Cartoon row: Danish embassy ablaze- Syria

[General Duke]

Cartoon row: Danish embassy ablaze

 

Saturday, February 4, 2006 Posted: 1612 GMT (0012 HKT)

 

 

Thousands of angry Syrian demonstrators storm the Danish Embassy in Damascus Saturday.

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Anger over cartoon (2:20)

 

Manage Alerts | What Is This? DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Hundreds of Syrian demonstrators stormed the Danish Embassy in Damascus Saturday and set fire to the building, witnesses said.

 

The demonstrators were protesting offensive caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammed that were first published in a Danish newspaper several months ago.

 

Witnesses said the demonstrators set fire to the entire building, which also houses the embassies of Chile and Sweden.

 

Protesters have been staging sit-ins outside the Danish Embassy in downtown Damascus almost daily since the furor over the drawings broke out last week.

 

Saturday's protest started out peacefully but as anger escalated, protesters broke through police barriers and torched the building, the witnesses said.

 

The cartoons, first printed in Denmark and then published elsewhere in Europe, have touched a raw nerve in the Arab and Islamic world, in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depiction of the Prophet Mohammed, favorable or otherwise.

 

Aggravating the affront was one caricature of Mohammed wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.

 

The Danish government has expressed regret for the furor, but refused to become involved, citing freedom of expression.

 

Rage against caricatures of Islam's revered prophet poured out across the Muslim world on Saturday, with aggrieved believers calling for the execution of those involved, storming European buildings, and setting European flags afire.

 

In its first official comments on the caricatures, the Vatican, while deploring violent protests, said certain forms of criticism represent an "unacceptable provocation."

 

"The right to freedom of thought and expression ... cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers," the Vatican said in a statement.

 

The cartoons, first printed in Denmark, and then published elsewhere in Europe, have touched a raw nerve, in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the Prophet Mohammed. Aggravating the affront was one caricature of Mohammed wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.

 

Muslims in Europe have reacted less passionately than their counterparts in the Mideast and Southeast Asia, but on Saturday, anger in Europe swelled, too, with demonstrators clashing with police in Copenhagen and gathering outside the Danish Embassy in London.

 

In Munich, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she understood Muslims' hurt, but denounced violent reactions.

 

"I can understand that religious feelings of Muslims have been injured and violated," Merkel said at an international security conference, " but I also have to make clear that I feel it is unacceptable to see this as legitimizing the use of violence."

 

But incensed faithful in some parts of the Muslim world had no use for such words.

 

A leader of the Islamic militant Hamas group, which recently swept Palestinian parliamentary elections, told an Italian newspaper on Saturday that the cartoons were an "unforgivable insult" that should be punished by death.

 

"We should have killed all those who offend the Prophet and instead here we are, protesting peacefully," Mahmoud Zahar, a top leader of the militant Islamic group that won the January 25 Palestinian elections, told Italian daily Il Giornale.

 

"We should have killed them, we should have required just punishment for those who respect neither religion nor its holiest symbols," Zahar was quoted as saying.

 

Hundreds of Palestinians turned out for protests on Saturday. In Gaza City, demonstrators hurled stones at a European Commission building and stormed a German cultural center, smashing windows and doors. Protesters also burned German and Danish flags, and called for a boycott of Danish products.

 

"Insulting the prophet means insulting every Muslim," blared a loudspeaker car accompanying some 400 demonstrators who marched to the European Commission building.

 

In the West Bank town of Hebron, about 50 Palestinians marched to the headquarters of the international observer mission there, burned a Danish flag, and demanded a boycott of Danish goods. "We will redeem our prophet, Mohammed, with our blood,' they chanted.

 

Masked gunmen affiliated with the Fatah Party called on the Palestinian Authority and Muslim nations to recall their diplomatic missions from Denmark until it apologizes.

 

At least 500 Israeli Arabs gathered peacefully in Nazareth for the first protest against the caricatures on Israeli soil. A procession set off from the As-Salam mosque toward the Basilica of the Annunciation, where Christian tradition says Mary was informed of Jesus' impending birth. Sheik Raed Salah, a radical leader of the Islamic Movement, was to address the crowd later.

 

"Allah is the only God, and Mohammed is his prophet," loudspeakers blared as the march began.

 

Leaders of Muslim nations in Asia denounced the caricatures, The prime minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said the publication of the cartoons showed a "blatant disregard for Islamic sensitivities over the use of such images, which are particularly insulting and forbidden by Islam." But in a written statement, he urged Malaysians to stay calm.

