The Cartoon Row

DUBAI, February 21, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The sales of Mecca Cola, an Arab type of cola, have been reportedly surging since the furor sparked by the publication of cartoons lampooning Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) by several European newspapers. "Growth came with these Danish caricatures. It's crazy but our sales multiplied by three," Taoufik Mathlouthi, the...

MOSCOW, Feb. 20 – The owner of a small Russian weekly that printed a composite of the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad said Monday that he would close the newspaper. His was the second newspaper to close in Russia in the wake of international protests over the cartoons. The newspaper, Our Region, based in Vologda, north of Moscow, which printed its illustration last Wednesday, was...

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has suspended a youth daily that carried cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammad that have sparked violent protests around the world, journalists from the newspaper said on Tuesday. The Ministry of Information indefinitely stopped the daily Shams from publication from Monday after it reprinted late last month several of 12 cartoons first published by a Danish...

(CNSNews.com) - Disturbed by Muslim leaders' attempts to criminalize any criticism of Islam, human rights campaigners are urging the United Nations to resist pressure to outlaw religious defamation in a resolution creating the U.N.'s new human rights council. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a Saudi-based grouping of the world's 57 Muslim states, wants the resolution's draft text...

COPENHAGEN: Danish opposition parties called on Monday for an independent investigation into the right-leaning coalition government’s handling of a row over Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) cartoons that have sparked violent protests in Muslim countries. "Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has insisted that he has no reason to blame himself and has laid most of the responsibility for the...

Following Denmark, Germany now has its own controversy over anti-Muslim caricatures. On February 10, the Berlin daily paper Tagesspiegel published a drawing that provoked disgust among Iranian football fans, drew an official protest from the Iranian government, and led to violent demonstrations in front of the German embassy in Tehran. The drawing, entitled "Why the German army has to be called up...

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made a last-minute decision to address a meeting in Qatar this weekend in an effort to calm violence triggered by the publication of cartoons about the Prophet Mohammad, his spokesman said on Monday. Annan intends to speak at a session in Doha, the Qatar capital, of the U.N.-backed Alliance of Civilizations and address issues...

The Danish cartoons row refuses to go away, reverberating with sound and fury at different levels across the Islamic world. That primarily reflects the deep affront felt by many Muslims. But it is clear that the uproar has deeper causes which westerners, struggling to fathom the rage sparked by Jyllands-Posten's crude caricatures, and Muslims, fearing a growing clash of cultures, ignore at their...

Iran's foreign minister called yesterday for an end to the violent protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that have left dozens dead in several Muslim countries. "We should try to cool down the situation," Manouchehr Mottaki said in Brussels. "We do not support any violence." Mr Mottaki went on to urge European Union governments and media outlets "to take initiatives" to prevent such...

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...