VARIOUS: Violent protests continue across the world over printing of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed by European newspapers

Record ID: 226611

  • Title: VARIOUS: Violent protests continue across the world over printing of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed by European newspapers
  • Date: 5th February 2006
  • Summary: (W3) DAMASCUS, SYRIA (FEBRUARY 4, 2006) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS CLASHING WITH POLICE OUTSIDE THE DANISH EMBASSY / PROTESTER HOLDING BURNING DANISH FLAG STONES BEING THROWN AT EMBASSY / BROKEN WINDOW VARIOUS OF POLICE CLASHING WITH PROTESTERS STONES HITTING EMBASSY WALLS BROKEN WINDOW / DANISH EMBLEM ON SIDE OF EMBASSY
  • Embargoed: 20th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA4441ROCVC9U2PRK610OSC7A8J
  • Story Text: The Islamic movement in Nazareth, Damascus, London and various other world cities, held a mass protest marches on Saturday (February 4) over European newspapers that printed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
    Thousands of Israeli Muslim worshippers marched through the streets of the northern Israeli Arab town of Nazareth.
    Furious Syrians set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies on Saturday as protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed showed no signs of abating despite calls for calm.
    Chanting "God is Greatest", thousands of protesters stormed the Danish embassy, burned the Danish flag and replaced it with a flag reading "No God but Allah, Mohammed is His Prophet". They set fires which badly damaged the building before being put out.
    No one was hurt as the embassy was closed at the time.
    Demonstrators also set the Norwegian embassy ablaze. It was brought under control by firefighters.
    The fire badly damaged the Danish embassy's building, a Reuters witness said. Fire-fighters put out the blaze.
    Chanting "God is Greatest," the protesters stormed the embassy, threw stones and shattered its windows, burned the national flag and replaced it with another flag reading "No God but Allah, Mohammed is His Prophet".
    Police fired teargas to disperse protesters there and also used water hoses to hold back others from storming the French embassy. Scores of riot police were also deployed to protect the U.S. mission.
    Denmark and Norway advised their citizens to leave Syria.
    Denmark is at the eye of the storm as the cartoons that Muslim demonstrators find offensive, one of the Prophet with a turban resembling a bomb, first appeared in a Danish daily.
    A small Norwegian Christian newspaper was one of the first newspaper outside Denmark to publish the cartoons. They have now appeared in papers in Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Poland.
    Sweden, which shares its Syrian embassy with Denmark and Chile, was also dragged into the Damascus protests. It summoned the Syrian ambassador in Stockholm in protest.
    Sweden, Denmark and Norway said the Syrian authorities had not done enough to protect their buildings in the capital.
    "The important thing for us is to express our serious concern and protest against the Syrian government that they allowed these protests to escalate in this way, and that they do not fulfil their responsibility to protect our foreign service staff," said Swedish foreign minister Laijla Fraivaldar.
    There was no immediate comment from Syrian officials.
    Oil giant Iran, already embroiled in a dispute with the West over its nuclear programme, said it was reviewing trade ties with countries that have published such caricatures.
    On the streets of Tehran, resident marched to show their anger over the cartoons.
    Islamic tradition prohibits realistic depictions of prophets, and considers caricatures of them blasphemous.
    The protests come amid outrage across the Muslim world over the publication of the cartoons in Denmark, Norway, France, Germany and Spain.
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