Posted on 02/03/2006 10:55:03 AM PST by NormsRevenge
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Tens of thousands of angry Muslims marched through Palestinian cities, burning the Danish flag and calling for vengeance Friday against European countries where caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were published. In Washington, the State Department criticized the drawings, calling them "offensive to the beliefs of Muslims."
While recognizing the importance of freedom of the press and expression, State Department press officer Janelle Hironimus said these rights must be coupled with press responsibility.
"Inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable," Hironimus said. "We call for tolerance and respect for all communities and for their religious beliefs and practices."
Angry protests against the drawings spread in the Muslim world.
In Iraq, thousands demonstrated after mosque services, and the country's leading Shiite cleric denounced the drawings. About 4,500 people rallied in Basra and hundreds at a Baghdad mosque. Danish flags were burned at both demonstrations.
Muslims in Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia demonstrated against the European nations whose papers published them.
The caricatures, including one depicting the Muslim prophet wearing a turban fashioned into a bomb, were reprinted in papers in Norwegian, French, German and even Jordanian after first appearing in a Danish paper in September. The drawings were republished after Muslims decried the images as insulting to their prophet. Dutch-language newspapers in Belgium and two Italian right-wing papers reprinted the drawings Friday.
Islamic law, based on clerics' interpretation of the Quran and the sayings of the prophet, forbids depiction's of the Prophet Muhammad and other major religious figures — even positive ones — to prevent idolatry. Shiite Muslim clerics differ in that they allow images of their greatest saint, Ali, the prophet's son-in-law, though not Muhammad.
Danish Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen, in a meeting with the Egyptian ambassador, reiterated his stance that the government cannot interfere with issues concerning the press. On Monday, he said his government could not apologize on behalf of a newspaper, but that he personally "never would have depicted Muhammad, Jesus or any other religious character in a way that could offend other people."
Early Friday, Palestinian militants threw a bomb at a French cultural center in Gaza City, and many Palestinians began boycotting European goods, especially those from Denmark.
"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, 37, a tailor who marched through the pouring rain along with hundreds of others in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," protesters in Ramallah chanted.
In mosques throughout Palestinian cities, clerics condemned the cartoons. An imam at the Omari Mosque in Gaza City told 9,000 worshippers that those behind the drawings should have their heads cut off.
"If they want a war of religions, we are ready," Hassan Sharaf, an imam in Nablus, said in his sermon.
About 10,000 demonstrators, including gunmen from the Islamic militant group Hamas firing in the air, marched through Gaza City to the Palestinian legislature, where they climbed on the roof, waving green Hamas banners.
"We are ready to redeem you with our souls and our blood our beloved prophet," they chanted. "Down, Down Denmark."
Thousands of protesters in the center of Nablus burned at least 10 Danish flags. In Jenin, about 1,500 people demonstrated, burning Danish dairy products. Hundreds protested in Jericho, and protests were held in towns throughout Gaza.
Fearing an outbreak of violence, Israel barred all Palestinians under age 45 from praying at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site.
Nevertheless, about 100 men chanting Islamic slogans and carrying a green Hamas flag demonstrated outside Jerusalem's Old City on Friday afternoon. The crowd scattered when police on horseback arrived, and some of the protesters threw rocks. Police broke up a second demonstration at Damascus Gate with tear gas and stun grenades.
In Iraq, the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, decried the drawings but did not call for protests.
"We strongly denounce and condemn this horrific action," he said in a statement posted on his Web site and dated Tuesday.
Al-Sistani, who wields enormous influence over Iraq's majority Shiites, made no call for protests and suggested that militant Muslims were partly to blame for distorting Islam's image.
He referred to "misguided and oppressive" segments of the Muslim community and said their actions "projected a distorted and dark image of the faith of justice, love and brotherhood."
"Enemies have exploited this ... to spread their poison and revive their old hatreds with new methods and mechanisms," he said.
The drawings were first published in September in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The issue reignited last week after Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Denmark and many European newspapers reprinted them this week.
The Jyllands-Posten had asked 40 cartoonists to draw images of the prophet. The purpose, its chief editor said, was "to examine whether people would succumb to self-censorship, as we have seen in other cases when it comes to Muslim issues."
The 12 caricatures have prompted boycotts of Danish goods, bomb threats and demonstrations in front of Danish embassies across the Islamic world. Muslims have also directed their anger at other European countries, with Palestinian gunmen briefly kidnapping a German citizen Thursday and surrounding European Union headquarters in Gaza.
