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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Mass anti-cartoon rally in Beirut |
| 2006-02-09 |
| Hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims in Lebanon have turned a religious ceremony into a protest over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. The leader of the Hezbollah militant group told the crowd demonstrations must continue until Europe passed laws banning insults to Muhammad. Thousands took part in marches in Cape Town, South Africa, and Bangladesh. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan criticised editors who continued to print the cartoons despite the furore. "It is insensitive, it is offensive, it is provocative, and they should see what has happened around the world," he said. Mr Annan said he supported freedom of speech but it entailed "exercising responsibility and judgement". The satirical cartoons - which have been denounced throughout the Islamic world - include an image portraying Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits any depiction of Allah and the Prophet. In other developments: * Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen tells an English-language Arab newspaper that the caricatures were not intended as an attack on Muslims * Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the script of a controversial film on Islam that led to the murder of director Theo Van Gogh, says she believes journalists have been right to publish the cartoons * Iranian Vice-President Isfandiar Rahim Mashaee rejects Ms Rice's accusation his country was guilty of inflaming the furore as "100% a lie" * South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki appeals for tolerance and mutual respect as thousands of Muslims rally in Cape Town. The Malaysian government shut down indefinitely a Borneo-based paper, the Sarawak Tribune, after it reprinted the cartoons on Saturday. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi described their publication as "insensitive and irresponsible". The paper had apologised for what it called an editorial oversight. Papers in several European countries have also reprinted the images, first published in a Danish newspaper last September and most recently carried in French magazine Charlie Hebdo. NATO defence ministers are meeting in Brussels to consider the security implications of the controversy. It follows attacks on NATO troops in Afghanistan and on Danish embassies in Beirut and Damascus. A dozen people have died in violent protests in Afghanistan over recent days, some as they tried to march on a US military base. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told Shia Muslims gathered in Beirut to mark the annual Ashura mourning ceremony that there could be "no compromise before we get an apology". "We want European parliament to draft laws that ban newspapers from insulting the Prophet," he said. He criticised US President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over their claim that Iran and Syria had exploited the row over the cartoons to fuel anti-Western feeling. "The protests must be pursued everywhere. Bush and Rice must shut up and we tell them that we will not forgive those who offend our Prophet," he said. European papers have defended their decisions to publish on free speech grounds. EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini called on media across the European Union to adopt a voluntary code of conduct to prevent such rows in the future. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #4 That's why they call him Jack Straw. That guy really sticks in my craw and makes me go gaaah! He's one big faux pas. Says nothing but, "baaah". |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-02-09 23:47 |
| #3 my scrotal bag has more backbone than Jack Straw |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-02-09 23:16 |
| #2 Via link on LGF. How’s this for contrast: “DOHA (AFP) - The radical Palestinian group Hamas joined voices for calm in the international furore sparked by cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, as a Taliban commander in Afghanistan said 100 suicide bombers had volunteered. Hamas “is prepared to play a role in calming the situation between the Islamic world and Western countries on condition that these countries commit themselves to putting an end to attacks against the feelings of Muslims,” the organisation’s leader Khaled Meshaal told a news conference.” “Liberal Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali said the European press had been right to publish contentious cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed...”Shame on those politicians who stated that publishing and re-publishing the drawings was 'unnecessary', 'insensitive', 'disrespectful' and 'wrong'," she added, echoing the words of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw..."Demanding that people who do not accept Mohammed's teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission." She listed numerous teachings of Mohammed which she rejected and said she believed there was a need to be critical of him to educate people. |
| Posted by: Jules 2006-02-09 23:07 |
#1 What a buncha maroons. Anyone tried to divert the little fellas?Hey! Is that Elvis? |
| Posted by: 6 2006-02-09 19:12 |