[Al Arabiya Latest] About 3,000 people protested in Oslo on Friday over the printing of a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad as a pig by a Norwegian newspaper.Demonstrators held up signs reading "We are Muslims, not terrorists" and "Stop denigrating Muslims.
The Dagbladet tabloid printed on Feb. 3 a cartoon drawing of Prophet Mohammed portrayed as a pig, his feet on the Koran.
The drawing was to illustrate an article about the Facebook page of the Norwegian police security service (PST) that contains a link to the cartoon, judged offensive by many Muslims.
The link was posted on the Facebook page by a user but removed, along with other comments deemed offensive, as soon as the police service became aware of it.
Norwegian media reported that Dagbladet had been manipulated by a man named Arfan Bhatti, whom police say is known to have shot at an Oslo synagogue in 2006.
Bhatti allegedly informed Dagbladet of the link on PST's Facebook page and then called for a protest when the newspaper ran the story with the illustration in question.
Norway's main Muslim associations had told their members not to take part in the protest.
"According to our estimates, there were up to 3,000 protesters. Everything went well. The crowd dispersed and nothing indicates there will be trouble," police spokeswoman Kari Huseby said.