Beirut – From the burning of its flag to a boycott of its brands of butter and cookies, Denmark is feeling Islamic outrage over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Angered by the drawings, masked Palestinian gunmen briefly took over a European Union office in Gaza on Monday. Islamists in Bahrain urged street demonstrations, while Syria called for the offenders to be punished. A Saudi company paid thousands of dollars for an ad thanking a business that snubbed Danish products.
The cartoons were first published nearly four months ago in Denmark and reprinted Jan. 10 by the Norwegian evangelical newspaper Magazinet in the name of defending free expression.
The Danish paper Jyllands- Posten first published the 12 cartoons, which included one showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a lit fuse. Another portrayed him with a bushy gray beard and holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle. A third pictured a middle-aged prophet standing in the desert with a walking stick.
Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet, favorable or otherwise.
Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Denmark and initiated a boycott of Danish goods. It was warned Monday by Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson that the EU would take WTO action if the boycott persisted.
The newspaper issued an apology Monday to the world’s Muslims. The cartoons “were not in violation of Danish law but have undoubtedly offended many Muslims, which we would like to apologize for,” editor-in-chief Carsten Juste said in a statement posted on the paper’s website.
On Sunday, the newspaper printed a statement in Arabic addressed to Saudis, who had initiated the boycott. It said the drawings were published as part of a Danish dialogue about freedom of expression but were misinterpreted “as if it were a campaign against Muslims in Denmark and in the Islamic world.”
