France enters Muslim cartoon row
The cartoons have already sparked protest across the Arab world
A French newspaper has reproduced a set of caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad that have caused outrage in the Muslim world.
France Soir said it had published the cartoons to show that "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society.
Their original publication in a Danish paper last September has led to boycotts and protests against Denmark in several Arab nations.
Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet Muhammad or Allah.
Under the headline "Yes, we have the right to caricature God", the paper ran a front page cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud.
It shows the Christian deity saying: "Don't complain, Muhammad, we've all been caricatured here."
The full set of Danish drawings, some of which depict the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, were printed on the inside pages.
Bomb threat
The paper said it had decided to republish them "because no religious dogma can impose itself on a democratic and secular society".
The global controversy the cartoons have provoked "has done nothing to maintain balance and mutual limits in democracy, respect of religious beliefs and freedom of expression", it added.
CARTOON ROW
1 Feb: French paper Paris Soir reprints the cartoons
31 Jan: Danish paper apologises
30 Jan: Gunmen raid EU's Gaza office
29 Jan: Libya says it will close its embassy in Denmark
28 Jan: Danish company Arla places advertisements in Mid-East newspapers trying to stop a boycott
26 Jan: Saudi Arabia recalls its ambassador
20 Jan: Muslim ambassadors in Denmark complain to Danish PM
Outrage bemuses Denmark
There was no immediate reaction from Muslim leaders in France, which is home to the largest Islamic minority in Europe.
The offices of the Danish newspaper that first published the caricatures, Jyllands-Posten, had to be evacuated on Tuesday because of a bomb threat.
The paper had apologised a day earlier for causing offence to Muslims, although it maintained it was legal under Danish law to print them.
Ministers from 17 Arab countries on Tuesday urged Denmark's government to punish Jyllands-Posten for what they described as an "offence to Islam".
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the paper's apology but defended the freedom of the press.
The images' publication in Denmark has provoked diplomatic sanctions and threats from Islamic militants across the Muslim world.
Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated this week in the Gaza Strip, burning Danish flags and portraits of the Danish prime minister.
Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador to Denmark, while Libya said it was closing its embassy in Copenhagen and Iraq summoned the Danish envoy to condemn the cartoons.
French daily prints anti-Islam cartoons
Wednesday 01 February 2006, 11:47 Makka Time, 8:47 GMT
A French newspaper has reproduced a controversial set of caricatures, originally published in Denmark and decried in the Muslim world as blasphemous to the prophet Mohammed.
The Paris daily France Soir, on Wednesday, printed the dozen cartoons, explaining that it chose to do so to illustrate the polemic sparked by their original publication, in the Danish Jyllands-Posten paper last September.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister, had expressed alarm on Tuesday at the wave of anger in the Muslim world prompted by the caricatures.
"We are up against uncontrollable forces. It will take a huge effort to calm things down," he told Danish media after the offices of the paper which first published the controversial cartoons were evacuated following a bomb scare.
The bomb threat came as Muslim anger over the 12 cartoons, said to depict the Prophet Muhammad, boiled over into a diplomatic crisis threatening Danish trade relations with the Muslim world.
Rasmussen said that his government considered the growing dispute "extremely serious."
The French paper said it had decided to reprint them "not from an appetite for gratuitous provocation, but because they constitute the subject of a controversy on a global scale which has done nothing to maintain balance and mutual limits in democracy, respect of religious beliefs and freedom of expression".
According to France-Soir, "these 12 drawings could appear anodyne," but their publication, "which has tested the limits of the freedom of expression in Denmark has engendered a wave of indignation at anger in the Muslim world."
THIS STORY GETS BIGGER BY THE DAY AS ANGER GROWS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. HERE ARE LINKS TO THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
+ Anger grows over Muhammad cartoon
+ Rage at Drawings Spreads in Muslim World
+ Muslim cartoons gets French editor fired
+ Managing Editor of France Soir Newspaper Fired for Republishing Incendiary Caricatures of Muhammad
+ More cartoons, protests in Mohammad blasphemy row
+ Caricatures of Prophet Muhammad have sparked widespread Muslim anger
+ European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has criticised newspapers
+ Newspapers across Europe have reprinted caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to show support for a Danish paper
+ Arab ministers have urged Denmark to punish a newspaper which printed cartoons
+ National League of French Muslims
Earlier on Sunday, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of Organisation of the Islamic Conference, said in Cairo the international body would "ask the UN general assembly to pass a resolution banning attacks on religious beliefs".