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying the caricatures are an attack on "our spiritual values" which have damaged efforts to establish an alliance between the Muslim world and Europe.
Hundreds of Turks emerging from mosques following Friday prayers staged demonstrations, including one in front of the Danish consulate in Istanbul.
"Hands that reach Islam must be broken," chanted a group of extremists outside the Merkez Mosque in Istanbul.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, more than 150 hardline Muslims stormed a high-rise building housing the Danish Embassy on Friday and tore down and burned the country's flag.
Pakistan's parliament unanimously voted to condemn the drawings as a "vicious, outrageous and provocative campaign" that has "hurt the faith and feelings of Muslims all over the world." About 800 people protested in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, chanting "Death to Denmark" and "Death to France." Another rally in the southern city of Karachi drew 1,200 people.
Fundamentalist Muslims protested outside the Danish Embassy in Malaysia, chanting "Long live Islam, destroy our enemies."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw criticized European media outlets for republishing the caricatures as demonstrators prepared to take to the streets of London.
____
Associated Press Writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad, Iraq; Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey; Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul, Turkey; Maria Sanminiatelli in Rome; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; Munir Ahmad in Islamabad, Pakistan; and Irwan Firdaus in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
Hundreds of Sudanese Muslims protest against the Danish publication of drawings of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, in the streets of Khartoum following Friday prayers, Friday, Feb. 3, 2006. The drawings have sparked a wide scale Islamic denunciation as well as angry demonstrations and calls to boycott Danish products. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)
Pakistani Islamists from Jamiat Ulma-e-Pakistan group burn Danish, Norwegian and French flags during a rally in Lahore February 3, 2006. Muslim outrage spread through Asia on Friday over publication of cartoons in European newspapers depicting the Prophet Mohammad, but nowhere were there protests of any great size. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza
I read this a short time ago. I personally think it's disgusting that the State Department is even hinting that there's some bit of fault with someone publishing a damn cartoon. Maybe, just maybe, we could blame the Muslims that have gotten all bent out of shape?
The State Department continues to be anti-American below the appointed level.
???
they snuck that in the photo caption yet what will be frontpage news and the first story on the news programs of , by and for the left? ;-)
Don't these a**holes have jobs?
genuinely retarded.
A child cries as Islamic protestors pray outside the Danish embassy in London. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen offered no apologies for cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, deemed offensive by Muslims, but tried to defuse the crisis as Muslims across the world gathered for prayers.(AFP/Carl de Souza)
The State Department continues to be pro-Arabist below the appointed level.
Disgusting. I'm very disapointed.
If it is state-sponsored art such as 'Pi^^ Chr*&t', it is a mere neutral societal statement, but if it somehow takes note of the aesthetics of islamic rage it is offensive. Bombhammed would be okay if it were state-sponsored. The press, of course, is an institution of the state, but don't let that confuse the issue.
Foggy bottom strikes again. Someone remind me... what was their stance on Piss Christ?
yeah, meanwhile here's a redo of that editorial cartoon. A stab at thee Islamic terrorists!
http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.com/2006/02/mohammed-and-his-thousand-papercuts.html
John Bolton should become Sec. of State so he could clean out the State Dept. like the job he's doing at the UN.
is it our turn to be wimps?
Yeah, they sure licked the Taliban's boots didn't they? And that Saddam...man, they let him get away with whatever he wanted (sarcasm.)
Newspapers in America publish the extraordinarily offensive Rumsfeld/soldier cartoon, and the U.S. State Dept. says nothing.
.....nor should they comment -- it's frankly none of their business.
But if Islamics are offended the St. Dept. goes into full "religion of peace" panic mode. Arabists control that sandpit, and unfortunately changes don't seem to be forthcoming.
This, of course, does not apply to Catholics, who have to sit with their mouths shut while a NY Art Gallery is allowed to have a showing of an elephant dung painting of the Blessed Virgin
I don't think there is anything particularly wrong with our State Department expressing their opinion and asking our press to exercise a little responsibility and a little sensitivity. I didn't mind it either when the Joint Chiefs of Staff said much the same thing about the cartoonist who lampooned the multiple amputee soldier a couple of days ago.
But I'd be pretty upset if they followed up their opinion with any action against our free press.
And I also think the State Department should be condemning any Muslim who is threatening violence against Europe's free press and should be suggesting that these terrorists will be brought to justice like any other kind of terrorist.
They are their own abstract symbol.
