newswire

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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Libyans burn Italian consulate in caricature protest

TRIPOLI, Libya - The publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad continued to send shock waves around the world Friday as protesters set fire to the Italian consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and clashed with police hours after an Islamic cleric in Pakistan offered a $1 million reward for killing one of the cartoonists.

Libyan security officials said 11 protesters were killed or wounded in the clashes in Benghazi.An Italian consular official, Antonio Simoes-Goncalves, put the death toll at nine and said several more had been wounded as armed police clashed with a crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators.

Thousands rally in London

More than 10,000 angry people protested in central London Saturday against the cartoons that have infuriated many in the Muslim world. "Free speech, cheap insults," read one demonstrator's placard. "How dare you insult the blessed Prophet Muhammed?" asked another. Buses brought participants from cities around Britain to gather in Trafalgar Square, and they planned to march later Saturday to Hyde Park.

Source: [MSNBC]

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Yemeni editor discusses Prophet caricatures from jail

By Rod Nordland

Mohammed al-Asaadi is an improbable martyr to a free press. As the editor in chief of the generally pro-government Yemen Observer, a weekly English-language newspaper owned by Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh's media adviser, al-Asaadi has not been party to the sort of controversies that have seen many Yemeni journalists jailed in recent years. But when his newspaper ran an article about the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, Asaadi decided to reprint the cartoons -- albeit with a large X censoring most of them, and an article denouncing them. On Feb. 11, he was arrested and charged with insulting the Prophet. He is now in jail in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, awaiting trial. Newsweek arranged for a visitor to take a cell phone to him today, and Newsweek's Rod Nordland interviewed him by phone.

NEWSWEEK: Is this your first time in jail?
Mohammed al-Asaadi: It's the first time ever I've been a prisoner, or even in front of a judge.

How are the accommodations?
I'm in a temporary prison, awaiting a hearing, so it's not so bad. It's a basement, and we have to buy everything we need, even bottled water. There are 15 of us sharing one big room and one toilet, but the others aren't common criminals. A couple are journalists, because it's the prison of the prosecutor for press and publications.

Source: [Newsweek]

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Cleric offers $1 million reward for killing cartoonist

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A Pakistani Muslim cleric said Friday that he and supporters were offering rewards of more than $1 million for killing Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Maulana Yousef Qureshi, a cleric in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said during Friday prayers that he personally had offered to pay a bounty of 500,000 rupees ($8,400), while a jewelers association was putting up $1 million, and others were offering $17,000 plus a car.

Qureshi repeated the offer at rally later in the city to protest against the cartoons. "If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden ... we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy prophet," Qureshi told Reuters, referring to the $25 million U.S. bounty on the al-Qaida leader's head.

He apparently did not realize that 12 cartoonists, not one, drew the drawings that have led to protests across the Muslim world. Earlier this month a Taliban commander in Afghanistan was reported as offering a bounty of 220 pounds of gold to anyone who killed a cartoonist who drew the pictures. The commander, Mullah Dadullah, also offered 12 pounds of gold to anyone who killed a Danish, Norwegian or German soldier. Protests over the cartoons have turned violent in several Pakistani cities this week and at least five people have died.

Source: [MSNBC]

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Anatomy of the cartoon protest movement

By Anthony Shadid and Kevin Sullivan

BEIRUT, Lebanon - It was Oct. 13 when Teguh Santosa, a 30-year-old editor with wire-rim glasses, slicked-back black hair and a stubbly beard, decided to make a point in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country. His idea was a small gesture in a broader confrontation, illustrating the power of images in shaping sentiments. He scanned a dozen cartoons published in September by a Danish newspaper that lampooned the prophet Muhammad and chose to publish the one on his news Web site that has proven the most inflammatory: the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.

"I wanted them to know why it was insulting," said the thickset Santosa, a Muslim who runs the widely read Rakyat Merdeka Online.To his surprise, there was almost no reaction. A few e-mailed comments to the Web site, he said. That was all. So he republished the caricature more than a week later, on Oct. 22. Again, nothing.

"We were confused," he recalled, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. "Why aren't people reacting to this story?" What followed was a quintessentially 21st-century battle, a conflict steeped in decades, even centuries of grievances, reshaped by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and their aftermath.

Source: [Washington Post]

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Prophet caricature row: Letters from Denmark

By Mona Eltahawy

The war on the people of Denmark must stop. It is one thing to be offended by the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September and it is quite another to hold all Danes responsible for them.

