The protests against the caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad are not disappearing. But the voices of sanity are getting louder.
As the fury over the caricatures in the Muslim world intensifies, the deeper fear in Europe is that this conflict is here to stay. Indeed, the daily images from the Middle East show no signs of abating on Wednesday, and Europeans have begun making moves to adjust their behavior for the long term.
As European leaders -- including French President Jacques Chirac and German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler -- continue urging calm and condemning the decision to publish the cartoons as culturally insensitive, other public figures are re-examining their own approach to Islam. Most are aiming at de-escalation.
Chirac, whose government was sobered by riots in Paris's Muslim-dominated suburbs late last year, cautioned against insulting a highly sensitive minority. "Freedom of opinion must be exercised with a sense of responsibility," he warned. "I condemn all obvious provocations which are clearly meant to inflame dangerous passions."
Despite the attempts to cool down overheated tempers in the Muslim world, violent demonstrations continued to rage on Wednesday.
In the city of Kalat in southern Afghanistan, police opened fire on several hundred protesters who had gathered near a United States military base. Afghan police said four demonstrators had been killed and 11 injured by gunshot wounds. They reported that eight police and one soldier had been struck by stones thrown by the protestors. Afghanistan's Ulama Council, the country's top Islamic organization, condemned the caricatures but also said their publication did "not justify violence."
In the West Bank town of Hebron, hundreds of Palestinians attacked the Temporary International Presence Headquarters there, firing stones through the windows and briefly trapping dozens of foreigners inside before the protesters were driven off.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, more than 1,000 Muslims rallied to protest the Muhammad caricatures, originally printed in a Danish newspaper and reprinted in a number of other European publications. Police prevented the demonstrators from reaching their goal, the Italian Embassy, but they did burn a number of Danish flags.
Some 500 demonstrators in Turkey were also prevented from marching on the Danish Embassy in the capital city Ankara.
But even as small numbers of demonstrators persisted in violent protests, there were signs of calm from some governments of Muslim counries. Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said on Wednesday that the Muslim reaction to the Muhammad caricatures was "out of proportion," and said that radical groups around the world were exploiting Islamic anger.
Malaysia will hold a two-day conference this week to explore misperceptions between the West and Islam and examine the media's role. Iran's former President Mohammad Khatami will be among the 60 speakers. Half the speakers will come from the West and the other half from Muslim countries.
