European newspapers run Danish Islam cartoons
By Tom Heneghan
PARIS (Reuters) – Newspapers in France, Germany and Spain
reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on
Wednesday, saying press freedom was more important than
protests and boycotts the cartoons have sparked across the
Muslim world.
The Danish embassy in Damascus was evacuated after a bomb
threat that turned out to be a hoax and Syria recalled its
ambassador from Denmark in protest at the cartoons, one of
which shows the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a
bomb.
In Copenhagen, police met Islamic leaders to try to calm
reactions there, and in the city of Aarhus, the offices of the
Jyllands-Posten newspaper that first published the caricatures
last September were briefly evacuated after a bomb threat.
Two large Danish companies reported their sales falling in
the Middle East after protests against the cartoons in the Arab
world and calls for boycotts. Muslims consider images of
prophets distasteful and caricatures blasphemous.
“Enough lessons from these reactionary bigots!” France Soir
editor Serge Faubert wrote in a commentary explaining why his
newspaper had printed the cartoons.
“Just because the Koran bans images of Mohammed doesn’t
mean non-Muslims have to submit to this.”
Dalil Boubakeur, head of the French Muslim Council,
denounced the publication of the drawings as “a genuine
provocation toward France’s millions of Muslims.”
“The principle of freedom of the press, which the French
authorities defend around the world, will not be questioned,”
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told a news
conference in Ankara, adding that principle must, however, be
exercised with a spirit of tolerance.
Germany’s Die Welt newspaper reprinted the cartoons,
saying: “There is no right to be shielded from satire in the
West.”
But Burhan Kesici, a leader of Germany’s Turkish community,
said they reduced Islam “to two or three terrorists.”
Two Spanish newspapers, ABC and El Periodico, ran pictures
of the cartoons on Wednesday. A German language newspaper in
Switzerland published two cartoons on Tuesday.
‘RISK OF ESCALATION’
Jyllands-Posten has apologized for any hurt the caricatures
may have caused, but police said the paper’s offices in Aarhus
were evacuated on Wednesday evening for the second time in two
days after a bomb threat. Workers returned after the all clear.
The Danish government says it cannot tell free media what
to do.
Danish police said they had told Denmark’s imams they were
“highly aware of the risks of an escalation of the case,
including the calls to burn the Koran, which these days
flourish on the Internet and via SMS (phone messages).”
Such calls could be attempts by right-wing extremists to
exploit the conflict and divide society, police said.
Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said Danish premier
Anders Fogh Rasmussen should have done more to explain the
freedom of expression to envoys from Muslim states.
“It is clear that he gradually got himself into a defensive
position,” Persson said. “It would have been better to have
gone more on the offensive.”
Thousands of Palestinians protested against Denmark this
week, and Arab ministers called on it to punish
Jyllands-Posten.
Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador from Copenhagen
and Libya has closed its embassy. Qatar condemned the cartoons.
The Danish-Swedish dairy product maker Arla Foods, with
annual Middle East sales of almost $500 million, said it might
have to cut 140 jobs due to the boycott.
“We are losing around 10 million Danish crowns ($1.8
million) per day at the moment,” a spokeswoman said.
The world’s biggest maker of insulin, Denmark’s Novo
Nordisk said pharmacies and hospitals in Saudi Arabia had been
avoiding its products since Saturday.
A Norwegian Christian publication called Magazinet printed
the cartoons in January. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jens
Stoltenberg expressed regret but made no outright apology.
(Additional reporting by Jon Boyle and Kerstin Gehmlich in
Paris, Per Bech Thomsen in Copenhagen and Paul de Bendern in
Ankara)