International

AMMAN: In a direct challenge to the international uproar over cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad, the Jordanian journalist Jihad Momani wrote: "What brings more prejudice against Islam: these caricatures, or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony?" An editor in Yemen, Muhammad al...

MINSK, 22 February 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has condemned the decision of an independent Minsk publication to reprint controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. "Zhoda," a weekly, reprinted the cartoons on 17 February to illustrate an article about the deadly protests sparked by the images across the Muslim world. The Foreign Ministry said the publication was "clearly...

NEW DELHI: The editor of a magazine here was arrested on Wednesday for publishing the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed. Police said the newly launched magazine "Senior India" had carried the caricatures in an edition that hit the stands on January 15. Editor Alok Tomar was initially called to a police station for questioning and later arrested when he admitted to publishing the caricatures. "We...

BRATISLAVA (Slovakia): No one burned embassies and flags when a newspaper cartoonist poked fun at a Supreme Court judge in Slovakia. But a recent court ruling against one of Bratislava's top dailies exposed the risks of satirising through editorial cartoons. On a day when Muslims around the world were protesting Danish newspaper caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, a Slovak regional court slapped...

The European Union is seeking to get candidate country Turkey actively involved as mediator in the Mohammed cartoon conflict, which has sharpened tensions between Europe and the muslim world. The current Austrian EU presidency has invited Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul to present ideas on how to soothe relations at an informal so-called "Gymnich" meeting in Salzburg next month. "The Turkish...

DUBAI, February 21, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The sales of Mecca Cola, an Arab type of cola, have been reportedly surging since the furor sparked by the publication of cartoons lampooning Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) by several European newspapers. "Growth came with these Danish caricatures. It's crazy but our sales multiplied by three," Taoufik Mathlouthi, the...

MOSCOW, Feb. 20 – The owner of a small Russian weekly that printed a composite of the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad said Monday that he would close the newspaper. His was the second newspaper to close in Russia in the wake of international protests over the cartoons. The newspaper, Our Region, based in Vologda, north of Moscow, which printed its illustration last Wednesday, was...

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has suspended a youth daily that carried cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammad that have sparked violent protests around the world, journalists from the newspaper said on Tuesday. The Ministry of Information indefinitely stopped the daily Shams from publication from Monday after it reprinted late last month several of 12 cartoons first published by a Danish...

(CNSNews.com) - Disturbed by Muslim leaders' attempts to criminalize any criticism of Islam, human rights campaigners are urging the United Nations to resist pressure to outlaw religious defamation in a resolution creating the U.N.'s new human rights council. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a Saudi-based grouping of the world's 57 Muslim states, wants the resolution's draft text...

COPENHAGEN: Danish opposition parties called on Monday for an independent investigation into the right-leaning coalition government’s handling of a row over Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) cartoons that have sparked violent protests in Muslim countries. "Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has insisted that he has no reason to blame himself and has laid most of the responsibility for the...