Moslem Anger Still Boiling Over Danish Cartoons!

Four months after the fact, Moslem anger over the publication in Scandinavia of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad has snowballed into a full-fledged crisis threatening Nordic trade and security.

Cartoons including a portrayal of the Prophet wearing a time-bomb shaped turban were published in a Danish newspaper last September and reprinted in a Norwegian magazine in January, sparking uproar in the Moslem world.

The row has taken a new dimension over the past days, with Danish flags being burned, products being boycotted and an Internet call by purported Iraqi militants calling for attacks on any Danish or Norwegian target.

Egypt's powerful Moslem Brotherhood on Monday was the latest group to join a chorus of calls for the boycott of Danish and Norwegian products.

"I call on Arab and Moslem peoples and governments to boycott Danish and Norwegian products and take firm measures," the Islamist movement's leader Mohammad Mehdi Akef said in a statement.

Retailers in the Gulf have already started pulling Danish and Norwegian products off the shelves and Danish manufacturers have voiced their concern should the boycott gain further momentum.

An Emirati retailer on Monday joined the boycott of Danish products "in response to the offense against Prophet Mohammad ... and in response to consumers' wishes."

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson warned a Saudi official during a meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos that any boycott of Danish products was tantamount to a boycott of European goods.

Mandelson's spokesman warned Riyadh that it could have to take the matter to the World Trade Organization if the Saudi government encouraged the boycott.

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton described the cartoons as "appalling" during an economic conference in the Qatari capital, Doha.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, in Tunis for a meeting of Arab interior ministers, decried the "double standards" in the European media.

"We see double standards in the European media, which is fearful of being accused of anti-Semitism but which invokes freedom of expression for a caricature on Islam," Moussa said.

In a further step, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference have announced their intention to seek a UN resolution banning attacks against religious beliefs.

Most Arab governments have vocally condemned the series of 12 cartoons, which show the prophet as a wild-eyed knife-wielding Bedouin flanked by two women shrouded in black.

Libya said Sunday it had decided to close its diplomatic representation in Copenhagen "in light of the attacks against the Prophet Mohammad and the silence of the Danish authorities."

"This is cultural terrorism, not freedom of expression," Mohammad al-Dhaheri, Emirates' Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs, said, according to the official WAM news agency. "The repercussions of such irresponsible acts will have adverse impact on international relations."

The Danish Foreign Ministry warned against non-crucial travel to Saudi Arabia and urged Danes to be cautious in other Muslim countries such as Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Algeria, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories.

"In the current situation where the drawings of the Prophet Mohammad have caused strong negative reactions among Moslems, Danes who choose to stay in Saudi Arabia should show extraordinarily high watchfulness," it said.

Hardest hit by the boycott is Danish-Swedish dairy product maker Arla Foods, with annual sales of 3 billion Danish crowns ($487 million) in the region.

The group said it had temporarily shut down production in Saudi Arabia.

"We had to close our large dairy in Riyadh because we are selling almost nothing in the country," Arla Foods spokeswoman Astrid Gade Nielsen said.

Arla Foods said its production staff has not been laid off and Arla Foods executives have not been recalled.

The Danish government has said the views expressed by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper did not reflect its own but has consistently refused to apologize and has insisted it would defend freedom of expression.

CFPA: So the Moslems want a UN resolution banning attacks against religious beliefs? In Islamic double-speak that means the resolution will only pertain to attacks against their so-called religion and will not pertain to Moslem attacks against Christians, Jews and Hindus. As for the cartoons, the Moslems look for things to be offended by and are overly sensitive when it comes to their child molesting prophet but they are going to have to learn that they cannot dictate what free people can say in a free press. If they don't like it then then they can go back to their cesspool countries and stop reading publications from free nations.