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Meat and wool exporters have added their voices to growing criticism of two national newspapers who have published controversial cartoons that have stirred Muslim anger through the world.
The Dominion Post and the Christchurch Press published the caricatures on Saturday, replicating moves by European newspapers that see the issue as one of freedom of speech.
However, Muslims in numerous countries have reacted angrily to the publication, considering the cartoons blasphemous. Any images of the Prophet are banned under Islamic tradition.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced his government will consider abandoning commercial and trade deals with countries in which the cartoons have appeared. New Zealand exports millions of dollars worth of goods to Iran, including dairy products, meat and wool. In 2005 exports to Iran totalled $76.1 million.
Meat and Wool New Zealand spokesman Jeff Grant says Iran continues to be an important market and the newspapers have been irresponsible.
While dairy giant Fonterra will not comment on the Iranian president's comments, it says Muslim countries represent a large proportion of its trade.
A spokesperson says the company makes no judgement on whether the cartoons should be published in New Zealand but it has a long relationship with the Middle East and other Islamic countries in Asia and Africa and does not want that jeopardised.
The re-running of the cartoons has prompted a special alert to New Zealand embassies in Islamic nations as well as throughout Europe.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has told diplomatic staff to take action to protect themselves and property, but will not specify what that means.
Prime Minister Helen Clark says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned the editor of the Dominion Post there could be repercussions for New Zealand trade and it is now watching closely for any sign of a backlash
Clark says the publication of the cartoon in the newspapers, as well as on TVNZ, was gratuitous and she could not see the point of it. She says the issue is not one of freedom of the press but of taste and judgement and the cartoons will do nothing to bring communities together.
The president of the Islamic Associations in New Zealand Javad Khan says he warned The Dominion Post before the newspaper printed the cartoons, that doing so might threaten trade with Muslim nations.
He says the caricatures are very offensive and the community is deciding whether to approach the Race Relations Commissioner, the Ethnic Affairs Minister or to take up the issue with the newspapers.
Race Relations Commissioner Joris De Bres says the controversy highlights the need for further dialogue on the freedom of the press, and how that right is exercised responsibly.
The cartoons originated in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten paper in September and have been reprinted in newspapers in France, Jordan, Germany, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain - who say they were exercising their right to free speech.
Jyllands-Posten has since apologised for causing offence to Muslims, although it maintains it was legal under Danish law to print the cartoons.