For years, Muslims have complained that they are held collectively to blame for the violent actions of a few, particularly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. I am by no means striking equivalence between those attacks & the publication of the cartoons but the vilification of an entire people because of the actions of a few is indeed similar. It is hypocritical for Muslim not to acknowledge that.

News that Denmark had urged its citizens to leave Indonesia on Saturday, warning of "clear and present danger" from Muslim extremists seeking revenge for the cartoons is just the latest shocking chapter in this escalating crisis. Denmark has withdrawn its diplomats from Indonesia and Iran because of security threats. Those departures followed that of Danish embassy staff in Syria who left on Friday because they felt the security provided by Syrian authorities was inadequate. Who can blame them after their embassy was torched by a mob just a few days earlier?

Source: [Asharq Alawsat]

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Vandals in Denmark Strike Muslim Graves

By Kevin Sullivan

COPENHAGEN, Feb. 12 -- About 25 Muslim graves in western Denmark were vandalized late Saturday night, bringing swift condemnation from Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as tensions simmer from a Danish newspaper's publication last year of cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

"I strongly condemn this disgraceful act, and I deeply regret the desecration of Muslim graves," Rasmussen said in a statement released by his office Sunday night. "I have made it clear that the Danish government condemns any expression or any action which offends people's religious feelings."

Ahmed Akkari, a prominent Muslim leader in Denmark, said he was "happy" that Rasmussen had issued the statement so quickly. He said that in similar cases in the past, "nothing happened." Akkari said he believed that those who vandalized the Muslim graves in the city of Esbjerg, in Jutland, west of Copenhagen, "do not represent the Danish people's general attitude."

Source: [Washington Post]

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Pakistanis burn KFC, other buildings over cartoons

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) -- Thousands of protesters rampaged through two cities Tuesday, storming into a diplomatic district and torching Western businesses and a provincial assembly in Pakistan's worst violence against the Prophet Muhammad drawings, officials said. At least two people were killed and 11 injured.

Security forces fired into the air as they struggled to contain the unrest in the eastern city of Lahore, where protesters burned down four buildings housing a hotel, two banks, a KFC restaurant and the office of a Norwegian cell phone company, Telenor.

U.S. and British embassy staffers were confined to their compounds until police dispersed the protesters, some of whom chanted, "Death to America!" Witnesses said rioters also damaged more than 200 cars, dozens of shops and a large portrait of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Vandals broke the windows of a Holiday Inn, Pizza Hut and McDonald's.

Source: [MSNBC]

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Danish Muslim leader: "move on" over caricatures

By Kim McLaughlin and Per Bech Thomsen

(Reuters) A senior member of Denmark's Muslim community urged followers on Monday to "move on" in the row over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad after holding crisis talks with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "The majority of Muslims may feel offended by the cartoons as they link Islam with terrorism, but let's take it easy and move on now," Naser Khader, a member of parliament and founder of a new group called Democratic Muslims, told reporters.

Khader said a few fundamentalist clerics had set the agenda on behalf of all Danish Muslims and said his network of around 700 members was more broadly representative. Rasmussen asked for a meeting with Democratic Muslims after the conservative government accused some local Muslim leaders of showing the cartoons to Muslims in the Middle East in an effort to fan the flames of the scandal.

"All participants had valuable proposals and assessments of not just the actual situation, but also with regard to Danish integration policy," Rasmussen said after the meeting.

Source: [Yahoo News]

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Palestinian children demonstrate against Denmark

(AP) Hundreds of Palestinian schoolchildren, some as young as 4 years old, stomped on a Danish flag and shouted anti-Danish slogans on Monday to protest the recent publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers.

Monday's protest was organized by a school affiliated with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which is poised to lead the next Palestinian government after its sweeping victory in last month's legislative elections. About 500 children, ranging from kindergarten students to young teenagers, joined Monday's protest. The students methodically trampled over a large Danish flag placed on the ground. Many waved green Hamas flags or wore trademark Hamas headbands.

The crowd also carried a mock coffin with "Denmark" written on it, shouted anti-Danish slogans and called for a boycott of Danish products. "With our soul, we will redeem our prophet," they chanted. Palestinian police directed traffic as the crowd made its way through the city center, and the protest ended peacefully.

