2005-2014

COPENHAGEN, Feb. 11, 2006 – For decades, the Christiania neighborhood here was an informal symbol of Danish tolerance – a leafy district dotted with hippie communes and stalls where people could openly buy and smoke marijuana despite nominal laws against it. But today the stalls are empty and the revelers have gone home. Many here see the change as indicative of a societywide shift that has also...

The role of media in promoting better understanding between different cultures calls for a "robust and frank" dialogue among journalists and media professionals, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Sunday on the row over cartoons in Danish media which have sparked outrage in some parts of the Muslim world. IFJ called on media on all sides to avoid action that might provoke...

The Islamic Council Norway now regards the controversy around the publishing of the facsimile of the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed as closed, and ask people to not take part in demonstrations that are not authorized. A total of 46 Muslim organizations in Norway now ask Muslims to accept the apology from the editor of the Christian paper Magazinet, which published the facsimile of the...

Let's begin with a simple argument before we start dancing, with the angels and prophets, on the head of a pin: The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten had every right to publish the now-famous/infamous cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. At the same time, Muslims and anyone else who might have been offended by the depictions have the right to protest against their publication. Freedom of expression...

The Centre is in favour of removing restrictions on the movement of journalists across borders in South Asian region, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi said today. The Government would take a decision on the proposal to allow free movement of media persons before the next SAARC meeting to be hosted by India, he said. "We are committed to create positive environment in...

The editor of the Los Angeles Times does not think you need to see any of the cartoons that have triggered deadly riots across the Muslim world. Earlier this week, I proposed illustrating this column with examples of the caricatures first published last fall in a Danish newspaper. If readers are to form rational opinions about both the ferocity of Islamic reaction and the American news media's...

BEIRUT - The whole world has been surprised by the scope and intensity of angry crowds throughout the Islamic realm that are demonstrating against the offensive cartoons about the prophet Muhammad that were published last year in a small, right-wing Danish newspaper. It is perhaps time that we stopped being surprised by a phenomenon that has become routine: the affirmation of Islamic identity as...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia's top cleric called on the world's Muslims to reject apologies for the "slanderous" caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammed and demanded the authors and publishers of the cartoons be tried and punished, Saudi newspapers reported Saturday. Thousands of Muslims, meanwhile, took to the streets in London and several other European cities to protest the drawings that...

London, Iran, Feb. 11 – Iran’s radical President declared on Saturday that the "real Holocaust" was occurring in Iraq and in "occupied Palestine", as he once again characterised the Holocaust in Europe as a "myth". Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was speaking to demonstrators on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, said that European states were "being taken hostage" by Israel. He...

COPENHAGEN: Attempts by European companies in the Middle East to disassociate themselves from Denmark or Danish products are "disgraceful," according to Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. In an interview Thursday, Rasmussen tried at the same time to shield the Bush administration and some of Denmark's partners in NATO from accusations that they had been tardy and overcautious in coming to...