than Dallas County.

So...we must have a devastating attack before the U.S. can(or will) act to remove the Iran regime from the face of the earth. The reason escapes most of us here.

We would hope that there are no attacks here...but our enemy is a patient enemy...they have been waiting for 1400 years to destroy us.....2, 4, or even 10 years between attacks is down in the grass to them.

[kromike]

but why are they rioting in their pajamas?

Uhhh, because they don't have jobs? Wait...that sounds suspiciously like a peacnik pacifist. Next thing you'll be telling me, these pajama-clad crybabies don't shower often and hate America...

[kokonut]

Indeed. Here's one cartoon that kind of sums it up that everybody can understand. Well, except maybe for the stuck on stupid types.
http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.com/2006/02/cartoon-that-everybody-can-understand.html

[magslinger]

I believe that you are pretty much right except this war shouldn't be WWIII but WWZERO, because it has been going on against western civilization, with intermissions when the Muslims got beat back a little, for fourteen hundred years.