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Danish Muhammad cartoon reprinted

Danish newspapers have reprinted one of several caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad which sparked violent protests across the Muslim world in 2005. They say they wanted to show their commitment to freedom of speech after an alleged plot to kill one of the cartoonists behind the drawings.

Of three suspects detained over the alleged plot on Tuesday, one - a Danish citizen - was released on Wednesday. The remaining two - Tunisian citizens - are set to be deported without trial.

The cartoons were originally published by Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. Danish embassies were attacked around the world and dozens died in riots that followed.

Source: [BBC]

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Sweden acts to cool cartoon row

Sweden's Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, has met ambassadors from 22 Muslim countries in an effort to defuse a row about a Prophet Muhammad cartoon. The cartoon, published in a Swedish newspaper last month, showed Prophet Muhammad's head on a dog's body. Several Muslim countries protested.

Mr Reinfeldt said Friday's talks had gone well, but added it was too early to say if tensions had been defused. Last year there were riots over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Mr Reinfeldt said he told the ambassadors that under the Swedish constitution, politicians were not allowed to "interfere with how the media [works] and what it chooses to publish".

Source: [BBC]

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Denmark rocked by new cartoon row

The Danish prime minister has denounced the drawing of new cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad by members of an anti-immigration party's youth wing. Anders Fogh Rasmussen intervened in an apparent effort to prevent a repeat of the widespread protests over similar cartoons a year ago. Danish People's Party activists were shown on TV drawing the images, which were condemned in the Muslim world. Iran and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said the new cartoons insulted Islam.

Iran protested to the Danish government on Sunday, saying it was "deplorable that the extremist elements in Danish society have attempted to sabotage Denmark's relations with the Islamic countries once again".

Source: [BBC]

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Danish film festival feels fallout from cartoon row

An Iranian director has pulled out of a Danish film festival in protest against the publication in Denmark of cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad. Majid Majidi said he was withdrawing "to protest against insulting any religious belief or icon."

"A paper in your country has insulted the huge population of Muslim people and disrespected the boundaries of the holy sanctuaries of beliefs," he said. Organizers of the Natfilm festival said they regretted Mr Majidi's decision. "The festival aims to increase knowledge of other cultures and thus build tolerance and understanding between peoples of the world," said festival director Kim Foss.

Source: [BBC]

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Muslim scholars discuss cartoon row ramifications

Some 300 Muslim scholars have begun meeting in Bahrain to discuss the row over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The conference follows a wave of demonstrations in which at least 50 people died in the wake of the images' publication in Denmark and elsewhere.

The scholars are hoping to come up with a strategy to mobilise Muslims in defence of the Prophet. One leading hardline cleric, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, told delegates that a war was being waged against Islam.

The cartoon controversy has strained relations between Islam and the West. It has triggered demonstrations in many countries, boycotts of Danish goods and the resignation of government ministers in Italy and Sweden. The row has lost some of its heat but is not yet over.

Source: [BBC]

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Following cartoon row, Islamic activism sweeps Saudi

By Faiza Saleh Ambah

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- More than a dozen women in black cloaks, some with colorful head scarves, others with only their eyes visible through slits in black veils, filed into the dining room after sunset prayers. They sat around a long table set up with paper, pencils and thermoses of Arabic coffee, across from a small group of men, including that evening's guest, Sadeg al-Malki.

The women -- homemakers, physicians and college students -- had sought out Malki, a consultant at the Islamic Education Foundation, because they wanted help on a project they were embarking on: how to talk to non-Muslim co-workers and acquaintances about Islam and the prophet Muhammad.

The women, who have since taken several mini-courses with Malki on discussing their religion with non-Muslims, are part of a loosely knit grass-roots movement that has sprung up across the kingdom since January, when anger over cartoons of Muhammad sparked riots in Europe and several Muslim countries. The movement is made up of a diverse cross section of women, students, businessmen, lawyers and clerics, all campaigning under the banner of Nusrat al-Rasool, or Victory for the Prophet.

Source: [Washington Post]

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Zawahri lambastes West over Prophet cartoons

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri criticized the West for its insult to Islam's prophet, complaining in a video broadcast Sunday on Al-Jazeera that the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus "are not sacred anymore."

Referring to the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have been printed in a number of European newspapers, al-Zawahri said: "They did it on purpose and they continue to do it without apologizing, even though no one dares to harm Jews or to challenge Jewish claims about the Holocaust nor even to insult homosexuals." Al-Zawahri, wearing a black turban and seated in front of a curtained window, spoke insistently and waved his right hand to emphasize his words.

"The insults against Prophet Muhammad are not the result of freedom of opinion but because what is sacred has changed in this culture," he said. "The Prophet Mohammed, prayers be upon him, and Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, are not sacred anymore, while Semites and the Holocaust and homosexuality have become sacred."

Source: [MSNBC]

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Student debate of Prophet cartoons turns chaotic

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) -- A student panel discussion that included a display of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons descended into chaos, with one speaker calling Islam an "evil religion" and audience members nearly coming to blows. Organizers of Tuesday night's forum at the University of California, Irvine said they showed the cartoons as part of a larger debate on Islamic extremism.

But several hundred protesters, including members of the Muslim Student Union, argued the event was the equivalent of hate speech disguised as freedom of expression. Although there were numerous heated exchanges, no violence was reported. The panel, which included one Muslim speaker, was sponsored by the College Republicans and the United American Committee, a group that says it promotes awareness of internal threats facing America.

During the discussion in a nearly packed 424-seat campus auditorium, six cartoons were displayed: three depicting Muhammad and three anti-Semitic cartoons. The discussion got off to a contentious start with the Council on American-Islamic Relations -- an invited guest -- boycotting the event and calling the United American Committee a "fringe group."

Source: [MSNBC]

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Writers issue warning over Danish cartoon row

Salman Rushdie is among a dozen writers to have put their names to a statement in a French weekly paper warning against Islamic "totalitarianism." The writers say the violence sparked by the publication of cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad shows the need to fight for secular values and freedom.

The statement is published in Charlie Hebdo, one of several European papers to reprint the caricatures. The images, first published in Denmark, have angered Muslims across the world. One showed the Prophet Muhammad, whose depiction is banned in Islam, as a terrorist bomber. Many newspapers defended their decision to reprint the cartoons on the grounds of freedom of expression.

'Global threat'

Almost all of those who have signed the statement have experienced difficulties with Islamic militancy first-hand, says the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris. They include Dutch MP and filmmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali and exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen.

Source: [BBC]

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Islamic countries denounce violence over cartoons

The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) has denounced calls for the death of the Danish cartoonist who satirised the Prophet Mohammed. OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in Pakistan that the calls were un-Islamic and urged Muslims to refrain from violent protests. The cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper last September. Many people have died in recent protests, including five in Pakistan.

Islamic tradition prohibits any depiction of Allah or the Prophet. On Monday the Iranian foreign minister urged calm. "We should try to cool down the situation," Manouchehr Mottaki said. "We do not support any violence." There have been offers of rewards in Pakistan and India in recent days for anyone killing the cartoonist.

'European values'

The OIC's Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told journalists in Islamabad: "This is not a joke to go and say kill this and that. This is a very serious matter and nobody has the authority to issue a ruling to kill people." He said that violent protests, such as burning of vehicles and buildings did not project the true spirit of Islam in the eyes of the West.

Source: [BBC]

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