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3 February 2006

Pakistan parliament slams cartoons

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's parliament unanimously passed a resolution Friday condemning cartoons of Islam's prophet in European newspapers, and small protests were held in major cities as anger grew in this Islamic nation. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf also expressed outrage, saying the cartoon could not be justified as freedom of expression. The resolution said the cartoons --...

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3 February 2006

French editor fired over cartoons

PARIS, France (AP) -- The managing editor of a French newspaper has been fired over publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that are inflaming the Muslim world, where Pakistani protesters on Thursday chanted "Death to France!" and Gaza gunmen demanded apologies from European governments. The furor over the drawings, which first ran in a Danish paper in September, cuts to the question of...

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3 February 2006

Cartoon row gives Muslims "new spirit": Saudi cleric

RIYADH (Reuters) - A leading preacher in Saudi Arabia proclaimed a new spirit of defiance among Muslims after worldwide protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in European newspapers. "A great new spirit is flowing through the body of the Islamic nation ... this world can no longer ignore this nation and its feelings," Saleh bin Humaid said in a televised sermon at the Grand Mosque in the...

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3 February 2006

Danish PM tries to ease cartoon row

The Danish prime minister has invited foreign ambassadors to a meeting on Friday to discuss a growing international row over a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The move by Anders Fogh Rasmussen comes amid threats from Palestinian factions to harm foreign nationals as revenge for what they say is an offence to Islam. Earlier on Thursday the joint command of the Popular Resistance...

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3 February 2006

Jordan editor sacked for reprinting Islam cartoons

AMMAN (Reuters) - The publisher of a Jordanian tabloid weekly newspaper has sacked a chief editor who reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that have caused outrage across the Islamic world. Editor Jihad Momani apologised on Friday and said he had wanted to illustrate the extent of the insult against Islam and Muslims in the Danish cartoons. Momani was dismissed by the publishers of his...

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3 February 2006

Iraq Christians on edge as cartoon row escalates

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Iraq's Christians are bracing for attacks on their ancient community, fearful that deadly bombings of their churches last month were linked to Muslim fury over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published in Europe. "The church blasts were a reaction to the cartoons published in European papers. But Christians are not responsible for what is published in Europe," Louis Sako, the...

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3 February 2006

Cartoons row seen playing into militants' hands

BERLIN (Reuters) - Muslim fury over cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammad in European newspapers provides dangerous ammunition for radical Islamists and could serve as a pretext for violence, security analysts said on Friday. But they said any such action was more likely for the time being to be directed against individuals than to take the form of full-scale terrorist attacks. The "low...

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3 February 2006

Nigeria's Christians back Muslims

An umbrella Nigerian Christian body based in the majority Muslim north has condemned the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have sparked Muslim protests across the globe. A leading Islamic cleric in Kaduna, which has previously had deadly religious riots, has also spoken about the insensitivity of printing them...

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3 February 2006

Swiss Muslims condemn "insulting" caricatures

Members of Switzerland's Muslim community say the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed is unacceptable and provocative. The controversial caricatures first appeared in a Danish newspaper last year, with some of them being reprinted by Swiss and European publications this week. The images - one of which shows the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb - have caused an outcry...

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3 February 2006

Straw attacks 'insulting' Islam cartoons

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today launched a fierce attack on the decision by some media to republish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. Speaking at a news conference he said: "There is freedom of speech, we all respect that. But there is not any obligation to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory. "I believe that the republication of these cartoons has been insulting, it has been insensitive...

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