The leader of a nationalist party has been acquitted of calling Islamic leaders traitors after they had sought support in the Middle East against a Danish newspaper, which first published controversial cartoons of prophet Mohammed.
In December 2005 and January 2006, nine imams from Denmark travelled to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon to seek support from religious and political leaders to protest the cartoons first published in Jyllands-Posten newspaper in September 2005. The group travelled abroad, saying they found it hard to make their voices heard in Denmark.
The city court in Lyngby, north of Copenhagen, ruled Friday that Pia Kjaersgaard, the leader of the nationalist Danish People's Party, had not violated any laws when she accused the group of conducting a defamation campaign against Denmark, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
"I cannot find a better word for the outrageous campaign ... that should then be high treason," Kjaersgaard said in a January 2006 newsletter.
In her ruling, Judge Karen Greve said the word "high treason" was often used in the public debate, and that the Islamic Faith Community which spearheaded the campaign, had actively participated in the discussions. The group "also widely had used loaded words" during the debate, Greve said, according to AP.
Kjaersgaard said she was relieved at the outcome but had expected to win, Reuters reported. "As a politician, I have both the duty and the right to express my opinion," she said. "I am convinced that many Danes felt as I did in the hectic winter days of 2006."
Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the Islamic Faith Community, regretted the ruling, fearing it "would make it harder to create a decent tone in the debate about Muslims in Denmark." The court also ordered the plaintiffs, a loose network of Danish Muslim organisations which says it represents 50,000 members, to pay Kjaersgaard 40,000 Danish crowns ($7,400) in costs.
In April, the Copenhagen-based community, which represents about 10 per cent of Denmark's 200,000 Muslims, filed a defamation lawsuit against Kjaersgaard, whose party backs the centre-right government in Parliament.
When reprinted in a range of Western media, the Mohammed cartoons triggered massive protests in the Muslim world, where they were seen as blasphemous. An angry mob attacked the Tehran embassy with rocks and firebombs in February 2006.
In October, another Danish court rejected a lawsuit against Jyllands-Posten for publishing the cartoons. The same Islamic community claimed the drawings were meant to insult the prophet and make a mockery of Islam. Islamic law forbids any depiction of the prophet, even positive ones, to prevent idolatry.