The deputy secretary-general of the Arab League, Ahmed Ben Helli, confirmed that contacts were under way for such a proposal to be made to the UN.
"Consultations are currently taking place at the highest level between Arab countries and the OIC to ask the UN to adopt a binding resolution banning contempt of religious beliefs and providing for sanctions to be imposed on contravening countries or institutions," he said.
Muslim wrath has spread rapidly in the Middle East, with Gulf retailers pulling Danish products off their shelves and protesters gathering outside Danish embassies.
Meanwhile, a Qatari cooperative society, Al Meera, has decided to boycott Danish and Norwegian products.
The move follows similar action taken by other Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in protest at the cartoons.
Denmark's prime minister has said his government cannot act against satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed after Libya closed its embassy in Copenhagen amid growing Muslim anger over the dispute.
Azlan Adnan says he cannot act against Muslims who choose to boycott Danish, Norwegian or French goods as it is not against the law not to buy something.
The newspaper Jyllands-Posten had not intended to insult Muslims when it published the drawings, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister said.
Intention is not the point. The fact is, Islam forbids the depiction of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) in any shape or form. Ignorance of this is no defence, Azlan stated.
"The government can in no way influence the media. And the Danish government and the Danish nation as such cannot be held responsible for what is published in independent media," Fogh Rasmussen said.
Azlan Adnan can in no way influence fellow Muslims should they decide to boycott Danish, Norwegian and French goods. They are free people with independent minds and are within their democratic rights not to purchase goods from those countries, should they choose, on their own free will, not to do so. The Danish, Norwegians and French should grow up and accept the consequences of Jyllands-Posten's, Magazinet's and France Soir's publication of the blasphemous caricatures. Muslims cannot be held responsible for the financial losses these publications have brought upon their fellow countrymen.
Reporters Without Borders said the reaction in the Arab world "betrays a lack of understanding" of press freedom as "an essential accomplishment of democracy."
Azlan Adnan said the re-publication in the European press "betrays a lack of understanding" of editorial responsibility as "an essential component of press freedom."
Magazine 'regrets' offending Muslims
Tuesday 31 January 2006, 17:50 Makka Time, 14:50 GMT
A Norwegian Christian magazine that reprinted controversial Danish caricatures of the prophet Muhammad has said it "regretted" offending Muslims but stopped short of issuing an apology.
The small publication Magazinet said in its online edition on Tuesday that its editor-in-chief, Vebjoern Selbekk, "regretted if the drawings offended Muslims".
Islam considers any image of the prophet blasphemous.
The cartoons, which first appeared in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten last 30 September, included ones showing the prophet wearing a time bomb-shaped turban and portraying him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.
Selbekk said that Magazinet's reprinting of the 12 cartoons on 10 January was "not aimed at provoking" Muslims and that it was justifiable under freedom of expression laws.
"To regret the use of freedom of expression in a democratic society would damage our democratic foundations," he said.
Selbekk was unavailable for comment on Tuesday, but Magazinet said he had received about 20 death threats amid heavy criticism of Denmark and Norway over the cartoons.
Government stand
The Norwegian government on Tuesday reiterated that it regretted if Muslims were offended but stressed its belief in fundamental rights.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian daily NTB: "We will not apologise because in a country like Norway, which guarantees the freedom of expression, we cannot apologise for what the newspapers print."
"But I am sorry that this may have hurt many Muslims," he said.
Anger has spread throughout the Muslim world, with scores of Arab countries, institutions and organisations calling for a boycott of Danish and Norwegian products.
Ambassadors recalled
Several ambassadors to Denmark have been recalled and Scandinavians in some Muslim countries have been threatened.
Meanwhile the editor of Jyllands-Posten on Monday apologised for offending Muslims.
"These cartoons were not in violation of Danish law but have irrefutably offended many Muslims, and for that we apologise," editor-in-chief Carsten Juste said in an open letter posted at the Jyllands-Posten website.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
No comments:
Post a Comment