Editor fired after publication of Prophet caricatures

PARIS - The Paris newspaper France Soir has fired its managing editor after the daily printed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that have sparked rising protests and boycotts in the Muslim world. The daily confirmed that owner Raymond Lakah had fired Jacques Lefranc on Wednesday evening after a tumultuous day on which German and Spanish dailies ran the controversial cartoons that first appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten.

Angered by the drawings, Palestinian gunmen jumped on the outer wall of a European Union office in Gaza City on Thursday and demanded an apology. Masked gunmen also briefly took over an EU office in Gaza on Monday. Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet to prevent idolatry. The drawings have prompted boycotts of Danish goods and bomb threats and demonstrations against Danish facilities, and have divided opinion within Europe and the Middle East.

The cartoons include an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, and another portraying him holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle. Syria has called for those behind publishing the cartoons to be punished. Danish goods were swept from shelves in many countries, and Saudi Arabia and Libya recalled their ambassadors to Denmark.

Source: [MSNBC]

Tabloid defends publication

The front page of France Soir on Wednesday carried the headline "Yes, We Have the Right to Caricature God" and a cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud. The tabloid staunchly defended its right to print the cartoons.

"The best way to fight censorship is not to let it happen," it wrote in an editorial. "In these circumstances, that meant publishing these drawings ... Imagine a society that added up all the prohibitions of different religions. What would remain of the freedom to think, to speak and even to come and go?" the paper wrote.

"We know societies like that all too well. The Iran of the mullahs, for example. But yesterday, it was the France of the Inquisitions, the burning stakes and the Saint Bartholomew's Day (massacre of Protestants)," the editorial said.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the issue had gone beyond a row between Copenhagen and the Muslim world and now centered on Western free speech versus taboos in Islam, which is now the second religion in many European countries.

"We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work," Rasmussen told the Copenhagen daily Politiken. "One can safely say it is now an even bigger issue."

Other European papers publish cartoons

Switzerland's Le Temps and Hungary's Magyar Hirlap ran a cartoon showing an imam telling suicide bombers to stop because Heaven had run out of virgins to reward them.

Germany's Die Welt daily printed one of the drawings on its front page, arguing that a "right to blasphemy" was anchored in democratic freedoms. The Berliner Zeitung daily printed two of the caricatures as part of its coverage of the controversy.

Italy's La Stampa printed a small version of an offending caricature, on page 13. Two Spanish papers, Barcelona's El Periodico and Madrid's El Mundo, also carried the photos. The publication by French Soir drew a stern reaction from the French Foreign Ministry.

Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters that press freedom could not be called into question but urged restraint: "The principle of freedom should be exercised in a spirit of tolerance, respect of beliefs, respect of religions, which is the very basis of secularism of our country."

The issue is sensitive in France, home to Western Europe's largest Muslim community with an estimated 5 million people. Mohammed Bechari, president of the National Federation of the Muslims of France, said his group would start legal proceedings against France Soir because of "these pictures that have disturbed us, and that are still hurting the feelings of 1.2 billion Muslims."

Scathing Arab reaction

Reaction in Middle East countries has been scathing. "In the West, one discovers there are different moral ceilings and all moral parameters and measures are not equal," wrote the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat. "If the Danish cartoon had been about a Jewish rabbi, it would never have been published."

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Riyadh considered the cartoons an insult to Mohammad and all Muslims. "We hope that religious centers like the Vatican will clarify their opinion in this respect," he told the state news agency SPA.

In Beirut, the leader of Lebanon's Shiite Hizbollah said the dispute would never had occurred if a 17-year-old death edict against British writer Salman Rushdie been carried out.

"Had a Muslim carried out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the apostate Salman Rushdie, then those low-lifers would not have dared discredit the Prophet, not in Denmark, Norway or France," Hizbollah head Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday night.

The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called on Muslims in 1989 to kill Rushdie for blasphemy against Islam in his book The Satanic Verses. Rushdie went into hiding and was never attacked.

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For single page combination of all stories on the Danish cartoon row click here

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• Norwegian magazine prints Prophet caricatures
• Saudi cleric wants Danish paper punished for cartoons
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• Jordan foreign ministry summons Danish consul
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• Libya shuttering embassy in Denmark over cartoons
• Palestinians storm EU Gaza office over Dane cartoons
• Danish Cartoons: Making a moutain out of a molehill
• Islamic fury grows over Danish caricatures
• Norway apologizes over Prophet caricatures
• Danish paper issues apology for Prophet cartoons
• French paper reprints Denmark's Prophet caricatures
• Newspapers across Europe reprint Prophet cartoons
• Gaza gunmen close EU office over Prophet cartoons
• Hezbollah: Rushdie death would stop Prophet insults
• Jordanian paper reprints Danish Prophet cartoons
• French editor of 'Soir' fired over Prophet cartoons
• Jordan editor fired for Prophet cartoon reprint
• BBC, ITV show cartoons; Muslims vent outrage
• Syrians set Danish, Norweigan embassies ablaze
• Boycott over Danish cartoons costing Arla £1m daily
• Cartoon controversy reflects deeper Danish problem
• Jordanian editor: 'Cartoons silly,' time to move on
• Prophet cartoon protests leave 4 dead in Afghanistan
• Iran becomes new focus of Prophet cartoon protests
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