The Cartoon Row

Nearly five years after publication of the Mohammed cartoons, the threat of reprisals against the newspaper that carried them remains significant enough that it has constructed a security fence around its buildings, the Copenhagen Post has reported. The Viby, Jutland-based Jyllands-Posten took the advice of domestic intelligence agency PET and encircled its offices with a kilometer long metal...

More Islamic countries have protested against a Swedish newspaper's publication of a cartoon that has been deemed offensive by Muslims. The Swedish government has, however, refused to apologise on behalf of the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper. The Egyptian ministry of religious endowments Sunday denounced the cartoon as "irresponsible and offensive", according to Kuwaiti news agency KUNA. "Such an...

Another cartoon row seems to be brewing up in – this time in Sweden where a newspaper has published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog. Iran summoned Sweden's charge d'affaires on Monday to protest against the publication of the “disrespectful" drawing of the prophet. Leading figures in Sweden's media industry have backed newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, which has published the cartoon...

Artist Lars Vilks has made three drawings ridiculing the prophet Mohammed. The prophet is portrayed as a “roundabout dog”. So far three art exhibitions have declined to publish his pictures. The Art Association in Tällerud said no. Then the school Gerlesborgsskolan in the county of Bohuslän said no. Now the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm has also said no. This is unacceptable self-censorship. A...

A French court Thursday cleared satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in a case brought by Muslims who were angered by its publication of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. The court’s decision is being seen as a major victory for free speech in France. Philippe Val, chief editor of the French satirical weekly "Charlie Hebdo", speaks with the media in Paris March 22, 2007. A French court ruled in...

Two French Muslim organisations are suing magazine Charlie Hebdo for printing cartoons satirising the prophet Mohammed. The trial began in Paris today in a civil lawsuit by the Grand Mosque of Paris and the Union of Islamic Organisations of France. Charlie Hebdo’s decision to reprint the Danish cartoons was taken at an especially fraught moment. Some 10 news media had been banned or suspended in...

A Muslim man was today found guilty of stirring up racial hatred during a protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. An Old Bailey jury convicted Abdul Saleem, from Poplar, east London, after a four-day trial. The 31-year-old BT engineer was remanded in custody for pre-sentence reports. He had denied using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with...

A Sana’a primary court convicted Wednesday two local journalists of insulting the Islamic religion and ridiculing prophet Mohammed (PBUH) by republishing some of the Danish cartoons back in February. Judge Mohammed Rubaid of the South East Sana’a delivered guilty verdicts against Akram Sabra, managing editor of Al-Hurriyah weekly and his assistant Yehya al-Abed. The two journalists received...

New York, December 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the conviction and fine handed down to a Yemeni editor today for reprinting Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. A court in the capital Sana’a convicted Mohammed al-Asaadi, editor-in-chief of the English-language weekly Yemen Observer, of insulting Islam and fined him 500,000 rials (U.S. $2,500). “We’re relieved that...

The Prophet Muhammed cartoon crisis between the West and the Muslim world has now also created a row between the head of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Danish Education and Religious Affairs minister during a conference held to boost dialogue and solidarity among civilizations. Speaking about the cartoon crisis OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who is also a Turkish...