Source: [Jerusalem Post]

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Web trumps big US media in Prophet cartoon frenzy

WASHINGTON -- Most American newspaper and television editors have squirmed over whether to carry cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that flashed a firestorm of protest across Europe and the Middle East. But many of their readers and viewers seem to have made a personal editorial choice, with a few clicks of a mouse and an Internet hook-up that can pull up the images in seconds.

Technorati, a search engine for 27.5 million Web logs, or 'blogs', had the phrase "Mohammed Cartoon" at the top of its most requested items list on Thursday. Google's Zietgeist feature ranked the controversy at number five in its top 10 searches, for the week to Monday.

Such anecdotal evidence has prompted questions about whether news outlets are properly serving their readers - and if old-school ethics are obsolete in the modern media age. Muslims say that the drawings, one of which portrays the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, are blasphemous. Proponents of publishing them say that the controversy is a vital test of freedom of speech.

Source: [Middle East Times]

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'Huge chasm' between West, Islam over comics

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Muslims demonstrated against drawings of the Prophet Muhammad after Friday prayers around the world and Iranian youths rioted outside the French Embassy in Tehran despite calls for calm by governments and religious leaders.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, meanwhile, warned of a "huge chasm that has emerged between the West and Islam," particularly because of Muslim frustrations at Western policies toward Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinians.

While many of the demonstrations were peaceful, up to 60 young men and women hurled stones, firecrackers and firebombs at the French Embassy in the Iranian capital, smashing almost every window on its street facade and starting a small fire near the gate. "Down! Down with France! Down! Down with Israel," the crowd chanted. More than 100 policemen deployed around the embassy and officers used loudspeakers to urge the protesters to disperse.

Source: [MSNBC]

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AP protests misuse of photo in Prophet cartoon row

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- The Associated Press protested Wednesday the misleading inclusion of an AP photograph in a pamphlet purporting to show images offensive to Islam. The picture shows a bearded man wearing fake pig ears, a pig nose, and a pink embroidered cap on his head. He was wearing the costume while participating in a pig-squealing contest at an annual festival in a farm village in southern France last summer.

The AP sent out the photo describing the pig-squealing contest on Aug. 14, 2005. The photo had no connection with Islam or the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper in September. A blurry, black-and-white copy of the picture was included in a brochure that a delegation of Danish Muslim leaders carried on a Mideast tour to Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey, in December and January.

"The photograph was taken at an agriculture fair last summer and is totally unrelated to the current controversy," said AP's Director of Photography Santiago Lyon. Jack Stokes, an AP spokesman, said the picture was used "completely out of context and without permission. "AP is attempting to contact the distributors of this unrelated photo to protest its misrepresentation and demand that they stop immediately," he said.

Source: [Yahoo News]

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Arab paper republished Prophet cartoons in Ramadan

While Muslims across the world have rioted in the past week against countries whose newspapers have published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, there was no uproar when the same caricatures were prominently displayed in an Arab newspaper four months ago. The images originating in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten in September were reportedly featured on the cover and inside pages of Egypt's al-Fagr (the Dawn) in October, during the holy month of Ramadan.

According to the Freedom for Egyptians blog, al-Fagr included the cartoons on the front cover and page 17 of its edition dated Oct. 17. The headline, when translated, is said to read: "Continued Boldness. Mocking the Prophet and his wife by Caricature."

"The Egyptian paper criticized the bad taste of the cartoons but it did not incite hatred protests," notes the blog. "It would have been better that this [current] holy war against Denmark be launched during the holy month of Ramadan as many Muslims believe that Jihad during Ramadan would have been more worthy. This irrelevant outrage timing is but a sign that this violent response to the cartoons is politically motivated by Muslim extremists in Europe and the so-called secular governments of the Middle East. I want also to mention that despite the fact that all editors who tried to reprint the cartoons in the Middle East nowadays were arrested, the Egyptian editors went unharmed."

Source: [Worldnet Daily]

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Cartoon crisis promoting conservative Muslim agenda

By Natasha Fatah

Last week, in the midst of violent protests and heightened emotions over the Danish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, a conservative Muslim imam in the Middle East went on television and told more than 200 million people that Danes were burning copies of the Qur'an. He was lying.

There were only rumours, and no proof, that some Danish Nazis threatened to burn Islam's holy book. This is just one example of how conservative Muslims are manipulating the Muslim population. Naser Khader told me about the incident with the imam. He's a Syrian-born, Muslim liberal member of parliament in the opposition coalition in Denmark, and he says the cartoons are being used by conservative Muslim leaders in Denmark and around the world to push their own agendas.

