Firestorm Over Cartoon Gains Momentum

New York Times
By CRAIG S. SMITH and IAN FISHER
Published: February 2, 2006

PARIS, Feb. 2 — An international dispute over European newspaper cartoons deemed blasphemous by some Muslims gained momentum today as gunmen threatened the European Union offices in the Gaza Strip and more European papers pointedly published the drawings as an affirmation of their freedom of speech.

A gunman stood on the roof of the European Union office in the Gaza Strip today.

The masked gunmen, enraged by cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, stayed about 45 minutes.

A newly elected legislator from Hamas, the radical Islamic group that swept the Palestinian elections last week, said large rallies were planned in Gaza in the next few days to protest the cartoons.

"We are angry — very, very, very angry," said Jamila Al Shanty, one of six women elected to represent Hamas in the Palestinian Parliament. "No one can say a bad word about our prophet."

The cartoons — which include a drawing of the prophet who founded Islam wearing a turban shaped like a bomb — first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have since been reprinted in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Norway. BBC televised them today.

France-Soir, the only French daily to reprint the cartoons, fired its managing editor late Wednesday as "a strong sign of respect for the beliefs and intimate convictions of every individual," according to a statement from its owner, Raymond Lakah, an Egyptian-born French businessman. Nevertheless, the newspaper defended its right to print the cartoons.

The incident is causing diplomatic strains as well as threats to citizens of countries where the cartoons have been printed.

Saudi Arabia and Syria have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark, and the Danish government has summoned foreign envoys in Copenhagen to talks on Friday over the issue, having already explained that it does not control the press.

The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told the Copenhagen daily Politiken, "We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work."

Many European commentators concede that the cartoons were provocative, even insensitive, but argue that the conservative Muslim world must learn to accept Western standards of free speech and pluralism.

Many Muslims complain that the cartoons reinforce a dangerous confusion between Islam and the Islamist terrorism that the vast majority of Muslims abhor. Dalil Boubakeur, head of France's Muslim Council, called the cartoons a new sign of Europe's growing "Islamophobia."

The conflict is just the latest manifestation of growing tension between Europe and the Muslim world as the Continent struggles to absorb a fast-expanding Muslim population whose customs and values are often at odds with Europe's secular, liberal societies. The tension has been exacerbated by racial and religious discrimination against Muslim immigrants and their children in Europe's weakest economies.

The trouble began in September when Denmark's Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons lampooning Islam's intolerance and its links to terrorism.

The cartoons were published again by a Norwegian magazine last month and the issue erupted internationally this month after diplomatic efforts failed to assuage demands by several angry Arab countries that the publications be punished.

Jyllands-Posten has received two bomb threats in the past few days, though it earlier apologized for any hurt feelings the drawings may have caused.

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