Copenhagen, Denmark – Videos showing anti-immigrant party members mocking the prophet Muhammad were pulled from websites Monday as two youths seen in the clips were reported in hiding and the Foreign Ministry warned Danes against traveling to much of the Middle East.
Muslim clerics from Egypt and Indonesia condemned the video broadcast in Denmark last week showing members of the Danish People’s Party Youth wing with cartoons of a camel wearing the head of Muhammad and beer cans for humps. A second drawing placed a turbaned, bearded man next to a plus sign and a bomb, all equaling a mushroom cloud.
In a move aimed at defusing tension, the Danish Foreign Ministry invited ambassadors from Muslim countries to discuss the video Monday. It was unclear how many diplomats took part in the meeting or which countries they represented.
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen condemned the youth in the video Sunday, saying “their tasteless behavior does in no way represent the way the Danish people or young Danish people view Muslims or Islam.”
Citing critical media reports from many Muslim regions, the Foreign Ministry cautioned against travel to Gaza, the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
The video was produced by an artists group, Defending Denmark.
In a message posted along with the video, the group said it had infiltrated the Danish People’s Party Youth, known as DFU, for 18 months “to document (their) extreme right-wing associations.”
“This is not an example of something that is meant to provoke. This is an example to show how things are in Danish politics,” artist Martin Rosengaard Knudsen told Danish public radio.
A party official reportedly said two youths seen in the video clips had gone into hiding.
The episode comes in the aftermath of an outcry across the Muslim world after the September 2005 printing in Danish newspapers of 12 cartoons portraying Muhammad – considered taboo for most Muslims.
The images were reprinted in a range of Western media, triggering massive protests.
