Muslim anger unabated over prophet cartoons
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-03 09:12

The government of Norway closed its West Bank mission to the public, saying it was taking the threats "very seriously".

Newspapers in Cairo chastised the European press. "It is a conspiracy against Islam and Muslims which has been in the works for years," said Al-Gomhurriya, a top state-owned daily.

Going against the flow, the Jordanian tabloid Al-Shihan defiantly published three of the cartoons. Its publishing company later pulled all copies from the newsstands and fired the paper's editor-in-chief, Jihad Momani.

"Muslims of the world, be reasonable," Momani had written in an editorial alongside the cartoons, including the one that showed Mohammed with the bomb-shaped turban.

Before he was fired, Momani told AFP he decided to publish the offending cartoons "so people know what they are protesting about.... People are attacking drawings that they have not even seen."

But the Jordanian government condemned the newspaper's move. A government spokesman Nasser Jawdeh demanded "an immediate apology from the newspaper for this serious error", adding that the paper could face sanctions, according to Jordan's Petra news agency.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned that the diplomatic row that has erupted over the caricatures of Islam's prophet could provoke radical elements.

"Freedom of opinion, expression and of the press -- which we guarantee and respect -- cannot be used as an excuse to insult sanctities, beliefs and religions," said the statement from Mubarak's office.

Rasmussen's appearance on Al-Arabiya and his scheduled meeting with ambassadors of 11 Muslim nations on Friday marked a softening in his attitude towards the controversy after previously refusing to address it citing the country's free press tradition.

"I cannot control what's published in the media," he said.

But an influential Saudi preacher appearing on Al-Arabiya after the interview rejected the argument saying that there must be a link between a free press and the respect of religious values.

"I did not hear an apology," said Sheikh Salman al-Ouda claiming that the cartoons were part of a concerted effort to whip up hate against Muslims.