The Cartoon Row

You would think that after drafting an editorial cartoon that brought the wrath of Islam down on his head, a man would think twice about stepping back into the fray. But Doug Marlette, a Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist from North Carolina, says he admires the European newspapers that are defending their right to publish controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. "This is a war of two...

TORONTO -- Cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist are deeply offensive, but so is the violent reaction to the drawings from Islamic extremists, Canadian Muslims said yesterday. "The protests in the Middle East have proven that the cartoonist was right," said Tarek Fatah, a director of the Muslim Canadian Congress. "It's falling straight into that trap of being depicted as a violent...

Protests have spread across the Muslim world over the publication in European news papers of cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. Outrage over the cartoons has ignited demonstrations from Turkey to the Gaza Strip, and prompted a boycott of Danish products throughout the Middle East. In Pakistan, hundreds demonstrated on Thursday, chanting "Death to Denmark" and burning Danish and...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's parliament unanimously passed a resolution Friday condemning cartoons of Islam's prophet in European newspapers, and small protests were held in major cities as anger grew in this Islamic nation. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf also expressed outrage, saying the cartoon could not be justified as freedom of expression. The resolution said the cartoons --...

PARIS, France (AP) -- The managing editor of a French newspaper has been fired over publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that are inflaming the Muslim world, where Pakistani protesters on Thursday chanted "Death to France!" and Gaza gunmen demanded apologies from European governments. The furor over the drawings, which first ran in a Danish paper in September, cuts to the question of...

RIYADH (Reuters) - A leading preacher in Saudi Arabia proclaimed a new spirit of defiance among Muslims after worldwide protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in European newspapers. "A great new spirit is flowing through the body of the Islamic nation ... this world can no longer ignore this nation and its feelings," Saleh bin Humaid said in a televised sermon at the Grand Mosque in the...

The Danish prime minister has invited foreign ambassadors to a meeting on Friday to discuss a growing international row over a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The move by Anders Fogh Rasmussen comes amid threats from Palestinian factions to harm foreign nationals as revenge for what they say is an offence to Islam. Earlier on Thursday the joint command of the Popular Resistance...

AMMAN (Reuters) - The publisher of a Jordanian tabloid weekly newspaper has sacked a chief editor who reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that have caused outrage across the Islamic world. Editor Jihad Momani apologised on Friday and said he had wanted to illustrate the extent of the insult against Islam and Muslims in the Danish cartoons. Momani was dismissed by the publishers of his...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Iraq's Christians are bracing for attacks on their ancient community, fearful that deadly bombings of their churches last month were linked to Muslim fury over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published in Europe. "The church blasts were a reaction to the cartoons published in European papers. But Christians are not responsible for what is published in Europe," Louis Sako, the...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Muslim fury over cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammad in European newspapers provides dangerous ammunition for radical Islamists and could serve as a pretext for violence, security analysts said on Friday. But they said any such action was more likely for the time being to be directed against individuals than to take the form of full-scale terrorist attacks. The "low...