Danes say apology 'pointless'
2006-02-14 08:33
Karl Ritter
Copenhagen - Denmark's premier complained that his nation had been unfairly portrayed as intolerant in the international furore over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons and his foreign minister said a government apology would be pointless.
After meeting with a newly formed network of moderate Muslims, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on Monday for peaceful dialogue to defuse Denmark's biggest international crisis since World War II.
"This meeting just testifies that the Danish government wants a positive dialogue with all groups in the Danish society," Fogh Rasmussen said. "The way forward is peaceful."
However, critics said the network did not represent the country's estimated 200 000 Muslims and warned the prime minister could be heightening tensions by not reaching out to radicals.
'Nothing illegal has been done'
Meanwhile, rage against the cartoons continued as Pakistani police fired tear gas on thousands of student protesters, Egyptian demonstrators called for a boycott on Europe and hundreds of Palestinian schoolchildren trampled on a Danish flag.
President General Pervez Musharraf said the conflict had united moderate and radical Muslims "because this hurts the sentiments of every Muslim."
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller told The Associated Press in a phone interview the government had no reason to apologise for the drawings first published in one of Denmark's largest newspapers.
"First, you cannot apologise for something you have not done," Per Stig Moeller said. "Second, nothing illegal has been done because no one has been found guilty by a court."
The government has resisted pressure to accept any responsibility for the cartoons - one of which depicts the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb - saying it has no say over media.
In Egypt, thousands of students demonstrated on Monday at universities in Cairo and the southern city of Assiut, denouncing the caricatures and warning that those who published the drawings "have opened the gates of hell on themselves."
Anti-riot police stood at the gates of the two universities but did not interfere.
"Revolution everywhere! We are not going to be silent or asleep!" chanted about 1 500 male students demonstrating in Cairo. "Boycott is our duty because they insulted and humiliated our prophet!"
Hundreds of Palestinian schoolchildren, some as young as four, stomped on a Danish flag and shouted anti-Danish slogans in a protest organised by a school affiliated with the Islamic militant group Hamas in the West Bank.
In Denmark, critics said the premier's meeting with a newly formed network of moderate Muslims led by Syrian-born lawmaker Naser Khader risked escalating the situation by making radical groups feel left out.
- AP