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'More bin Ladens will be made'
06/02/2006 13:27 - (SA)
Sydney - World leaders called for calm on Monday after weekend attacks in which Danish diplomatic missions were set ablaze and Lebanon and Syria promised inquiries into how protests about cartoons of the Prophet turned violent.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed alarm about the riots and urged restraint but oil giant Iran, which is reviewing trade ties with countries that published the cartoons, vowed to respond to "an anti-Islamic and Islamophobic current".
Ukraine on Monday became the latest country where newspapers have published the cartoons, joining Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Poland and the United States.
Australia was drawn on Monday into the widespread anger after a weekend newspaper printed one of the images.
More vicious anti-Semitic info available
The president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ameer Ali, urged newspapers not to print the cartoons, which Muslims say are blasphemous and contrary to Islamic tradition prohibiting depictions of the prophet.
"Which is more important, to preserve the freedom of speech or to antagonise one-fifth of humanity," Ali told ABC radio.
Ali said that imams in Australia were already delivering sermons saying that publishing the cartoons would "only create more bin Ladens."
The caricatures originally appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten last year.
Australian political commentator Tim Blair has published the full set of cartoons on his website, saying there are more vicious anti-Semitic and anti-Christian publications available from Islamic bookstores.
Up to 4 000 people marched in Brussels on Sunday to protest against the cartoons, police said. In Paris, about 1 000 people protested peacefully against the caricatures, police said.
In New York, hundreds of Muslims and supporters gathered for a rally at the Danish mission to the United Nations, seeking an apology from Denmark.
Meanwhile, in New Delhi, riot police fired tear gas and water cannons on Monday to disperse hundreds of students protesting the publication of cartoons.
Indian-controlled Kashmir came to a standstill on Monday as shops, businesses and schools shut down to protest the caricatures.
Palestinian police with batons beat back stone-throwing protesters who gathered outside the European Commission building in Gaza City on Monday to protest cartoons that have touched off Muslim protests worldwide.
About 200 protesters arrived at the European Commission building, waving green flags symbolising the Islamic Hamas movement and the yellow flags of the secular Fatah Party. "O Prophet Muhammad, we are ready to redeem you with our souls and our blood," they chanted, and some carried banners calling for a boycott of Danish products.
In Indonesia, there were several violent protests, the rowdiest in Surabaya, where hundreds of demonstrators threw rocks at the Danish consulate before moving on to the US consulate. - AFP/AP/Reuters
- News24
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