Posted on 02/15/2006 7:10:39 AM PST by ex-Texan
A prominent Italian government figure planned on Wednesday to wear a T-shirt sporting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have sparked violent reactions from Muslims around the world.
Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli denied that the T-shirts are meant to provoke, but said there is no point in promoting dialogue with Muslim extremists.
"I have had T-shirts made with the cartoons that have upset Islam and I shall start wearing them today," Calderoli told Italian newspapers.
"It is time to put an end to this tale that we need dialogue with these people," he added.
Calderoli, who is a leading figure of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, said he will wear the T-shirt despite being asked not to do so by Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
Violence in Pakistan
Fresh protests against the cartoons engulfed Pakistan on Wednesday, leaving Western businesses in flames and three people dead, including an eight-year-old boy.
Two people died in north-western Peshawar city when police fired tear gas shells and shot in the air to quell about 50 000 demonstrators who rampaged through the dusty streets and torched a KFC outlet.
Violence flared for a second day in the historic eastern city of Lahore, where another person was killed, and in at least half a dozen other towns across the world's second-most-populous Muslims nation. More than 45 people, including a police officer, were also injured in the riots.
The surge of unrest came a day after two people were shot dead and United States fast-food chains attacked during huge demonstrations in Lahore and students stormed a diplomatic enclave in the capital, Islamabad.
Wednesday's deaths brought the toll from the cartoon protests in Pakistan to five and worldwide to 17. Eleven died in the past two weeks in neighbouring Afghanistan and one each in Lebanon and Somalia.
In Peshawar, a volatile city near the Afghan border, enraged demonstrators clashed with baton-wielding police and targeted anything linked to foreign firms, witnesses and police said.
Provincial Chief Minister Akram Durrani blamed the riots on "troublemakers" and urged people to avoid violence. "We will not ban rallies against sacrilegious cartoons, but protesters must remain peaceful," he told reporters.
About 200 protesters stormed the KFC restaurant and set it ablaze, badly damaging the building and the nearby offices of cellphone company Mobilink, witnesses said. Mobs also set fire to two cinemas, a petrol station and a police van, while another 500 rioters damaged several private buses at the main Daewoo bus stand on the outskirts of the city.
The bodies of a boy and a 28-year-old man also killed in the riots were taken to the city's Lady Reading hospital, its deputy medical superintendent, Yousuf Pervez, said, while others were wounded by tear-gas shells.
"The 28-year-old, named Feroz, fell on an electric wire that is said to have snapped in police firing," he said. "The eight-year-old boy, who was identified only as Mohammed, died when a bullet hit his head during aerial firing."
The Islamist-led government in North West Frontier province, of which Peshawar is the capital, ordered all schools, colleges and universities to close for a week.
In Lahore, a youth died in crossfire between police and protesters in Punjab University's New Campus area after rioters started hurling stones at security forces and passing vehicles, a security official said, requesting anonymity.
Protesters again clashed with police on the Mall, Lahore's main street -- where rioters on Tuesday damaged two McDonald's restaurants and a Pizza Hut, and torched another KFC.
The riots also spread to Tank, a remote town south of Peshawar near Pakistan's troubled tribal areas, where a police officer was wounded by a pistol shot as a mob torched about 25 video and music shops.
In nearby Dera Ismail Khan, about 3 000 demonstrators attacked a Pakistani bank and smashed the windows of the offices of Norwegian cellphone company Telenor before dispersing, police said.
Cartoon protesters also took to the streets for the first time in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, and burned effigies of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Pakistan has witnessed almost daily protests since the row over the Danish cartoons erupted last month, but the rallies have turned angrier in recent days and ahead of a visit by US President George Bush in March.
The first big flare-up was in Islamabad on Tuesday, where police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse 600 students who stormed into the capital's diplomatic enclave and headed towards the British, French and Indian embassies.
Violence condemned
Meanwhile, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has condemned violence against Danish and European Union diplomatic missions over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons and urged dialogue to cool tensions.
"The commission condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the violence perpetrated against our office in Gaza, and against the missions of the member states, in particular those of Denmark," he told EU lawmakers.
"It is ironic that the aim of these missions is to bring real benefits to the lives of the people of their host countries," he told the EU's legislative assembly.
The EU's offices in Gaza and mainly Danish but also other EU embassies have faced violent protests recently as the cartoon row continues to simmer.
Barroso said that it is through dialogue that the tensions will be defused.
"This dialogue must be based on tolerance, not prejudice, and on freedom of expression and religion and the values connected with them," he said. "Violence is the enemy of dialogue."
While rallying to the defence of freedom of speech, former European Socialist head Poul Nyrup Rasmussen -- a former Danish prime minister -- hit out at the publication of the cartoons.
"It was irresponsible, it demonstrated an ignorance of the Islamic religion and it certainly did not represent the position of Danes in general," he told the assembly.
"About 200 protesters stormed the KFC restaurant and set it ablaze"
Imagine the grease fire....
Too bad the politicians in the U.S. don't have the "parts" this guy has. Its about time somebody stands up and declares a new crusade.
D@mn straight!
About time SOMEone said it!
A brave brave man...the religion of peace will of course issue a fatwa against him immediately.
"It is time to put an end to this tale that we need dialogue with these people," he added.
This is the whole story in a nutshell.
Perhaps we could show solidarity and ask to buy some from him or from whereever he's having them made.
I would certainly buy a few and hand them out to my friends as well as were one too.
When he walks, you can actually hear "Stormy Weather".
We had better not accuse the muslims for being violent, or else, they might become, er, violent? Hmmmmm.
I think we should commission Robert Smigel to create a cartoon series featuring Mohammed. We could air it on Al Jazeera. The middle east would implode.
To be honest with you these muslims did everyone a favor. They made even those unwilling to wake up HAVE TO wake up (to be honest the only people left with their heads in the sand is the American MSM ....everywhere else, from Australia to most of Europe people have realized just what unrestrained Muslim entry means). These 'rioters' (LOL) actually did everyone a favor.
Appreciate your large cojones, Mr. Calderoli. If we produce enough rage in these idiots, maybe they will kill each other off and the problem will be solved. IMHO, the Muslims are a bunch of wackos still stuck in the 7th century with a mindset to match. The concept of tolerance is completely lost on them. They are still fighting the crusades. Unfortunately, they are using 21st century toys.
I agree. It was the "French Roast" that woke everyone up. I prefer Mocha Lava Java myself but whatever works.
Hear, hear!
"It is time to put an end to this tale that we need dialogue with these people."
It's also time to put an end to the word "dialogue"!!
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