Outrageous Muslim Caricatures

Lebanese protesters torch Danish mission
Muslims upset over Muhammad caricatures; Danes urged to leave Lebanon

The Associated Press
Updated: 10:11 a.m. ET Feb. 5, 2006


BEIRUT, Lebanon - Thousands of Muslims rampaged Sunday in Beirut, setting fire to the Danish Embassy, burning Danish flags and lobbing stones at a Maronite Catholic church as violent protests spread over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Troops fired bullets into the air and used tear gas and water cannons to push the crowds back after a small group of Islamic extremists tried to break through the security barrier outside the embassy.

Demonstrators attacked policemen with stones and set fire to several fire engines, witnesses said. Black smoke was seen billowing from the area. Security officials said at least 18 people were injured, including policemen, fire fighters and protesters. Witnesses saw at least 10 people taken away by ambulance.

A security official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said staff at the Danish Embassy had been evacuated two days ago.

Protesters also took to the streets in Afghanistan, the West Bank, Iraq and New Zealand, a day after demonstrators in Syria charged security barriers outside the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and sent the buildings up in flames.

Those attacks earned widespread condemnation from European nations and the U.S., which accused the Syrian government of backing the protests.

"Now it has become more than a case about the drawings: Now there are forces that wants a confrontation between our cultures," Moeller said. "It is in no one's interest, neither them or us."

Syria blamed Denmark for the protests, criticizing the Scandinavian nation for refusing to apologize for the caricatures of Islam’s holiest figure.

"(Denmark's) government was able to avoid reaching this point ... simply through an apology” as requested by Arab and Muslim diplomats, state-run daily Al-Thawra said in an editorial Sunday.

"It is unjustifiable under any kind of personal freedoms to allow a person or a group to insult the beliefs of millions of Muslims," the paper said.

Rising anger
Anger has broken out across the Muslim world over 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten in September and reprinted in European media and New Zealand in the past week.

One depicted the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. The paper said it had asked cartoonists to draw the pictures because the media was practicing self-censorship when it came to Muslim issues.

The drawings have touched a raw nerve in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he personally disapproves of the caricatures and any attacks on religion, but insisted he cannot apologize on behalf of his country’s independent press.

In Beirut, protesters came by the busloads to rally outside the Danish Embassy, where they chanted, "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God!" Some 2,000 troops and riot police were deployed.

The trouble threatened to rile sectarian tensions in Beirut when protesters began stoning St. Maroun Church, one of the city's main Maronite Catholic churches, and property in Ashrafieh, a Christian area. Sectarian tension is a sensitive issue in Lebanon, where Muslims and Christian fought a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.

In the Afghan city of Mihtarlam, some 3,000 demonstrators burned a Danish flag and demanded that the editors at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten be prosecuted for blasphemy, Gov. Sher Mohammed Safi said.

Some 1,000 people tried to march to the offices of the United Nations and other aid groups in Fayzabad. Police fired shots into the air to disperse them, officials said. Nobody was hurt.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed anger over the cartoons but said Danish troops and other citizens should feel safe in his country.

It's not the responsibility of Danish troops, it's not the responsibility of Danish government, it's the free media. ... We must not hold the troops who are serving in Afghanistan responsible for this, he said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition."

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, students in uniform, age 13 and even younger, carried protest posters and shouted: "No to offending our prophet."

In Iraq, about 1,000 Sunni Muslims demonstrated outside a mosque in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi. A giant banner read: "Iraq must end political, diplomatic, cultural and economic relations with the European countries that supported the Danish insult against Prophet Muhammad and all Muslims."

Another 1,000 supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied in Amarah, denouncing Denmark, Israel and the United States and demanding that Danish and Norwegian diplomats be expelled.

More than 700 Muslims marched through Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, to protest the cartoons, publication in two New Zealand newspapers.

Austria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, condemned the attacks on European embassies: "Such acts can by no means be legitimized and are utterly unacceptable."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier pushed for intercultural dialogue.

"We all agree that words and deeds that insult or ridicule other religions or cultures do not contribute to mutual understanding," he said at a security conference in Germany. "Both freedom of the press ... and freedom of religion are great liberties, those who use them must use them with care."

I think this is absolutley horrible. The paper that created those cartoons should have to apologize. I mean, come on, People would be outraged if others created pictures of Jesus in comperable positions. It is immoral, and totally rude, to purposefully offend someones religion and beliefs. This is what becomes of cultures that: A) think they're better than others B)lack the ability to empathize with other cultures.

But this, along with the many war atrocities, is a fine example of how true war is. I think that this war is very imprtant in history, and not just because of what it's about. But, because of technology, namely the internet, the true side of war is being shown. War has always been ugly. There's no way it could be pretty and honorable. For example, the Abu-garab incident. I am sure that's not the absolute first time anything like that has happenned. It's just the first time it's so highly publicized. And with digital cameras and the internet you can share this information with the entire world.

This war is about many things. It's about oil. It's about the New World Order. You could even say it's simply about America wanting more power. But, it all comes down to the fact that this war is a Holy War. A Crusade. A Jihaad.


Last thing to think about: One person's terrorist is one person's freedom fighter. And this is Universal.