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Cartoon protests reach UK
LEADERS of radical British Muslim groups threatened a campaign of protest last night as demonstrations spread from Europe to the Far East.A crowd of several hundred demonstrated outside the Danish Embassy in Knightsbridge, with protesters repeatedly shouting: UK you must pray, 7/7 is on its way. Western leaders were hoping that Muslim protests had reached their peak after apologies from many politicians and newspapers yesterday for any offence caused by the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. However, organisers in Britain gave warning that their protests would accelerate over the weekend, with BBC offices a target for their wrath. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, condemned the decision by some media outlets in Europe to republish the cartoons, calling it insensitive, disrespectful and wrong. He said that freedom of speech did not mean an open season on religious taboos, and he praised the British media for what he called their considerable responsibility and sensitivity for not publishing them. A radical Islamic cleric who lived in London until he was banned from Britain called for the killing of broadcasters and newspaper editors who showed insulting cartoons of Muhammad. Omar Bakri Mohammed issued his instructions in a religious fatwa from his hideout in Lebanon. He said that the first to be murdered should be the editor of the Danish newspaper that first published the drawings. His followers in Britain who helped to organise yesterdays rowdy demonstration in London supported his demands as they called for more terror attacks to emulate the July 7 suicide bombers. However, the number of protesters was fewer than organisers expected and there were no other significant protests in the capital. Police refused to act on complaints from passers-by to order the demonstrators to take down banners praising the British-born terror bombers as the Fantastic Four, saying that their job yesterday was to ensure that the protest by 500 Muslims passed off peacefully. Security officials across Europe are concerned that some Islamic militant may act on such a fatwa and attack any one of the 27 editors from 13 European countries who have shown the offending material. The Irish Daily Star in Dublin was the latest to publish the drawings yesterday. While Mr Straw criticised such behaviour, French ministers supported the right of editors to reproduce the images in a debate over free speech. In demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza yesterday a preacher told 9,000 worshippers at one mosque: We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible. But as thousands converged on the Palestinian parliament building, Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas spokesman, told the crowd that, whatever their anger, they should not disgrace their religion. Most of the demonstrations in the Islamic world passed off largely peacefully. Demonstrators in Indonesiabesieged the Danish Embassy and pelted it with paint and eggs. There were protests in Sudan, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Pakistan where 800 people converged on the Danish mission in Islamabad. The Pakistan Government called for economic and political sanctions against offending countries. The US State Department called for European media to act more responsibly and not to offend Muslims. Kurtis Cooper, a department spokesman, said We all respect freedom of the press but . . . inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable. No main US publication has published the images as politicians in Washington seek to repair their reputation in the Islamic world by criticising Western governments that back the showing of the cartoons. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-04 |
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