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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Hezbollah rallies against Danish cartoon |
| 2006-02-10 |
| Howard Dean made an appearance on the ABC's 'Good Morning America' on Thursday and compared President Bush to the president of Iran. The leader of Hezbollah, heading a march by hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims Thursday, said President Bush and his secretary of state should "shut up" after they accused Syria and Iran of fueling protests over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Denmark, meanwhile, said it had temporarily closed its diplomatic mission in Beirut, which was burned by protesters Sunday, and all staff had left Lebanon. Danes feared religious processions in Muslim countries Thursday to mark the Shiite festival of Ashoura would spill over into violence against its diplomats and soldiers after days of protests over the caricatures, which were first published in a Danish newspaper in September. About 2,000 hard-line Muslims also rallied and burned a Danish flag Thursday in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka. In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah urged Muslims worldwide to keep demonstrating until there is an apology over the drawings and Europe passes laws forbidding insults to the prophet. The head of the guerrilla group, which is backed by Iran and Syria, spoke before a mass Ashoura procession. Whipping up the crowds on the most solemn day for Shiites worldwide, Nasrallah declared: "Defending the prophet should continue all over the world. Let Condoleezza Rice and Bush and all the tyrants shut up. We are an Islamic nation that cannot tolerate, be silent or be lax when they insult our prophet and sanctities." "We will uphold the messenger of God not only by our voices but also by our blood," he told the crowds, estimated by organizers at about 700,000. Police had no final estimates but said the figure was likely to be even higher. Speaking about the controversy for the first time on Wednesday, Bush condemned the deadly rioting sparked by the cartoons and urged foreign leaders to halt the spreading violence. Rice said Iran and Syria "have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes. And the world ought to call them on it." Iran has rejected the U.S. accusations. Syria has not commented publicly. In protests throughout the Muslim world, demonstrators who saw the drawings as deeply insulting to Islam have attacked embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran and rioted in Afghanistan. Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of the prophet. Jyllands-Posten, the Danish paper that first published the drawings, apologized last week for offending Muslims but stood by its decision to print the cartoons, citing freedom of speech. Other European publications recently reprinted the drawings, which included an image of Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped with a burning fuse, in a show of solidarity. Denmark's government has said it could not apologize over a newspaper's publication. In Brussels, Belgium, Mohamed Ahmed Sherif, chairman of the Libyan-based World Islamic Call Society, said Muslims see the drawings as a direct attack on their values and called the decision to print them in European newspapers a "hate program." Sherif, speaking during a visit Brussels where he met European Union officials, said the cartoons only serve to fuel extremism. "Nobody should blame the Muslims if they are unhappy about the images of the Prophet Muhammad," Sherif said. "It's forbidden to create a hate program to show that the prophet is a terrorist while he's not. Don't ask us to try to make people understand that this is not a campaign of hate." Nasrallah, a black-turbaned, bearded cleric, demanded an apology for the cartoons and laws to prevent a repetition. "There can be no settlement before an apology and there can be no settlement before laws are legislated by the European Parliament and the parliaments of European countries," he said. Islamic nations should demand "a law committing the press and the media in the West that proscribes insulting our prophet. If this matter cannot be achieved that means they (West) insist on continuing this," he added. Nasrallah said that if the controversy touched on Jews or Israel the West would have reacted differently and quickly. In Denmark, the Danish Broadcasting Corp., or DR, said its journalists in Beirut had been warned to stay away from the Shiite Ashoura ceremonies. "It has become more difficult to be a Danish reporter in the Middle East," Lisbet Knudsen, head of DR's news desk said. The Bangladeshi protesters — most members of the hard-line group, Islamic Constitution Movement — marched through the streets outside the country's main mosque in downtown Dhaka shouting, "Down with Islam's Enemies!" police said. "We can't tolerate such disrespect to our prophet. It's a shameful act. We condemn it," A.T.M. Hemayetuddin, a movement leader, told supporters. In the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, about 200 people turned an Islamic procession into a protest against the prophet drawings, shouting "Down with Denmark" and "Down with Israel." Senior Superintendent of Police Muneer Khan said 25 people were arrested as police beat back angry demonstrators. Malaysia's government Thursday indefinitely shut down a local newspaper for reprinting one of the drawings. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #10 And we're gonna go from Beirut to Cairo to Lahore to Islamabad to Baghdad to Amman to Mecca to Medina. YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Thanks for the memories, Howard UK! |
| Posted by: Howard Machmoud Dean 2006-02-10 15:21 |
| #9 don't forget the WH furniture-stealin' carpet-baggin' cattle future wunderkin Hillary! Hillary's not a carpet bagger. Remember, when she was a kid, her family passed through New York on vacation. That practically makes her a native! |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-02-10 12:36 |
| #8 Urinal targets - Piss Be Upon Him. |
| Posted by: SR-71 2006-02-10 11:54 |
| #7 In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah urged Muslims worldwide to keep demonstrating until there is an apology over the drawings and Europe passes laws forbidding insults to the prophet. Don't git yer hopes up there, Nostrillah. Keep on pissing and moaning about it and we'll just have to make insulting the prophet a national pasttime. I'm thinking Allah and Mohammed dart boards, beer coasters, toilet paper with koranic passages, minaret shaped tampons and special Saudi flag suppositories. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-02-10 11:36 |
| #6 don't forget the WH furniture-stealin' carpet-baggin' cattle future wunderkin Hillary! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-02-10 10:32 |
| #5 Howard Dean....democrat...dhimmocrat....loser. Ray Nagin....buses are under water...dhimmocrat McGreavy....some men are cuter than others....dhimmocrat Gray Davis.....no legislation I can't buy with your money...dhimmocrat Ted Kennedy.....I wonder what Mary Jo Kopeckny wound say if she were still alive......dhimmocrat Bill Clinton....who killed Vince Foster ? Ron Brown ? TWA800 cover up.....the first black president.....dhimmocrat........loser. This reminder was brought to you by the GOP. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-02-10 09:03 |
| #4 That's the one. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-02-10 08:32 |
| #3 YEEEEEAAAAAARRRGGGHHH! |
| Posted by: Howard Dean 2006-02-10 08:26 |
| #2 Ya, me too. He was that guy that thought he could get elected from the internet, but then when he had to publicly speak, making an ass of himself, everyone just laughed. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-02-10 08:15 |
| #1 Howard Dean - I think I remember him, wasn't he in the last US election? |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-02-10 07:30 |