09-02-2006
Daily Star:
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday accused Iran and Syria of stoking Muslim anger over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, while French President Jacques Chirac slammed as "provocation" the reprinting of the caricatures. President George W. Bush said governments should stop the violence that has erupted over the cartoons, including attacks on Western diplomatic missions in parts of the Muslim world. At least 10 people have been killed in protests in Afghanistan alone.
"Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes and the world ought to call them on it," Rice said at a joint news conference with Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
She said nothing justified the violence that had resulted worldwide from the cartoons and appealed to governments to urge calm.
"There are governments that have used this opportunity to incite violence," she added, referring to Syria and Iran.
Bush discussed the Muslim reaction to cartoons with visiting Jordan's King Abdullah on Wednesday and said it was "a topic that requires a lot of discussion and a lot of sensitive thought."
"I call upon the governments around the world to stop the violence, to be respectful, to protect property, to protect the lives of innocent diplomats," Bush said.
Abdullah condemned the cartoons, but said protests should be conducted peacefully.
"With all respect to press freedoms, obviously anything that vilifies the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, or attacks Muslim sensibilities I believe needs to be condemned," Abdullah said.
The satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo printed all 12 of the cartoons of the Prophet on Wednesday and contributed an original front-page caricature of its own.
Chirac reacted by condemning "all manifest provocation that might dangerously fan passions," according to a government spokesman.
"Anything that can hurt the convictions of another, particularly religious convictions, must be avoided. Freedom of expression must be exercised in a spirit of responsibility," Chirac was reported to have told his cabinet.
Bush echoed the sentiment. "We believe in a free press," he said, "and also recognize that with freedom comes responsibilities, that with freedom comes the responsibility to be thoughtful about others."
In Iraq, the country's top Shiite political leader, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, made a call for calm in a nationally televised speech. "We value and appreciate peaceful Islamic protests held in the different areas around the world," said Hakim. "But we are against the idea of attacking embassies and other official sites."
Khaled Meshaal, head of the political bureau of Hamas, warned in Cairo that the Western press "was playing with fire."
Russia's President Vladimir Putin also slammed the cartoons as a provocation, equating them with child pornography.
He called on Denmark to "ask for forgiveness."
The current president of the European Union, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, denounced the "spiral of reciprocal provocations and insults" which, he said, fanned the flames of intolerance.
Neither "disparaging caricatures" of Mohammad nor "jokes about the Holocaust have any place in a world where cultures and religions should live side by side in a spirit of mutual respect," he said, alluding to an Iranian newspaper that has launched a contest for cartoons about the Nazi campaign to exterminate Jews.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will work to ease tensions during a trip to the Middle East next week, he said, warning that the dispute could seriously strain relations between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.
The latest deaths in Afghanistan occurred Wednesday as protestors and police clashed in Qalat, the capital of southern Zabul province, while new demonstrations were held in the national capital Kabul and in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
In Iraq, an estimated 2,500 followers of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr protested in the city of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, against the caricatures, calling for a boycott of Danish goods and burning Danish flags.
Protests took place in southeast Europe, in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the Bulgarian capital Sofia, and a march is planned Friday in Rabat.
Journalists working for an Algerian television station which broadcast the offending images were fired.
The Danish newspaper at the origin of the row said it would consider also printing cartoons of the Holocaust collected by Iran's largest-selling newspaper.
In Pakistan, meanwhile, thousands of protesters burned an effigy of Bush in a remote tribal area, the third day of large-scale demonstrations in different cities.
Meanwhile a major supermarket chain in Turkey announced a boycott of Danish and Norwegian products. - Agencies
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