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Denmark requests Malaysian aid in quelling cartoon protests
Denmark has asked Malaysias help to quell the anger among Muslims worldwide over the controversial caricatures ridiculing Prophet Muhammad. Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said he received a call from his Danish counterpart on Friday over the matter. I didnt go looking for him. He telephoned me to ask for co-operation from Malaysia to explain the issue. He told me they respect Islam and it was never their intention to hurt the feelings of Muslims. He hopes Malaysia can help in explaining and containing the situation from getting out of control and causing a divide between Muslims and non-Muslims, Syed Hamid told reporters after the closing of the international conference on Who Speaks For Islam? Who Speaks For The West? here yesterday. Syed Hamid said he expressed Malaysias view on the caricatures and asked the Danish foreign minister why such a situation had happened in the first place. But now that it has happened, it is our joint responsibility to calm things down. They (the West) have to understand that this is not something to be taken lightly. At the same time, we dont want this thing to get out of hand to the extent of creating problems that will endanger Muslims themselves, he added. According to Syed Hamid, the Danish foreign minister said the government had no control over their media but stressed that it did not share or subscribe to the same view of the media. He said the Iranian foreign minister had also called him on Friday, asking for an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to be convened to discuss the controversy. He told his Iranian counterpart that he supported such a meeting and asked Iran to get in touch with the OIC secretariat on organising one as soon as possible. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-12 |
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