French paper reprints Danish Mohammad cartoons

By Jon Boyle

PARIS (Reuters) – A French newspaper reprinted on Wednesday
a series of 12 Danish newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet
Mohammad that have sparked protests in the Muslim world and
prompted Saudi Arabia to recall its ambassador from Denmark.

With a mounting diplomatic storm, calls for a boycott of
Danish goods and flag-burning protests, Danish security police
met Muslim religious leaders in a bid to contain any domestic
reaction to cartoons first run by the Jyllands-Posten paper.

Police said they had won a pledge from Denmark’s imams to
work to prevent an escalation of the row while the France Soir
daily said it had published the cartoons in the name of freedom
of expression and to fight religious intolerance.

“Because no religious dogma can impose its view on a
democratic and secular society, France Soir publishes the
incriminated cartoons,” the paper said.

Under a headline “Yes, we have the right to caricature
God,” the paper ran a front page cartoon with Buddha, the
Christian and Jewish Gods and the Prophet Mohammad sitting on a
cloud above Earth, with the Christian God saying: “Don’t
complain Mohammad, we’ve all been caricatured here.”

France Soir, which is in financial difficulties and looking
for a buyer, devoted two inside pages to the Danish cartoons,
with editor Serge Faubert unapologetic.

“Enough lessons from these reactionary bigots! There is
nothing in these incriminated cartoons that intends to be
racist or denigrate any community as such,” he wrote in a
commentary.

“Some are funny, others less so. That’s it. That is why we
have decided to publish them.”

DANISH POLICE MEET IMAMS

Thousands of Palestinians protested against Denmark this
week for allowing publication of the cartoons and Arab
ministers called on it to punish the newspaper that first
printed them.

Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador from Copenhagen
and Libya has closed its embassy. Qatar condemned the cartoons.

Jyllands-Posten has apologized for any hurt caused but the
government says it cannot tell free media what to do.

Danish police said in a statement 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.

Danish-Swedish dairy product maker Arla Foods, with annual
Middle East sales of 3 billion Danish crowns ($488 million),
said it was talking to unions about 140 job cuts due to the
boycott.

“We are losing around 10 million crowns per day at the
moment,” a spokeswoman said.

The world’s biggest maker of insulin, Novo Nordisk, said it
was also hit as pharmacies and hospitals in Saudi Arabia have
avoided its products since Saturday.

Islam sees images of its prophets as disrespectful and
caricatures as blasphemous. One of the drawings published in
September seemed to portray the Prophet as a terrorist.

A Norwegian paper has also reprinted the cartoons this
year.

There was no comment on the France Soir move from the
leaders of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), a
body set up to represent France’s 5 million Muslims.

French relations with devout Muslims have been strained by
a 2004 law banning religious symbols in state schools, which
prohibited the wearing of Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps
and large Christian crosses in secular state schools.

(Additional reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich in Paris and Per
Bech Thomsen in Copenhagen)