|
|
Muslims put a note card in a Carrefour supermarket, calling
for boycotts of goods from Denmark in Cairo, capital of
Egypt.
| STOCKHOLM,
Feb. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen met on Friday
with diplomats from Muslim countries to defuse the row over cartoons depicting
the Prophet Mohammed.
While Rasmussen conveyed Denmark's respect for Islam,
he said his country will not apologize, according to reports from Copenhagen.
"Neither the Danish government nor the Danish nation
as such can be held responsible for drawings published in a Danish newspaper,"
Rasmussen said after meeting with Muslim envoys.
"A Danish government can never apologise on behalf of
a free and independent newspaper," he said. "This is basically a dispute between
some Muslims and a newspaper."
People protest outside the embassy of Denmark in
Damascus, Feb 2. (Xinhua/Reuters photo) |
The decision to call the ambassadors to a joint
meeting was seen by Danish opposition leaders as a positive, albeit delayed,
step on the government's part.
The drawings, first published in Denmark's
Jyllands-Posten last September, have sparked international fury and a debate on
the clash between freedom of speech and respect for religion.
Newspapers in France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and
Hungary have reprinted the caricatures this week, saying press freedom is more
important than the protests and boycotts they have provoked. Enditem
A
Palestinian boy attends a rally in the West Bank to protest
against caricatures seen as offensive to Islam's Prophet Mohammad. The
cartoons were published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in
September. (Xinhua/Reuters photo) |
Dozens of Palestinian militants on
Thursday stormed into the office of EU in Gaza City and shut it down to
protest against caricatures seen as offensive to Islam's Prophet Mohammad.
(Xinhua/AFP) | |
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