Palestinian militants surrounded European Union headquarters in Gaza, and gunmen burst into several hotels and apartments in the West Bank in search of foreigners to take hostage.
In Iraq, Islamic leaders urged worshippers to stage demonstrations from Baghdad to the southern city of Basra following weekly prayer services Friday. Afghanistan and Indonesia condemned the drawings, and Iran summoned the Austrian ambassador, whose country holds the EU presidency.
The issue opened divisions among European Union governments. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said EU leaders have a responsibility to “clearly condemn” insults to any religion. But French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said he preferred “an excess of caricature to an excess of censorship.”
Sarkozy joined journalists in rallying around the editorial director of France Soir, who was fired by the newspaper’s Egyptian owner. France Soir and several other newspapers across Europe reprinted the caricatures this week in a show of support for freedom of expression.
The cartoons were first published in September in a Danish newspaper, touching off anger among Muslims who knew about it. The issue reignited after a Norwegian newspaper reprinted the images this month.
The Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, had asked 40 cartoonists to draw images of the prophet. The purpose, its chief editor said, was “to examine whether people would succumb to self-censorship, as we have seen in other cases when it comes to Muslim issues.”
Islamic law, based on clerics’ interpretation of the Qur’an and the sayings of the prophet, forbids depictions of the Prophet Muhammad and other major religious figures — even positive ones — to prevent idolatry. Shiite Muslim clerics differ in that they allow images of their greatest saint, Ali, the prophet’s son-in-law, though not Muhammad.
Critics say the drawings were particularly insulting because some appeared to ridicule Muhammad. One cartoon showed the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb.
France’s Grand Rabbi Joseph Sitruk said he shared Muslim anger.
“We gain nothing by lowering religions, humiliating them and making caricatures of them. It’s a lack of honesty and respect,” he said. He said freedom of expression “is not a right without limits.”
A Jordanian newspaper, Shihan, published some of the drawings Thursday, saying it wanted to show its readers how offensive the cartoons were but also urging the world’s Muslims to “be reasonable.” Its editorial noted that Jyllands-Posten had apologized, “but for some reason, nobody in the Muslim world wants to hear the apology.”
Hours later, the Jordanian government threatened legal action against Shihan, and the owners of the weekly said they had fired its chief editor, Jihad al-Momani, and withdrawn the issue from sale.
The outrage was most tangible in the Palestinian territories, where Norway and Denmark closed diplomatic offices after masked gunmen threatened to kidnap foreigners in Gaza.
Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank searched several hotels, and a German citizen was briefly kidnapped by gunmen from a hotel in the city of Nablus. Palestinian police freed the German, a teacher, after less than an hour.
Foreign reporters either pulled out of Gaza on Thursday or cancelled plans to go to the coastal strip.
Palestinian security officials said they would try to protect foreigners in Gaza. Nineteen foreigners have been kidnapped in Gaza in recent months; all were freed unharmed.
The protests in the Palestinian territories came a week after the Islamic militant group Hamas defeated the ruling Fatah party in parliamentary elections.
In one unusual twist, Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, visited a Gaza church Thursday and promised protection to Christians after Fatah gunmen threatened to target churches as part of their protests. Zahar offered to dispatch gunmen from Hamas’ military wing, the Izzedine al Qassam Brigades, to guard the church.
“You are our brothers,” Zahar told Father Manuel Musallam of the Holy Family Church.
In Gaza City, a dozen gunmen linked to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ defeated Fatah party surrounded the EU Commission’s local office.
One of the militants, flanked by two masked men with assault rifles, said the governments of Germany, France, Norway and Denmark must apologize for the cartoons by Thursday evening. If no apology is issued, the gunmen said they would target citizens of the four countries and shut down media offices, including the French news agency.
“Any citizens of these countries, who are present in Gaza, will put themselves in danger,” the gunman said.
About 10 armed Palestinians gathered later at the French cultural centre in Gaza City and warned of a “tough response” to any further disparagement of Muhammad.
Only a few dozen foreigners from the targeted countries were in Gaza on Thursday. Many others pulled out in recent months, following a spate of abductions of foreigners by Fatah-linked gunmen.
Norway closed its representative office in the West Bank to the public because of the threats, but said the 23-member staff remained on the job.
The Danish Foreign Ministry in Copenhagen said all Danes, except for two diplomats, have left the West Bank and Gaza in recent days. The Danish representative office in the West Bank was to be closed Friday because of the threats, a diplomat said.
In Canada, an unsigned editorial in the Globe and Mail argued that free-speech concerns had to take priority over fears of giving offence. Still the Toronto newspaper decided against running the cartoons.
“We have legitimate concerns that we not unnecessarily offend any group or community,” said Patrick Martin, comment editor at the Globe.
“We don’t see the necessity of doing this in this case.”
Haroon Siddiqui, the Toronto Star’s editorial page editor emeritus, said invoking free speech was a “disingenuous” attempt to disguise outright Muslim-baiting and anti-Islamic sentiments.
There is a “sacred secular principle” of promoting respect among various faiths, Siddiqui wrote Thursday.
“Thinking people and responsible public institutions should err on the side of advancing mutual understanding, not fanning more conflicts.”
The Danish Mohammed Cartoon Issue
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Mob Torches Danish Embassy in Beirut Over Cartoons
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia to Boycott Danish Goods For 'Insulting' Cartoons
Angry Crowds Attack Danish, Norwegian Embassies in Syria
Iran to Cut All Ties With Denmark Over Cartoons
Denmark Becomes the New Israel
Death Penalty Sought for Yemen Editor for re-Publishing Cartoons
Muslim World Protests Pope's Comments
Al Qaida Says Pope and West Are 'Doomed'
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