International

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...

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...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The Muslim Students Association at the University of North Carolina on Friday asked the campus' student newspaper to apologize for publishing an original cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad. "The intention of bigotry was clear," the association wrote in a letter to The Daily Tar Heel. "One must question the DTH's ethics in advancing a widely protested issue to cause a riot...

The clash over the Muhammad cartoons isn't just between "the West" and Islam. It's more between Muslims. Protests over the derogatory cartoons were purposely fanned by Arab leaders who need to look like mightier defenders of Islam than the jihadists who want to overthrow them and unite all Muslims. Many actions by the West serve as merely a foil in a long intra-Muslim struggle over whether to...

Copenhagen (dpa) - The Danish newspaper at the centre of the Mohammed caricature row sent its cultural editor Flemming Rose on an extended enforced leave of absence Thursday. The Jyllands Posten was reacting to Rose's plan from Tuesday to publish caricatures of Jesus as well as caricatures of the Holocaust planned by Iran. The editorial board had denied that it planned to publish the caricatures...

9 February 2006 – Three independent United Nations human rights experts have strongly deplored the recent controversial depictions of the Prophet Muhammad as well as the violent reactions that ensued while urging all to come together in a spirit of dialogue. This view was expressed in statement released in Geneva late Wednesday that was endorsed by the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of...

A BRITISH magazine said today it would not publish a controversial cartoon of prophet Mohammed, after police said they could not guarantee the safety of its staff if it went ahead. The Liberal magazine was intending to publish one of the 12 Danish cartoons which have caused global uproar - alongside a statement on free speech. But the statement now appears on the magazine's website. Readers are...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The combustible cartoon war quickly became shorthand for what radical Muslim clerics had been planning for months - a clash of civilizations. The offending Danish cartoons, first published almost five months ago, were mild compared to how some cartoonists in Western democracies slash and singe organized religion. One late night comedian did a skit of a TV news anchor...

Amman - A redefinition of the freedom of expression that incorporates 'standardized' universally-accepted religious taboos is becoming increasingly necessary in the light of the enormous row triggered by the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, prominent scholars and media experts suggested Thursday. They contend that the caricatures, regarded throughout the Islamic world as...

Despite the outrage caused by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in several European newspapers, such controversy is nothing new in the realm of political caricature. Eighty-one years ago David Low caused a similar response from the Muslim world when he drew a rather benign looking Muhammad gazing up at English cricket hero Sir Jack Hobbs. Appearing in the Indian version of the...