As a moderate Muslim, he's pleading with the international Muslim community to stop the violent demonstrations. But, Khader has been taking abuse from both sides of the argument. Muslim fundamentalists have criticized him for selling out the community and in parliament he's fighting the Danish conservative government, where one MP referred to Islam in Denmark as a "cancer."

Source: [CBC]

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Global Islamic anger over Prophet cartoon is unabated

By Guled Mohamed

NAIROBI (Reuters) -- Kenyan police opened fire at hundreds demonstrating against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad on Friday, wounding at least one person, as protests across the Muslim world showed no sign of abating. Police in Bangladesh beat back about 10,000 angry protesters marching on the Danish embassy in the capital Dhaka and demonstrators also took to the streets in Afghanistan, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which has carried out several suicide bombings in Israel, threatened more violence and a leading Saudi Muslim cleric called for no mercy in punishing anyone mocking the Prophet.

"So far we have demanded an apology from the governments. But if they continue their assault on our dear Prophet Mohammad, we will burn the ground underneath their feet," Islamic Jihad leader Khader Habib told supporters after Friday prayers. Kenyan riot police fired live rounds and tear gas to prevent hundreds of stone-throwing protesters from reaching the Danish embassy. One man was shot in the thigh, a witness said.

Source: [Reuters]

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E-mail, blogs, texts propel Prophet cartoon fury

By Kevin Sullivan

COPENHAGEN (Washington Post) -- Mohammad Fouad Barazi, a prominent Muslim cleric here, received a text message on his cell phone last week. It was a mass mailing from an anonymous sender, he said, warning that Danish people were planning to burn the Koran that Saturday in Copenhagen's City Hall Square out of anger over Muslim demonstrations against Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

Hundreds of people -- Muslims and ethnic Danes -- turned out in response to the messages and the rampant rumors they sparked, and by the end of Saturday, police had arrested 179 people. In the end, no Koran was burned. The messages, which were received as far away as the Gaza Strip and recounted on al-Jazeera satellite television, illustrate how modern digital technology -- especially cell phones and Internet blogs -- helped turn an incident in tiny Denmark into a uniting cause for protesters around the world in days or even hours.

From London to Kabul, Afghanistan, to Jakarta, Indonesia, the digital revolution has given unprecedented access to information -- accurate or not -- to anyone with enough money to buy a secondhand cell phone. Where faxes and coffeehouse leaflets were once the lifelines of protest organizers, a new generation of technology has taken hold, doing for the speed and scope of global communication what airplanes did for travel.

Source: [Washington Post]

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Norwegian editor apologizes over Prophet cartoons

Editor Vebjørn Selbekk of the Christian weekly Magazinet issued Friday a complete apology for his decision to reprint the controversial caricatures of the prophet Mohammed originally run in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. At a joint press conference with the Islamic Council Norway at the Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion, Selbekk expressed his regrets.

"I personally address the Muslim community to say that I am sorry that your religious feelings are offended by what we did on Jan. 10 when Magazinet published a facsimile of the Danish drawings from Jyllands-Posten. It was never our intention to hurt anyone," Selbekk said. Selbekk admitted that he had not fully understood how offensive the publication of the caricatures was, and praised Norway's Muslim community for their conduct in response.

"The Muslim community in Norway has tackled this in a dignified and restrained way. You deserve respect and credit for this," Selbekk said, and the editor pointed to the press conference as an example of the strength of Norway's multi-cultural society. Mohammed Hamdan, leader of the Islamic Council Norway, emphasized that the Koran preached forgiveness.

Source: [Aftenposten]

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Taliban: 100 new suicide attackers from cartoon row

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) -- One hundred militants have enlisted to become suicide bombers in Afghanistan since the appearance of "blasphemous" cartoons of Prophet Mohammad, a top Taliban commander said on Thursday. Mullah Dadullah, one of the Taliban's most senior military commanders, said his Islamic militant group had also offered a reward of 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of gold to anyone who killed people responsible for the drawings.

"More than 100 mujaheddin (holy warriors) have enlisted to carry out suicide attacks," the fugitive Dadullah told AFP by telephone from an unknown location. The targets would be "infidels," said the commander, who is believed to be close to the Taliban's wanted leader Mullah Omar.

He added: "The Taliban will give 100 kilograms of gold to one who kills the cartoonist." Five kilograms of gold would go to anyone who killed a soldier from Denmark, Germany or Norway -- among the countries where the cartoons have appeared.

