JAKARTA - Indonesian Muslims on Thursday conveyed their anger over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad published in a Danish newspaper to a visiting Red Cross official from the country, reports said.
Dozens of people picketed the governor's office in the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar during a visit by Danish Red Cross secretary-general Jorgen Paulsen.
"Please tell your country that we condemn the action," protest coordinator Das'ad Latief was quoted by Detikcom news website as telling Paulsen.
Speaking to the protesters, Paulsen described the publication of the 12 caricatures depicting the Prophet in Jyllands-Posten last September as a "stupid action," according to the state Antara news agency.
"Our government cannot stop the press from publishing materials that could offend people because the press is extremely free there," he was quoted as saying.
Paulsen was in Makassar to discuss assistance related to the handling of floods in the province.
Detikcom also reported that Indonesian tabloid Rakyat Merdeka had published several of the cartoons on its website, with at least one altered to be less offensive, but still prompting criticism from a Muslim legislator.
The newspaper's website was down when AFP tried to access it.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has criticised the caricatures.
"Freedom of expression cannot justify indignity towards a religion," foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin said on Wednesday.
Muslim anger over the cartoons has triggered a diplomatic crisis, international anger, and heated debate on the limits of free expression.
European newspapers waded into the growing controversy on Thursday by also printing them after a French editor was sacked for doing so. Most said they were publishing them in support of Jyllands-Posten, but others said they were used to illustrate articles on the dispute.
The sketches include a portrayal of Prophet Mohammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban, and as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by two women shrouded in black.
Islam bans depictions of Prophet Mohammad, even favourable ones, owing to fears they could lead to idolatry.