 

"Let the perpetrators of the insult see the gravity of their own mistakes which only they themselves can and should correct," he said, without elaborating.

 

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denounced the cartoons as insensitive.

 

But "as religious people, we should accept the apology extended by the Danish government," he added.

 

About 500 people rallied Saturday south of Baghdad, some carrying banners urging "honest people all over the world to condemn this act," and demanding an EU apology. The protest was organized by followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has been among the most outspoken Iraqi clerics on the issue.

 

Angry demonstrators took to the streets in Denmark and Britain on Saturday, signaling a ratcheting up of tensions among European Muslims.

 

In Copenhagen, young Muslims clashed briefly with police after they were stopped from boarding a train to go to a demonstration north of the Danish capital. Some of the roughly 300 demonstrators threw rocks and bottles at police but no one was injured, officials said.

 

At the demonstration later Saturday outside Copenhagen, right-wing extremists plan to protest the recent burning of Danish flags -- a gathering that could inflame tensions with the Muslims.

 

Although many of Denmark's 200,000 Muslims were deeply offended by the cartoons, mass demonstrations have not broken out.

 

In London, several hundred demonstrators gathered under heavy police security outside Denmark's embassy, shouting slogans to protest the publication of the drawings.

 

CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam. I loved that line

[General Duke]

Embassies burn in cartoon protest

 

Hundreds stormed the site in Damascus

Syrians have set fire to the Norwegian and Danish embassies in Damascus to protest at the publication of newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Angry protesters attacked the Norwegian mission after storming the Danish site amid chants of "God is great".

 

The cartoons have sparked Muslim outrage across the world, following their publication in a Danish newspaper and reprinting in other European media.

 

Any images of the Prophet are banned under Islamic tradition.

 

Some of the cartoons depict Muhammad as a terrorist.

 

They have prompted diplomatic sanctions, boycotts and death threats in some Arab nations, while some newspapers have defended publication of the images in the name of press freedom.

 

In other developments:

 

 

Iran says it should consider abandoning commercial and trade deals with countries where the cartoons have appeared

The Vatican says the right to freedom of expression does not imply the right to offend religious beliefs

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan calls for calm and urges Muslims to accept an apology from the Danish paper that first published the cartoons.

'God is great'

 

Syrians have been staging sit-ins outside the Danish embassy since the row intensified earlier this week, when Damascus recalled its ambassador.

On Saturday, hundreds hurled stones and stormed the Danish site, before moving to the nearby Norwegian embassy.

 

"With our blood and souls we defend you, O Prophet of God," they chanted outside the Danish mission.

 

Some removed the Danish flag and replaced it with another reading: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God."

 

The embassy was closed, but it was not immediately clear if it was empty when the protests started, Reuters news agency said.

 

Thick, black smoke rose from the building as firefighters struggled to put out the flames.

[Sayyid]

Nice post, let them burn for the insults they made. Thanks Duke!

[Jacpher]

Violence is NOT the answer. Burning down buildings & chasing the innocent one isn’t the smartest thing to do and goes against Islamic values. These actions would simply make the stereotyping seem true. Muslims should deal this and similar volatile issues seriously by remaining true to their Islamic faith which condemns violence.

 

My earlier post contained a typo error, had to edit.

[General Duke]

Danish embassy in Beirut torched

 

 

Thousands of protesters rallied outside Beirut's Danish embassy

 

 

Denmark urged its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible.

 

The violence came a day after mobs in neighbouring Syria torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus in anger at the pictures.

 

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller urged anti-Danish protesters in Muslim countries to calm tensions.

 

"It is a critical situation and it is very serious," Mr Moeller told Danish public radio.

 

The cartoons first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and caused outrage among Muslims, who consider any images of Muhammad offensive.

 

One of the cartoons shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

 

Global anger

 

CARTOON ROW

30 Sept:Danish paper publishes cartoons

20 Oct: Muslim ambassadors complain to Danish PM

10 Jan: Norwegian publication reprints cartoons

26 Jan: Saudi Arabia recalls its ambassador

30 Jan: Gunmen raid EU's Gaza office demanding apology

31 Jan: Danish paper apologises

1 Feb: Papers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain reprint cartoons

4 Feb: Syrians attack Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus

[/b]

 

Huge crowds attended Sunday's protest in Beirut. It turned violent after Islamic extremists tried to break though security barriers protecting the Danish embassy building.

 

Some 2,000 riot police and army troops fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd and fired their weapons into the air.

 

But smoke was later seen rising from the building after demonstrators broke into it.

