The Cartoon Row

BERLIN, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said here Wednesday that she will meet Muslim leaders in the country aiming at calm down the anger over the publication of caricature depicting the Prophet Mohammad. In an interview with the Stern magazine, Merkel said she was "very encouraged" over public calls for calm made by Muslim leaders in Germany. But she did not say when and...

It was not surprising to see news of violent protests against cartoons defaming the Muslim prophet Muhammad, nor was it surprising to read of the indignant response to these protests on the part of European governments. Careful diplomacy does not seem to be the modus operandi of the world we live in. But if we are to think beyond the steadfast principles Europeans and Muslims bring up in this...

The publication Spare Change News today published one of the hugely controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad and called other Boston newspapers "cowardly" for refusing to print the drawings that have touched off weeks of rioting. The biweekly newspaper, which is mostly distributed by members of the homeless community, juxtaposed one of the offending cartoons, which has fueled riots in...

Russian prosecutors has opened an investigation after a newspaper in the southern city of Volgograd published a cartoon of Jesus, Moses, Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed, a senior prosecutor said today. The Prosecutor General’s office for southern Russia has sent investigators to the city to determine whether to open a criminal case for inciting religious hatred, said Deputy Prosecutor General...

MOSCOW, February 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's media and culture watchdog pledged Wednesday to take tough measures against any publications in the country insulting religious feelings. "Measures envisaged in Russian legislation, including the cancellation [of a body's] registration, will be taken if some Russian media issue materials insulting religious feelings," the Federal Service for the...

Several people have died in Pakistan in continuing violence over the publication in the West of cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. But some targets seem far removed from the cartoon row. Protests in Pakistan against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad have been slow to take off but violent nevertheless. In two days of heavy rioting, five people have been killed in two major cities and...

WASHINGTON (AFX) - The cultural editor of a Danish newspaper that started a global row over cartoons of the prophet Mohammed stood by his decision to publish the controversial caricatures, saying they were aimed at promoting debate. Flemming Rose, editor of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, told a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution in Washington that his decision to commission the...

VILNIUS - A local paper’s decision to reprint the scandalous caricature of the prophet Muhammad has elicited a note of protest from Iran, Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry announced last week. The ministry stated in a press release that it had received a note from Iran saying that the cartoons, which first appeared in Denmark and have since been reproduced in several European publications, including...

(CBS4) BOSTON The Salient, a conservative Harvard University newspaper, has printed the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Four cartoons appeared in the February 8th edition of the bi-weekly newspaper. The Salient is one of just a handful of U.S. media outlets to print the drawings. One of which shows Mohammed with a turbin shaped like a bomb. Editors at the newspaper say their...

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he regrets the publication of controversial editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. In his first public statement on the controversy, Harper noted yesterday that Canadians have a right to free speech. But they "also have the right to voice their opinion on the free speech of others," he added. "I regret the publication of this material in several...