Danish Muslims localize cartoon crisis

KUALA LUMPUR - Danish Muslims are doing the exact opposite of what they did when the anti-prophet cartoons were first published three years ago; handling the issue at home.

"We deplore the reprinting of the Danish cartoons ridiculing Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) but will not interfere as per the request of the Muslim minority in Denmark," Egypt's Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi said on Friday.

Seventeen Danish newspapers reprinted on Wednesday, February 13, a drawing of a man described as Prophet Muhammad with a ticking bomb in his turban.

The move came following the arrest of two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin for allegedly plotting to kill the cartoonist who drew the caricature.

"They Danish Muslim have told me they can handle the issue," Sheikh Tantawi told the opening of the World Al-Azhar Alumni Conference in the Malaysian capital.

He said Danish Muslims fear that intervention by Muslims worldwide would further complicate the situation.

"They fear that an angry reaction from Muslims would further alienate Danes."

When the mass-circulation Jyllands-Posten first published the controversial 12 cartoons Danish Muslim leaders toured the Muslim world to drum up support for their case.

Mass protests, some taking violent turns, were staged across the Muslim world to denounce the drawings, considered blasphemous under Islam.

* Angry

Danish Muslims, estimated to number more than 200,000 or three percent of the population, had criticized the reprinting of the controversial drawing.

But community leaders, including Scandinavian Waqfs, urged an astute reaction from Danish Muslims.

The reprinting of the cartoon has stirred anger across the Muslim world with calls for boycotting Danish products.

"We must impose a total political and economic boycott of Denmark," suggested Kuwaiti MP Waleed al-Tabtabai.

"This is a provocative and insulting act and we must take a strong reaction."

Muslims worldwide boycotted Danish products during the 2005 cartoon crisis, causing Danish companies nearly $1.5 million a day in losses.

Denmark's leading dairy company Arla Foods, one of the hardest hit, issued at the time a strong condemnation of the cartoon and appealed to Arabs and Muslims to end their boycott of its products.

In the Gaza Strip, the resistance group Hamas said republishing the cartoon was an insult to the feelings of tens of millions of Muslims.

It called on Arab and Muslim governments to use their influence to put an end to "organized campaigns aimed at spreading hatred against Islam in the name of free expression."

Hundreds of angry students burned Danish flags in southern Pakistan.

Iran has also summoned Denmark's ambassador to protest the reprinting of the cartoon.

Source: IslamOnline