PALESTINIANS FINALLY RUN OUT OF ROCKS
WEST BANK — Palestinian stone throwers disclosed for the first time Friday, that due to a gross miscalculation of their arsenal, they had finally run out of rocks and would be forced to come up with more inventive ways of continuing their Intifada on the Jewish state of Israel.
“I reached down to grab a rock this morning and all I got was a handful of sand,” said one Palestinian militant who asked to remain anonymous. “I tried throwing it but it just blew back in my face. Man, It really stung my eyes!”
Militant groups were quick to cast blame for the depletion of their arsenal on a group of teenage “stone hogs” who exhausted the supply by throwing indiscriminately at passing cars, various neighborhood bullies and the occasional stray dog.
Others accused a local housewife of wasting the rocks by building “a cute little gravel path” leading up to a backyard bird feeder.
“The important thing is we find an another resource as quickly as possible, said Palestinian militant leader, Achmed Ashanni. “Meanwhile, we’re alternating between spitting on the Israelis and throwing feces at them. We really need to find some alternatives quick."
Leaders of two radical groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, not wanting show signs of military unreadiness, decided to immediately unleash a precious cargo of snack-sized, tapioca pudding containers stolen from an Israeli middle school cafeteria.
According to reports, the pudding has great hangtime and can be thrown almost as far as rocks. Plus, it’s really impressive when it explodes all over enemy clothing.
I do have to admit, It really kills me to throw the tapioca Snack Packs," Ashanni said.
Learn more at:
The life and times of Ahmed and Mohammed
http://ahmed-mohammed.mindswap.net/
Probably wouldn't have been the State Dept though because that was a domestic issue.
Absolutely, positively, screw you!
Where were your refined sensibilities when the US government subsidized this?
God in Heaven forgive me, I hate these people!
I'm almost positive the State Dept didn't condemn the crucifix in urine "masterpiece" for example.
Well, time to bring those Moslems into the 20th Century. First act should be to ship any of them who express outrage BACK HOME where that sort of belief is tolerated. Second act should be to imprison any who continue to belly-ache about the mean old cartoonists.
Third act could be direct military action, with conversion as an objective.
There, fixed it.
There, that's much better.
Point is, the hacks are government employess and members of the strongest union in the US.
Bush does not "control" mid level hacks in the State department. - he tries to guide it, but I wish he came down a bit harder on this liberal trash.
"I would ask the press to return to some sense of propriety and concentrate on the artistic merits of crucifixes marinated in urine."
I am beginning to detest the cowardly scum in our own government.
He is shaping up to be the George Washington of Iraq.
I support the Danes in their fight to maintain their own freedoms.
I suppose the message could read - "Hey Muslim, If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen!" Or something along the line of "Hey Muslim, when you stop slamming Jews and punishing people who believe in Christ, maybe, just maybe free people will be more sensitive to your endlessly repeated myths and lies that have no basis in fact having to do with Islam. Assimilate or go back to where you came from - freedom of speech is a recognized right in the free world.
Are Muslims really that humorless?????
I suppose the message could read - "Hey Muslim, If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen!" Or something along the line of "Hey Muslim, when you stop slamming Jews and punishing people who believe in Christ, maybe, just maybe free people will be more sensitive to your endlessly repeated myths and lies that have no basis in fact having to do with Islam. Assimilate or go back to where you came from - freedom of speech is a recognized right in the free world.
Are Muslims really that humorless?????
And I call for you to kiss my big Texas behind!
Janelle: How DARE you spit on an enumerated Freedom and pacify our enemies with the same breath!
A better strategy would have been to keep your big, fat mouth SHUT!
-----------------
Can we bring back the old fashioned practice of tar-and-feathering.....PLEASE?
Fu*k the State Department, Jihadist boot lickers.
...you put the head on the wrong end of the pig...
Press Officer for AF, DRL, HIV/AIDS, S/WCI, T Kurtis A. Cooper 2109 202-647-2492
I beg to differ; Sec. Rice just has some more sweeping to do - the US State Department is a mess, full of little fiefdoms...Rice is above this silly vitriol from these CAIR and Islamic whiners who want all to grovel in the dirt like they do in their miserable, mirthless world.
Me too. /seriously
Don´t expect Europe to help you, when the Muslims take over your country. /jk
Time to pull the Crusade outfits out of the closets boys!
Its one thing to be Pagans...its another thing to be Pagans and continually threaten the world and kill Christians.
Someone probably has to be. :-(
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