Source: [Khaleej Times]

Säpo shuts down Prophet cartoon site

The website of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) reopened on Friday morning, after the far-right party removed drawings of the prophet Muhammad. The site had been taken down by its hosting company after requests from Sweden's foreign ministry and security service, Säpo.

The hosting company, Levonline, says its block on the Sweden Democrats' site and that of its newspaper SD-Kuriren remains in place. The party's secretary, Björn Söder, says the site has been reopened by moving it to another server, although the pictures of Muhammad have been removed.

"We have done this with the safety of Swedish citizens abroad in mind," Söder said. At the time of writing, however, the site was not loading. Söder had been contacted on Thursday afternoon by Levonline's deputy CEO Anna Larsson, who told him that threats had been received against her company and its staff and she therefore wanted him to move his party's website.

Source: [The Local]

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Bush, Rice told to 'shut up' over cartoon controversy

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims transformed a religious ceremony in Lebanon on Thursday into an emotional but peaceful protest against cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. "Defending the prophet should continue worldwide," Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, told the crowd. "Let (U.S. Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice, (President) Bush and all the tyrants shut up: We are a nation that can't forgive, be silent or ease up when they insult our prophet and our sacred values."

"Today, we are defending the dignity of our prophet with a word, a demonstration but let George Bush and the arrogant world know that if we have to ... we will defend our prophet with our blood, not our voices," Nasrallah added.

Rice on Wednesday accused Iran and Syria, both backers of Hezbollah and at loggerheads with the West, of deliberately stoking rage among Muslims. Bush urged governments to stop the violence, including attacks on Western diplomatic missions in parts of the Muslim world.

Source: [MSNBC]

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Danish caricature controversy: Bonfire of the Pieties

By Amir Taheri

"The Muslim Fury," one newspaper headline screamed. "The Rage of Islam Sweeps Europe," said another. "The clash of civilizations is coming," warned one commentator. All this refers to the row provoked by the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper four months ago. Since then a number of demonstrations have been held, mostly--though not exclusively--in the West, and Scandinavian embassies and consulates have been besieged.

But how representative of Islam are all those demonstrators? The "rage machine" was set in motion when the Muslim Brotherhood--a political, not a religious, organization--called on sympathizers in the Middle East and Europe to take the field. A fatwa was issued by Yussuf al-Qaradawi, a Brotherhood sheikh with his own program on al-Jazeera.

Not to be left behind, the Brotherhood's rivals, Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party) and the Movement of the Exiles (Ghuraba), joined the fray. Believing that there might be something in it for themselves, the Syrian Baathist leaders abandoned their party's 60-year-old secular pretensions and organized attacks on the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and Beirut.

Source: [Opinion Journal]

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Hirsi Ali: 'Everyone Is Afraid to Criticize Islam'

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch politician forced to go into hiding after the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, responds to the Danish cartoon scandal, arguing that if Europe doesn't stand up to extremists, a culture of self-censorship of criticism of Islam that pervades in Holland will spread in Europe. Auf Wiedersehen, free speech.

SPIEGEL: Hirsi Ali, you have called the Prophet Muhammad a tyrant and a pervert. Theo van Gogh, the director of your film "Submission," which is critical of Islam, was murdered by Islamists. You yourself are under police protection. Can you understand how the Danish cartoonists feel at this point? [See related story]

Hirsi Ali: They probably feel numb. On the one hand, a voice in their heads is encouraging them not to sell out their freedom of speech. At the same time, they're experiencing the shocking sensation of what it's like to lose your own personal freedom. One mustn't forget that they're part of the postwar generation, and that all they've experienced is peace and prosperity. And now they suddenly have to fight for their own human rights once again.

SPIEGEL: Why have the protests escalated to such an extent?

Source: [Der Spiegel]

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Anti-cartoon protests spark Muslim hacker attacks

By Mark Ward

Almost 1,000 Danish websites have been defaced by Islamic hackers protesting about controversial cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad. The attacks typically replace home pages with pro-Islam messages and condemn the publication of the images.

Hack attack monitoring group Zone-H said the defacements were done both by hacker groups and individuals. Zone-H said some hackers left moderate messages but many called for a violent response to the cartoons' publication.

Fast response

"We have never seen so many defacements that are politically targeted in such a short time," said Roberto Preatoni, founder and administrator of Zone-H ... What is extraordinary for this Danish case is the speed in which the community united," he added.

Source: [BBC]

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