The Cartoon Row

NEW YORK: A Doonesbury.com poll is finding, not surprisingly, that Muslims and non-Muslims have different views about the Danish cartoon controversy. Of the 88 Muslims responding (admittedly a very small sample), 48% oppose the cartoons, 27% support them, and 23% feel the cartoons weren't strong enough. Of the 2,878 Christians responding, 39% oppose the cartoons, 40% support them, and 19% feel the...

The original twelve caricatures of the prophet Mohamed were published on September 30, 2005 by the Danish daily Jyllands Posten. They have now become a major point of discord between the West (interestingly except the US and the UK) and the Muslim world. Why do the "spontaneous" demonstrations of anger and violence witnessed in the Muslim world occur four months after the fact? It is true that in...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - The head of the World Council of Churches on Tuesday called for joint efforts by Christians and Muslims to "put out the fire" provoked by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. The council's General Secretary Rev. Samuel Kobia said both the violent protests in response to the cartoons and the attempts to justify them as an expression of freedom of...

In a meeting with religious leaders on Wednesday, Finnish President Tarja Halonen expressed regret about the posting of the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad by some Finnish websites. Jarmo Viinanen, the chief of staff of the office of the president, told the Finnish News Agency (STT) that the president said the posting of the images had not been wise. Mr Viinanen added that representatives of...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Not content with pelting European embassies with petrol bombs to protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, Iranians have decided to rename the "Danish pastries" relished by this nation of cake lovers. From now on, the sweet, flaky pastries which dominate the shelves in Iran's cake shops will be known as "Roses of the Prophet Mohammad," the official IRNA news agency...

Late in 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten (JP) published 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, some of which were very negative. In the months that followed, several delegations of Danish Muslim leaders sought to meet with JP editorial staff but were ignored. Several Muslim ambassadors to Denmark sought to meet with the prime minister of Denmark so they could work out a joint...

Denmark’s main opposition party and a government ally today called for an investigation of a national Muslim group’s Middle East trip, which has been blamed for fanning the furore over a newspaper’s publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Anger over the cartoons had simmered within Denmark after the Jyllands-Posten daily published them on September 30, but then exploded internationally...

The European Union has backed Denmark in the row over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but leaders of its legislature differed over the limits of free speech. The cartoons, first published in Denmark, caused outrage in the Muslim world, and Danish and other European diplomatic missions have been attacked in Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia. Political leaders from all groups rallied...

New York-area Jews reacted with disgust and resignation to an Iranian newspaper's solicitation of cartoons mocking the Holocaust in response to demeaning caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper. "Once again, we've been turned into conspirators," said Abraham Foxman, executive director of the New York-based Anti-Defamation League. "We thought initially that this is a...

Berlin - A political cartoonist from a leading German daily has received death threats, the paper said on Tuesday, after publishing a caricature showing the Iranian national soccer team wearing belts of explosives next to four German soldiers. Caricaturist Klaus Stutt-mann said the idea of the cartoon, published in the Friday edition of the Tagesspiegel daily, was to challenge calls from some...