International

As world leaders pleaded for calm in the Mohammed cartoon row yesterday, the Danish Muslim leaders who set the crisis in motion insisted that they had been trying to promote a "dialogue of civilisations". They also angrily denied allegations from moderate Muslims and European intelligence services that hidden "masterminds" triggered the sudden explosion of protests, a full four months after 12...

Last week the publication I work for, the German newsweekly Die Zeit, printed one of the controversial caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. It was the right thing to do. When the cartoons were first published in Denmark in September, nobody in Germany took notice. Had our publication been offered the drawings at that point, in all likelihood we would have declined to print them. At least one of...

"Without this there would be no Life of Brian," said Roger Koeppel, editor-in-chief of the German newspaper Die Welt, claiming that his decision to republish the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have caused such offence to many Muslims was a free speech issue. "It's at the very core of our culture that the most sacred things can be subjected to criticism, laughter and satire." That is...

PARIS -- Fears are growing that the spasm of anti-European protests across the Muslim world could evolve into a more dangerous confrontation unless political and religious leaders take unified action. Extremists have already capitalized on public anger in Muslim countries over the widespread publication, in Europe and elsewhere, of caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, including one with a...

BRUSSELS, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The European Union stepped up pressure on Arab and Muslim countries to control protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, reminding 19 nations of their treaty obligation to protect diplomatic missions. In a strongly worded statement issued late on Monday, EU president Austria said it had instructed its embassies in the Middle East, Asian and African countries to...

Maybe it's because I'm a person now and not a newspaper editor that I'm bothered by the blackout in almost all mainstream U.S. media of the cartoons that have incited much of the Muslim world. Images often provoke controversy more than words do. When I was a newspaper editor, I probably spent the equivalent of six months of my life debating whether to publish one or another controversial...

Tehran – Iran's supreme leader on Tuesday denounced as an Israeli conspiracy the publication of caricatures of Islam's prophet in Western newspapers. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian Air Force personnel the cartoons were particularly scandalous as they came "from those who champion civilization and free expression." The cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed have led to demonstrations, boycotts and...

Denmark protested the second attack in the rallies outside the Danish embassy in Iranian capital Tehran. Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller called his Iranian counterpart and protested the incident, which was aroused by the publication of cartoons causing upset in the Islamic world. Moller asked Iran to do everything in its power to protect Danes living in this country and the embassy...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – NATO peacekeepers exchanged gunfire with protesters who attacked their base Tuesday in another day of deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, officials said. Three demonstrators were killed. In neighboring Pakistan, 5,000 people chanting "Hang the man who insulted the prophet!" burned effigies of Denmark's prime...

A student newspaper has recalled 8,000 copies and suspended its editor after publishing a cartoon satirising the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. It is thought Cardiff University's student union paper Gair Rhydd is the first UK publication to use the image which has caused global protests. The paper has been withdrawn and said it regretted any upset caused. Complaints over the cartoons in European...