Muslims Burn Danish Flag in Protest Against Muhammad Cartoons

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Muslims Burn Danish Flag in Protest Against Muhammad Cartoons

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The Danish flag was burnt in the West Bank yesterday as Muslims protested against cartoons satirizing the prophet Muhammad published by Denmark's biggest newspaper, the Nordic nation's Foreign Ministry said.

Muslims in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen are seeking a boycott of Danish goods, Danmarks Radio reported Jan. 29. Libya followed its Saudi counterpart and closed its embassy in Copenhagen, Danish newspaper Politiken said yesterday, citing Libyan state news agency Jana.

The protests follow Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Oct. 21 refusal to meet ambassadors of 11 Muslim countries to discuss censuring the Jyllands-Posten paper after it printed 12 cartoons of the prophet on Sept. 30, including one showing Muhammad wearing a bomb instead of a turban. Muslim leaders want an official apology.

``The incidents are worrying, because we usually have a good dialogue with the Arab world,'' Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said in a statement on the ministry Web site late yesterday. The ministry is working ``to deal with the situation in all its aspects, diplomatic, security and economic''

Moeller will discuss the Middle Eastern boycotts with his European counterparts at a meeting in Brussels today.

A Danish umbrella group of 21 Muslim organizations sent a delegation to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon to rally support against Denmark. The group met Muslim leaders including the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and the General Secretary of the Arab League Amre Moussa, said Ahmed Akkari, a spokesman for the group.

Smearing Campaign

``We asked them whether they could live with something like this in their own countries, and of course they said no,'' he said on Jan. 18.

The ambassadors to Denmark of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Libya, Morocco, and Palestine on Oct. 12 wrote to Rasmussen saying the cartoons were part of a ``smearing campaign'' against Muslims.

``We may underline that it can also cause reactions in Muslim countries and among Muslim communities in Europe,'' the ambassadors wrote. They urged Rasmussen ``to take all those responsible to task under the law of the land.''

Rasmussen on Oct. 21 said it wasn't the role of government to circumscribe freedom of the press.

``We want either an apology or some kind of explanation as to why they chose to do the cartoons,'' Akkari said.

Flemming Rose, cultural editor at Jyllands-Posten's Copenhagen office, said the paper won't apologize.

No Regrets

``An apology would imply we regret what we've done, which we don't,'' Rose said in a telephone interview on Jan. 23. ``We do satires of Jesus, the royal family and politicians; not to do satires of Muslims would show prejudice as we would be treating them differently from all other groups.''

The 21 Muslim organizations have had their case rejected by Denmark's High Court and are currently waiting for a decision from the country's Supreme Court, Akkari said.

``A few of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons link the prophet to terrorism,'' said Tyge Trier, a lawyer at Eversheds Copenhagen specializing in international human rights law, in a phone interview on Jan. 18. ``I'd say even these cartoons don't violate the criminal code's paragraph on racism, though they come pretty close.''

Denmark, together with Italy, was singled out as a potential al-Qaeda target after the July 7 London bombings last year for its participation in the Iraq war. The country has 540 troops in Iraq and U.S. President George W. Bush has called Rasmussen a ``steadfast'' ally.

To contact the reporter on this story:

Tasneem Brogger in Copenhagen at at tbrogger@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 30, 2006 04:08 EST

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