RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - The head of the World Council of Churches on Tuesday called for joint efforts by Christians and Muslims to "put out the fire" provoked by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
The council's General Secretary Rev. Samuel Kobia said both the violent protests in response to the cartoons and the attempts to justify them as an expression of freedom of speech were wrong.
"When it (freedom of speech) is used to humiliate people's values and dignity, it devalues the foundation it is based on," said Kobia, a Kenyan Methodist, speaking at council's assembly in Porto Alegre in Southern Brazil.
The assembly represents 348 member churches.
"Violent reactions, as well as justifying these cartoons as an expression of freedom of speech, continue to put fuel on the fire," he said, according to a WCC statement.
Both Christians and Muslims have a responsibility to promote tolerance and address ignorance about one another, Kobia said..
The publication of the cartoons in Danish and other European newspapers, including one showing an image of the prophet with a bomb for a turban, provoked riots by Muslims in many countries and some violent attacks on Western embassies.
Muslims consider any portrayal of the Prophet blasphemous, but many people in Europe have supported the freedom of the press to publish the cartoons.
The World Council of Churches, founded in 1948, represents most of the Churches that broke away from Roman Catholicism either in the Orthodox Schism of 1054 or in the 16th century Protestant Reformation.
The Catholic Church, which makes up more than half the world's two billion Christians, has not joined the World Council of Churches but is a full member of its faith and order commission on Christian unity.
