European papers print Islam cartoon

Published: 10:30AM Thursday February 02, 2006 Source: Reuters

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Newspapers in France, Germany and Spain have reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, saying press freedom was more important than protests and boycotts the cartoons have sparked across the Muslim world.
   
The Danish embassy in Damascus was evacuated after a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax and Syria recalled its ambassador from Denmark in protest at the cartoons, one of which shows the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.
   
In Copenhagen, police met Islamic leaders to try to calm reactions there, and in the city of Aarhus, the offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper that first published the caricatures last September were briefly evacuated after a bomb threat.
   
Two large Danish companies reported their sales falling in the Middle East after protests against the cartoons in the Arab world and calls for boycotts. Muslims consider images of prophets distasteful and caricatures blasphemous.
   
"Enough lessons from these reactionary bigots!" France Soir editor Serge Faubert wrote in a commentary explaining why his newspaper had printed the cartoons.
   
"Just because the Koran bans images of Mohammed doesn't mean non-Muslims have to submit to this."
   
Dalil Boubakeur, head of the French Muslim Council, denounced the publication of the drawings as "a genuine provocation towards France's millions of Muslims".
   
"The principle of freedom of the press, which the French authorities defend around the world, will not be questioned," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told a news conference in Ankara, adding that principle must, however, be exercised with a spirit of tolerance.
   
Germany's Die Welt newspaper reprinted the cartoons, saying: "There is no right to be shielded from satire in the West."
   
But Burhan Kesici, a leader of Germany's Turkish community, said they reduced Islam "to two or three terrorists".
   
Two Spanish newspapers, ABC and El Periodico, ran pictures of the cartoons on Wednesday. A German language newspaper in Switzerland published two cartoons on Tuesday. 
   
'Risk of escalation'
   
Jyllands-Posten has apologised for any hurt the caricatures may have caused, but police said the paper's offices in Aarhus were evacuated on Wednesday evening for the second time in two days after a bomb threat. Workers returned after the all clear.
   
The Danish government says it cannot tell free media what to do.
   
Danish police said they had told Denmark's imams they were "highly aware of the risks of an escalation of the case, including the calls to burn the Koran, which these days flourish on the Internet and via SMS (phone messages)".
   
Such calls could be attempts by right-wing extremists to exploit the conflict and divide society, police said.
   
Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said Danish premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen should have done more to explain the freedom of expression to envoys from Muslim states.
   
"It is clear that he gradually got himself into a defensive position," Persson said. "It would have been better to have gone more on the offensive."
   
Thousands of Palestinians protested against Denmark this week, and Arab ministers called on it to punish Jyllands-Posten.
   
Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador from Copenhagen and Libya has closed its embassy. Qatar condemned the cartoons.
   
The Danish-Swedish dairy product maker Arla Foods, with annual Middle East sales of almost $500 million, said it might have to cut 140 jobs due to the boycott.
   
"We are losing around 10 million Danish crowns (US$1.8 million) per day at the moment," a spokeswoman said.
   
The world's biggest maker of insulin, Denmark's Novo Nordisk said pharmacies and hospitals in Saudi Arabia had been avoiding its products since Saturday.
   
A Norwegian Christian publication called Magazinet printed the cartoons in January. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg expressed regret but made no outright apology.

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