 

Some protesters threw stones at the security forces and burned Danish flags.

 

 

Protesters torched the building after security forces failed to block them

Security officials said at least 18 people were injured, AP news agency reported.

 

The embassy building, which also houses commercial offices, was believed to be unoccupied.

 

Some people in the crowd are not happy with the violence, thinking this was going to be a peaceful demonstration, reports the BBC's Jim Muir from the scene of the violence.

 

He says some of the wilder elements in the crowd have succeeded in turning it into a very angry and quite violent demonstration.

 

In other developments:

 

 

Hundreds of people rally in Afghanistan in protest at the cartoons

Jordanian authorities arrest two tabloid editors for printing the cartoons

Iran recalls its ambassador to Denmark

An Iraqi militant group in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi calls for attacks on Danish and non-Muslim targets in Iraq

Britain's main opposition Conservative Party says slogans by anti-Danish protesters in London amount to incitement to murder

Denmark and Norway condemned Syria for failing to stop Saturday's attacks in Damascus and urged their citizens to leave the country.

 

"The principle of diplomatic relations is that diplomats can work safely and the fact that this has been broken is extremely serious," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference in Oslo.

 

The US also criticised Syria's approach, saying it was "inexcusable" for such damage to be inflicted on diplomatic missions.

[General Duke]

Embassies ablaze as Muslim anger spreads

 

 

· Damascus crowds attack Danish target

· Police probe London 'hate' protesters

 

Jamie Doward, Mark Townsend, Bartle Bull in Damascus and Gaby Hinsliff

Sunday February 5, 2006

The Observer

 

 

The increasingly bitter row over the publication of a series of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad reached a new intensity last night as protesters set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Syria.

With police signalling that they will launch an investigation into the behaviour of protesters in London who called for those insulting Islam to 'be beheaded', protesters in the Syrian capital, Damascus, defied tear gas and water cannon to enter the Danish embassy and replace that country's flag with another which read: 'No God but Allah, Mohammad is His Prophet.'

 

Last night the Danish embassy, which was empty when attacked, was a charred hulk. The Norwegian embassy was still burning. As well as the dramatic scenes in Damascus - not known for its Islamic militancy - rising tensions among Muslims over the publication of 'blasphemous' cartoons in Denmark threatened to boil over across the globe.

 

· In London, 700 Muslims held a second day of angry protests outside the Danish embassy, many holding placards glorifying the events of 7 July and 9/11.

 

· Metropolitan police sources told The Observer that arrests could follow this week after investigations of the behaviour on Friday of some protesters who demanded the 'massacre' of 'those who insult Islam'. They may have breached laws against inciting hatred or terrorism.

 

· Groups representing British Muslims appealed for calm, saying the demonstrations and violence had gone too far.

 

· In Iran, the President told his commerce minister to consider cancelling trade contracts with European countries whose newspapers used the cartoons.

 

· The Hamas leader, Dr Mahmoud Zahar, told the Italian daily Il Giornale that the cartoons were an offence that should be punished by death.

 

Last week hundreds of Palestinians marched through the streets of Gaza City, some storming European-owned buildings and burning German and Danish flags, while in Nazareth 6,000 people held the first protest on Israeli soil against the publication of the cartoons.

 

People at a demonstration in Iraq, organised by followers of radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, issued a statement condemning the Danish, Norwegian and French newspapers that ran the drawings and called for the withdrawal of Iraq's ambassadors from those countries.

 

The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, who had previously criticised newspapers for reprinting the cartoons, condemned the escalating violence last night. 'The violence is totally unjustified and to be condemned. I am glad that the British Muslim leaders have been very responsible.' He said Islam was a tolerant faith but 'you have people who are hotheaded and who will say they are adherents to a religion' in any faith.

 

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, added her voice to international appeals for calm. 'I can understand that religious feelings of Muslims have been injured and violated but I I feel it is unacceptable to see this as legitimising the use of violence,' she said.

 

Politicians from the Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz to the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, expressed disapproval of the decision to publish the cartoons.

 

Last night the Metropolitan police signalled that they wanted to arrest people suspected of stirring up racial hatred during the demonstrations outside the Danish embassy in London. It is understood that a number of those identified by police last week were known to hold militant views. These included members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the radical organisation banned in a number of European countries and Anjem Choudary, a key ally of Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the exiled leader of the radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun who described the 7 July bombers as 'the fantastic four'.

