MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's leading newspaper El Pais on Friday became part of a growing international row by publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad on its front page.
The cartoon, originally published by France's Le Monde, portrayed the head of the Prophet Mohammad made up of lines which say "I must not draw Mohammad" in French.
Newspapers in France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Hungary have reprinted caricatures originally published in Denmark, arguing that press freedom is more important than the protests and boycotts they have provoked.
Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.
El Pais editors were not immediately available to comment on the decision to publish the cartoon on its front page.
On Thursday, a dozen Palestinian gunmen surrounded European Union offices in the Gaza Strip demanding an apology for the Danish cartoons, one of which showed Islam's founder wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
Afghanistan has condemned the publication of the caricatures and about 400 Islamic students set fire to French and Danish flags in protest in the city of Multan in central Pakistan.
The owner of France Soir, a Paris daily that reprinted the cartoons on Wednesday along with a German paper, sacked its managing editor to show "a strong sign of respect for the beliefs and intimate convictions of every individual".
But the tabloid defended its right to print the cartoons, first published last September in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten.
