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Danish editor apologises to Muslims over cartoons
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 IANS
COPENHAGEN: After weeks of brewing controversy, the chief editor of a Danish newspaper on Monday apologised for publishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that have triggered a boycott of Danish products across the Muslim world and generated threats to Nordic citizens abroad.
"In our opinion, the 12 drawings were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims, for which we apologise," Carsten Juste said in a statement on the Jyllands-Posten's web site.
The cartoons, one of which depicts the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped as a bomb, were first published by Jyllands Posten in September 2005, and the debate was re-ignited last week when a Norwegian Christian magazine republished the illustrations.
The cartoons, penned by 12 different illustrators, ranged from the cliché of a terrorist with a curved sword and bombs in his turban, to cartoonist Lars Refn's contribution where a pupil wrote - in Arabic - on a black board, that "Jyllands-Posten's staff are a bunch of reactionary provocateurs".
'Jyllands-Posten', Denmark's largest circulation daily, published the cartoons after a writer complained that nobody dared illustrate his book about Mohammed.
The cartoons are considered blasphemous in Islam, which forbids depictions of the Prophet Mohammed.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya have withdrawn their ambassadors from Copenhagen to protest the cartoons.
In Gaza City on Monday, armed Palestinian militants stormed an EU office in protest, a day after the radical Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades distributed flyers urging Nordic nationals to leave the territories within 72 hours.
After refusing for weeks to meet with angry ambassadors from Muslim nations, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday expressed his first criticism of the publication.
"I personally have such respect for people's religious feelings that I personally would not have depicted Mohammed, Jesus or other religious figures in such a manner that would offend other people," Rasmussen said.
Earlier this month, the conservative Prime Minister defended the publication, saying freedom of speech was firmly protected in Denmark
Anger was already rising in December, when police in Pakistan tightened security at the Danish embassy amid fears of reprisals, according to reports.
Foreign ministries in the Nordic region have warned citizens against unnecessary visits to the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, and the Danish Red Cross pulled back three staffers, two from Gaza and one based in Yemen.
The controversy has triggered calls for a boycott of Danish products. Egypt's Federation of Chambers of Commerce has launched a boycott and plans to urge organisations in the maritime transport sector to halt their dealings with shipping lines that transport Danish goods.
Saudi and Kuwaiti supermarkets, along with the UAE, have started to pull Danish products off their shelves.
The boycott call already prompted a Danish food company, which produces a range of dairy products for sale in the Arabic region, to close a dairy in the Saudi city of Riyadh that employs 800 people, spokeswoman Astrid Gade Nielsen said...
Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates joined the condemnation on Monday and demanded apologies. UAE Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs Mohammad Nakhira al-Daheri warned the cartoons could spark a "dreadful clash of civilisations".
"As much as we condemn extremism in every part of the world ... we condemn the abuse that was published, which represents a cultural extremism," he said.
Earlier on Monday, before the Danish newspaper apologized, editor Juste published an open letter on its website in Arabic and Danish defending the cartoons as part of a "Danish debate on freedom of speech - a right we value highly in Denmark".
Juste added that he "strongly rejected" allegations that the cartoons were part of a campaign against Muslims.
In the apology letter, Juste added that "Jyllands-Posten is a strong proponent of democracy and freedom of religion. The newspaper respects the right of any human being to practice his or her religion".
The cartoons have also provoked criticism from within the European Union, but the European Commission Monday said it stood behind Denmark's defence that the cartoons were published in the spirit of free speech.
Denmark's Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller said he would discuss the ongoing row at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
A commission spokesman said the boycott on Danish goods was being taken very seriously as a "boycott on the EU". EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has already met with representatives of the Saudi government and planned to do the same this weekend in Oman.
Rasmussen contacted the current EU president, Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, earlier on Monday to discuss the issue.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in a radio interview that Oslo was in contact with the Palestinian authorities to ensure the safety of Norwegian citizens.
Denmark has some 170,000 Muslims, or three percent of Denmark's population of 5.4 million. Islam is the second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church, whose followers comprise four-fifths of the country's population.
Copyright © 2006Times Internet Limited.