 

Choudary warned that the row over the cartoons was set to escalate. 'The Danish journalists and others who followed suit, I don't think they're going to be able to live peacefully from now on,' he told The Observer. 'A fatwa will be issued, there will be people around the Muslim world who will take that very seriously and what happened to Salman Rushdie is going to happen to the journalists.'

 

Choudary's comments came as Britain's leading Muslim body called for the protesters to be prosecuted. Inayat Bunglawala, spokeswoman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said: 'The Metropolitan police should now consider all the evidence they have gathered from the protests to see if they can prosecute the extremists. It is time the police acted, but in a way so as not to make them martyrs of the prophet's cause, which is what they want, but as criminals. Ordinary Muslims are fed up with them.'

 

Kurshid Ahmed, chairman of the British Muslim Forum, which represents more than 600 British mosques, said: 'The reaction and demonstration by some elements within our community are not reflective of who we are.'

 

Azhar Ali, of Labour's National Policy Forum, said: 'My fear is some militant organisations will use this incident to propagate hate and this serves to act as a recruiting sergeant for their causes.'

[Haneefah]

I agree with Ducaqabe (I'm relieved to see that you've edited your response ). I'm simply baffled by how some Muslims are blowing this incident out of proportion. This is not to say that I am undermining the severity of the offence (God forbid) for we have all been tremendously offended and hurt as a result of these thoughtless actions ( and rightfully so), but is resorting to senseless violence and terrorising innocent people the answer? What good will this possibly achieve? Is this really protecting our beloved prophet (saw)'s honour or is it tarnishing the image of the very message he struggled to convey.

 

I am all for Muslims uniting and taking a firm stance against this whole incident (from gov't level to the individual level), however, it should be done through appropiate means that coincide with Islamic teachings and the sunnah of our Rasul (saw). Violence and rage will hardly resolve anything except propagate more hatred,intolerance and chaos. We should take this as an opportunity to teach others why the prophet (saw) is so beloved to us, how his message was universal and mercy to all of mankind. We should ourselves learn more about his eminent characteristics-among many- of kindness, patience, tolerance and perseverance while striving to emulate him in the best of our capacity.

 

These are indeed trying times for all Muslims but as Allah (swt) states in His book, "Verily, with every hardship comes ease", and the believers will always have the upper hand. Therefore, we should put our utmost trust in Allah (swt) and submit to His will wholeheartedly, pray for His forgiveness and mercy for the ummah of Muhammad sallalahu calayhi wa calaa aalihi wa saxbixii wasalam. Allah is All-Knowing and All-seeing, and He will protect His deen and His chosen one.

 

"Iyaaka Nacbudu Wa Iyaaka Nastaciin"

[General Duke]

^^^ You have some valid points however people must understand that there are more than 1.6 Billion Muslims living in eevery corner of the globe. Thus reaction will differ, some will keep quite, others demonstrate and others resort to other means. Yet so far what has happened has been mild, a boycot and the destruction of few buildings. Now it is to be expected from the west to cry foul, to say this [our demosntartions] has been over the top. However the actions so far have been nothing to the true anger that we feel. Our Prophet is everything to us, he PBUH is the very example of how to live. It is to be expected also that they will never like him, but we expect that they keep that to themselves.

[Khayr]

Originally posted by General Duke:

^^^ You have some valid points however people must understand that there are more than 1.6 Billion Muslims living in eevery corner of the globe. Thus reaction will differ, some will keep quite, others demonstrate and others resort to other means. Yet so far what has happened has been mild, a boycot and the destruction of few buildings. Now it is to be expected from the west to cry foul, to say this [our demosntartions] has been over the top. However the actions so far have been nothing to the true anger that we feel. Our Prophet is everything to us, he PBUH is the very example of how to live. It is to be expected also that they will never like him, but we expect that they keep that to themselves.

^^^^

 

I agree with you saxib

 

Its as if the Muslims have to GET PERMISSION

HOW they want to REACT to something. (Pro-acting is forbidden for muslims b/c thats often labelled as an act of your know what!)

 

Its like the muslim has to get an OK from the Western Media and governements HOW to DEFEND their Deen, How to DEFEND their beloved Rasul (salallahu calihye wasilm) and sadly enough, some muslims have fallen into that trap of subserviance, humuliation etc.

 

e.g The muslim can only demonstrate on a Sunday, the muslim can come out with an Action Plan but that Action Plan has to be approved by the Dominant powers that be, the muslim can't yell Allahu Akbr beyond 1 decibel and all other nonsensical protocls that the muslims have to abide by.

 

 

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

H. L. Mencken

I like that quote, GD.