Free Republic

BEIRUT, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Lebanon's interior minister resigned on Sunday after thousands of angry Muslim protesters torched the Danish consulate in Beirut and damaged property in a Christian area in riots over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. The protesters, waving green Islamic flags and chanting "God is greatest", fuelled sectarian tension when they stoned a church, provoking an angry Christian outcry in a country that has not fully recovered from its 1975-1990 civil war. Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa, a Sunni Muslim retired officer loyal to the country's anti-Syrian majority coalition, submitted his resignation at an emergency cabinet meeting. "We...

The State Department yesterday condemned as "offensive" cartoons in a Danish newspaper depicting the prophet Muhammad but defended the paper's right to publish them as a fundamental principle of democracy. It also urged Muslims, who have been staging mass protests against the cartoons and their reprinting in newspapers in Europe, to express outrage when they see anti-Christian or anti-Semitic publications. "We find them offensive," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said of the cartoons. "While we share the offense that Muslims have taken at these images, we at the same time vigorously defend the right of individuals to express points of...

Outrage Builds in Mideast Over Cartoons By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press WriterMon Jan 30, 4:39 PM ET From the burning of its flag to a boycott of its brands of butter and cookies, Denmark is feeling Islamic outrage over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Angered by the drawings, masked Palestinian gunmen briefly took over a European Union office in Gaza on Monday. Islamists in Bahrain urged street demonstrations, while Syria called for the offenders to be punished. A Saudi company paid thousands of dollars for an ad thanking a business that snubbed Danish products. The anger is reminiscent of...