Flee the fury, Danes told
February 06, 2006 Edition 4
Sapa-AFp and Sapa-AP
Denmark today issued a list of 14 Islamic countries travellers should avoid as Muslim anger over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed spread.
The recommendation follows violent attacks by demonstrators at the weekend on Danish diplomatic missions in Syria and Lebanon.
The foreign ministry has already advised Danish nationals to leave those countries immediately.
The 14 countries listed are Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
"In recent days there have been demonstrations in many countries and attacks on Danish diplomatic representations in Syria and Lebanon. Developments have shown that the crisis could spread to other countries," the ministry said.
Lebanon apologised today to Denmark after thousands of rampaging Muslims set fire to its diplomatic mission in Beirut yesterday. But protests continued across the world today.
In Kabul, hundreds of Afghans clashed with police during a demonstration. One person was killed and four injured, officials said.
Police fired on the demonstrators after a man in the crowd shot at them and others threw stones and knives during the rally in the central Afghan city of Mihtarlam, said a government spokesperson.
Hundreds of Indonesians protested outside the shuttered Danish embassy in the Indonesia capital Jakarta this morning.
The embassy's telephone answering service carried a brief message to say it had closed indefinitely but gave no explanation.
The main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir today came to a standstill as shops, businesses and schools shut down for a day to join the protest.
Dozens of protesters torched Danish flags, burned tires and shouted slogans in several parts of Srinagar. Protesters also hurled rocks at passing cars.
In Australia, Muslim leaders demanded the Courier-Mailan apologise after it published one of the cartoons.
In Lebanon, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said today after an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday that the government had unanimously "rejected and condemned the acts of riots ... that harmed Lebanon's reputation and its civilised image."
"The cabinet apologises to Denmark," Aridi said.
At least one person died, 30 were injured and about 200 people were detained in the violence yesterday, officials said.
The Beirut violence came a day after protests in neighbouring Syria, including the burning of the Danish mission there. The United States accused the Syrian government of backing the protests.
Thousands also took to the streets yesterday elsewhere in the Muslim world and parts of Europe, including some 3 000 Afghans who burned a Danish flag and demanding that the editors at Jyllands-Posten - which originally published the cartoons - be prosecuted for blasphemy. Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged forgiveness.
The Islamic Army in Iraq, a key group in the insurgency fighting US-led and Iraqi forces, posted a second Internet statement yesterday calling for violence against citizens of countries where the caricatures had been published.
In Lebanon, Hassan Sabei, the interior minister responsible for the police force that failed to stop the protesters, resigned at the cabinet session yesterday.
The attack on the Danish mission in Beirut took on a sectarian dimension in this mixed Muslim-Christian nation, which suffered a 1975-90 civil war. Muslim extremists took over the streets in the Christian Ashrafieh neighbourhood where the Danish mission is located, wreaking havoc on property for about three hours.
Muslim clerics also denounced the violence yesterday, with some wading into the mobs to try to stop the attacks.
There was widespread criticism of the Lebanese security forces, which appeared to lose control of the streets for about three hours. But Sabei defended their actions.
"Things got out of hand when elements that had infiltrated into the ranks of the demonstrators broke through security shields," he said. "The one remaining option was an order to shoot, but I was not prepared to order the troops to shoot Lebanese citizens."
Sabei, like other Lebanese politicians and Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, suggested that Islamic radicals had fanned the anger. Kabbani said outsiders among the protesters were trying to "distort the image of Islam".
The drawings - including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse - have caused Muslim fury worldwide. Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the Prophet Mohammed for fear they could lead to idolatry.
The caricatures have since been republished in several European and New Zealand newspapers as a statement on behalf of a free press.
Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he disapproves of the caricatures, but cannot apologise on behalf of his country's independent press.
