2005-2014

11 February 2006

Iran blames US, Europe in cartoon crisis

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line president on Saturday accused the United States and Europe of being "hostages of Zionism" and said they should pay a heavy price for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have triggered worldwide protests. Denmark - where the drawings were first published four months ago - warned Danes to leave Indonesia, saying they faced a "significant and...

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11 February 2006

B'desh Islamic party urges punishment over cartoons

DHAKA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Bangladesh's biggest Islamic political party called on Saturday for exemplary punishment of those involved in printing cartoon images of Prophet Mohammad which have outraged Muslims around the world. "Enemies of Islam are out to harm the faithful through a sinister campaign of so-called freedom of speech," Moulana Motiur Rahman Nizami, chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami party...

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11 February 2006

Danish diplomats quit Iran, Indonesia over threats

COPENHAGEN, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Denmark's ambassadors and embassy staff in Indonesia and Iran have left the two countries after receiving threats linked to the printing of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper. "The ambassador and the expatriate staff at the embassy in Tehran have temporarily left Iran. This is due to information about serious, concrete threats against the...

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11 February 2006

Danish Islamic leaders glad they spoke out but decry the violence

When a Danish newspaper published cartoons lampooning the prophet Muhammad in September, few people outside the Scandinavian nation took notice -- until a group of Danish Muslim organizations turned to Islamic leaders in the Middle East after their attempts to bring the issue to the attention of Danish authorities had failed. Now, as the tempest of Muslim rage over the caricatures thunders across...

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11 February 2006

The cartoon intifada

Muslim demonstrators have been torching embassies, stoning churches and threatening mass murder to protest cartoons characterizing Muslims as violent extremists and express their outrage at those who say they are intolerant. The damage these demonstrators are doing to the image of Islam is incalculable, far beyond what any poison-penned cartoonist could accomplish. So why are they doing it...

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11 February 2006

Muslims protest outside Philadelphia Inquirer building

Hundreds of Muslims chanted and carried banners and signs outside The Inquirer building Saturday afternoon, protesting the newspaper's decision to reprint a controversial caricature of the prophet Muhammad. Many said they felt the paper had defamed their religion by publishing an image that has angered Muslims across the world and resulted in mass protests and the burning of embassies. Many...

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10 February 2006

Nordic countries hopeful that cartoon storm has subsided

Copenhagen/Oslo - Hopes rose Friday in the Nordic region that the storm triggered by the controversial publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammed had largely subsided. Observers highlighted that the religious mourning ceremonies of Ashura, which commemorate the anniversary of the martyrdom of Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein, passed Thursday without any reports of attacks on Danish or...

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10 February 2006

Majority in Norway opposed to caricatures

More than 50 per cent of Norwegians are of the opinion that it was wrong to publish the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed. This is shown by a survey made for Aftenposten by Norsk Respons. Of those asked, 57 per cent said it was wrong to pubish the drawings, while 30 per cent say it was correct to publish them. 13 per cent were unsure. The opposition to publishing is strongest among women. A...

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10 February 2006

Norway magazine editor apologizes for publishing caricatures

The editor of the small Christian weekly "Magazinet", Vebjoern Selbekk(photo), at a press conference on Friday apologized for his decision to publish a facsimile of the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, originally published in the Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten. Selbekk said he deeply regretted that he had offended the religious feelings of all Muslims by reprinting the Danish drawings. He...

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10 February 2006

JKLF faction ransacks Srinagar newspaper office

Activists of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF-Nanaji Group) led by their convenor Javed Ahmed Mir Thursday ransacked the office of Greater Kashmir, a leading English daily in Srinagar and wounded four staffers of the newspaper. Police detaining Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF-Nanaji) leader Javed Ahmad Mir, centre, during a demonstration in Srinagar September 2004. Mir and his men...

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