Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen took to the airwaves on Thursday to directly address Muslims in an attempt to ease the tense situation arising from daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten's Mohammed caricatures.
In an exclusive interview with Arabic satellite television station Al Arabiya, Rasmussen repeated that the nation's media was independent and that even the country's prime minister was not immune to its barbs.
'I myself am very often criticized and I have to accept that because that's part of our society that we have freedom of expression,' Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen added that freedom of expression was not incompatible with consideration of others: 'Yes, we have freedom of expression - but of course everybody has a responsibility not to stimulate conflict. Everybody has a responsibility to demonstrate respect for religious feelings for instance and I have made it clear that I personally - I would never depict religious figures in a way that could hurt other people's feelings.'
The cartoons were originally published in September, and Rasmussen said he was unsure what caused the situation to deteriorate last week. He added, however, that the government had been actively seeking a solution for months.
'I made a couple of very important points in my New Years Address to the Danish people. I made it clear that the Danish government condemns any expression and any action which offends people's religious feelings and I made it clear that we condemn all expressions that attempts to demonise people on the basis of their religion or ethnic background,' he said.
Rasmussen will continue his effort to communicate the Danish position to foreign governments on Friday. He has called the entire foreign diplomatic corps in Copenhagen to a meeting to explain the situation and to express the prime minister's office's own opinion of the situation.
