Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan will meet Islamic and European leaders to try to end Muslim protests over the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad that have resulted in deaths in several countries.
Annan will attend a Feb. 25 meeting in Qatar of the High- Level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations, a panel he set up last year to bridge gaps between Islam and the West, the UN said on its web site. Denmark's Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said yesterday Islamic extremists are fuelling the unrest, Agence France-Presse reported.
``There is no doubt that al-Qaeda is also trying as far as possible to exploit the situation and fan the flames,'' AFP cited Moeller as saying yesterday in Copenhagen.
Protests have taken place in countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia and Turkey since newspapers in Europe earlier this month reprinted cartoons first published in September in Denmark. Any visual depiction of Muhammad is considered blasphemy, according to the teachings of Islam. One of the cartoons depicts Muhammad wearing a bomb in place of a turban.
At least 11 people died in clashes between demonstrators at security forces in Libya last week and 16 people were killed in unrest in Nigeria. Several days of protests recently in Pakistan resulted in the deaths of five people.
The meeting in Qatar will discuss how to promote ``a constructive dialogue between people of different faiths and traditions based on mutual understanding and respect,'' the UN cited Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the panel, as saying.
Retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and theologians such as Ismali Serageldin of Egypt and Mehmet Aydin of Turkey are among the members of the panel. Annan two weeks ago called on Muslims to refrain from violence over the cartoons. Muslims should accept the apology given by the Danish newspaper, he said Feb. 5.
Iranian Comment
Iran will make efforts to help ease the dispute, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said after a meeting yesterday in Brussels with Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, according to the state-run Iranian news agency, IRNA.
``We raised our concern about the problem of cartoons,'' IRNA cited Mottaki as saying. ``We accepted to cooperate with each other to calm down the situation.''
Iran cut trade ties with Denmark on Feb. 4 and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the same day ordered the Trade Ministry to terminate economic agreements with all countries where the cartoons were published.
Pakistan Protests
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the head of a six-party alliance of Islamic groups in Pakistan, said yesterday protests over the cartoons are planned for Feb. 24, according to IRNA.
Alliance supporters defied a ban by Pakistan's government and took to the streets of the capital, Islamabad, two days ago. Police used tear gas and baton charges to break up the protest, AFP reported at the time.
The 12 cartoons were first published in Denmark's largest broadsheet, Jyllands-Posten. Carsten Juste, editor-in-chief at the Aarhus-based newspaper, apologized for offending Muslims in a statement on the newspaper's Web site Jan. 31. Editors in European countries such as France, Norway, Austria and Germany said they were defending freedom of expression by reprinting the cartoons.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net
