VARIOUS: Former US President Bill Clinton appeals for calm as protests rage in India and Bangladesh over cartoons of Prophet Mohammad

Record ID: 322316

  • Title: VARIOUS: Former US President Bill Clinton appeals for calm as protests rage in India and Bangladesh over cartoons of Prophet Mohammad
  • Date: 18th February 2006
  • Summary: (BN02) DHAKA, BANGLADESH (FEBRUARY17, 2006) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS OUTSIDE THE NATIONAL MOSQUE AFTER THE FRIDAY PRAYER ; PROTESTERS CARRY EFFIGIES OF DANISH PRIME MINISTER ; VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS BURNING A DANISH FLAG ; PROTESTERS MARCH ; PROTESTORS BURNING EFFIGIES AND KICKING ON THEM (SOUNDBITE) (Bengali) A CLERIC SAYING: "We are ready to sacrifice our life to save Isla
  • Embargoed: 5th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA1KBG3EONK57GFWUOS3FLP5JN0
  • Story Text: Cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad were probably the result of ignorance not callousness and should not be the cause of more violence, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Friday (February 17, 2006).
    Visiting Pakistan to sign an agreement with the government on AIDS prevention on behalf of his Clinton Foundation, he said the drawing of the cartoons and publishing them in a Danish newspaper last year was a mistake.
    "Nobody else should die over this. And you shouldn't blame a whole country, a whole continent for what I believe was a mistake probably more of ignorance even than callousness," he said.
    Clinton said he saw nothing wrong with Muslims around the world demonstrating in a peaceful way, but he feared a great opportunity to improve understanding had been squandered.
    "I don't mind Muslims all over the world being upset about this; I don't mind the demonstrations, but this is not the time to burn bridges, it is the time to build them," he said.
    Clinton said he did not believe faith in a religion could be "diminished or humiliated by something as human as error" and such incidents should be used to build understanding.
    "This is an enormous opportunity because I can tell you that most people who are not Muslims are horrified that this misunderstanding has occurred, and don't want violence to come out of this, but want greater understanding," said the former president, whose foundation also aims to promote harmony between faiths.
    In Pakistan five people have died during violent protests this week against the cartoons, one of which showed the prophet Mohammad with a bomb-shaped turban, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper.
    Muslims believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet and demonstrations erupted throughout the Muslim world after other European papers republished the cartoons in January and earlier this month.
    In Bangladesh, Muslims across the nation continued angry protests against Prophet Mohammad's caricatures on Friday.
    A wave of Muslim fury has spread across the Middle East and Asia over the cartoons as leaders urged restraint and struggled to contain the protests, which in recent days turned from peaceful to volatile and bloody.
    Shouting Islamic slogans, the protesters sought the cartoonist's execution.
    The protesters also burnt Danish flags.
    "We are ready to sacrifice our life to save Islam, and in Bangladesh no one will dare to oppose Islam it is our vow," a cleric told a gathering after Friday prayers.
    In India's northern Meerut city in Uttar Pradesh Muslims took out a rally and burnt Danish flags.
    Haji Yakub Qureshi, provincial minister for Minority Welfare and Haj, demanded that New Delhi should recall its ambassador from Denmark.
    "In view of the cartoon published in Denmark, I demand that the government of India should recall its ambassador from that country," Qureshi said.
    Depicting the Prophet is prohibited by Islam but moderate Muslims, while condemning the cartoons, have expressed fears radicals are hijacking the affair which has developed into a clash over press freedom and religious respect.
    Militants in Iraq have called for the seizure and killing of Danes and the boycott of Danish goods. In London, there were placards demanding the beheading of those who insulted Islam.
    Denmark's Jyllands-Posten daily has apologised for the cartoons published last September but the Danish government has refused to apologise saying it is the paper's responsibility.
    The cartoons were first published in September. Other European newspapers, saying press freedom was more important than religious taboos, began reprinting them
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