Danish Muslims Relieved at PM's Stance on Cartoons

COPENHAGEN, January 4, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Muslim leaders have welcomed Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's address urging the Danish people to practice their right to freedom of speech without inciting hatred against Muslims or other minorities.

"It's a very positive signal for the Arab world that he now addresses the issue and indirectly condemns Jyllands-Posten in his speech," Kasem Ahmad, spokesman for the Islamic Religious Community in Denmark told Reuters Wednesday, January 4, referring to the mass-circulation newspaper which published a series of cartoons deemed offensive by the Muslim world.

Rasmussen said in a New Year address translated into Arabic and distributed to Middle Eastern countries that the Danes should exercise the right of free speech without inciting hatred against Muslims.

He added that "free speech should be exercised in such a manner that we do not incite hatred and cause fragmentation of the community that is one of Denmark's strengths."

Twelve drawings depicting Prophet Muhammad in different settings appeared in Jyllands-Posten on September 30.

In one of the drawings, an image assumed to be that of the Prophet appeared with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.

The blasphemous images have drawn rebuke from the Muslim minority and triggered a diplomatic crisis between Denmark and Arab and Muslim countries.

Positive Step

Egyptian ambassador Mona Omar Attia, whose country has led a diplomatic campaign against Denmark, also welcomed the move.

"It is a positive step towards dialogue and I hope my own and other Arab governments view this as a positive signal," Attia told the daily Politiken.

Rasmussen has consistently defended Denmark's tradition of free speech, which he said included the right to satirize all authorities.

Late December, Arab foreign ministers lambasted the Danish government's reaction to the controversial anti-Prophet cartoons.

Ahmad insisted that Jyllands-Posten extends an official apology to the Muslim world.

But the call was rejected by Jyllands-Posten's editor-in-chief Carsten Juste.

"We can't apologize for the drawings. We live under Danish law and freedom of speech," he said. "But we didn't mean to offend anyone."

Danish Muslims are estimated at 180,000 or around three per cent of Denmark's 5.4 million.

Islam is Denmark's second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church, which is actively followed by four-fifths of the country's population.