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Cartoon crisis not easing
Observers in Denmark say they are seeing few
signs that the crisis over the publication of offensive cartoons of the Prophet
Muhammad is easing.
Since Jyllands-Posten, a right-wing Danish
newspaper, printed the caricatures in September, three embassy buildings have
been set alight, five diplomatic missions closed, Danish products boycotted and
a price put on the heads of Danish nationals in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Danish aid organisations and non-governmental
groups have been expelled, while the government's pro-democracy Arab Initiative
has come unstuck.
Denmark's friends, especially in Europe, have been
sucked into the controversy, especially those in which newspapers have
reproduced the caricatures, seen as offensive by Muslims.
Diplomatic fallout
Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy
chief, is leaving on Monday for the Middle East to try to limit the diplomatic
fallout from the affair.
The United States, initially slow to give Denmark
its backing, is also reaping the consequences from the row at a delicate time,
while the Iranian nuclear crisis and Middle East peace initiative dangle.
Toeger Seidenfaden, editor in chief of Politiken,
the Danish paper with the second largest circulation after Jyllands-Posten, told
AFP: "We are not yet out of the woods."
Maybe we are getting a little beyond the dimension of
reaction in the Muslim world dominated by violence.
"It seems that more and more
political and religious leaders are imposing a pattern of peaceful protests, and
that is encouraging."
Peaceful outrage
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said
the protests could spin out of control if governments refused to act
responsibly.
Rice, speaking from Washington on ABC television's
This Week, said Iran and Syria should urge their citizens to remain calm - not
encouraging protests against Western embassies.
"If people continue to
incite it, it could spin out of control," she said of the protests.
"Everybody understands that
there's a sense of outrage, that these cartoons were inappropriate in the Muslim
world. But you don't express your outrage by going out and burning down
embassies... You express your outrage peacefully."
Iran on Sunday rejected earlier US and Danish
accusations that the government had encouraged the protests.
Blame
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the
Danish prime minister, was criticised for his handling of the affair.
Abdullah Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, said
the affair would have been handled better if Rasmussen had said there is freedom
of the press but that he condemned the publication.
In Denmark, Rasmussen's stance on freedom of
expression enjoys public support.
The latest opinion polls show a majority of Danes
blame local imams, suspected of spreading false stories in the Muslim world.
The beneficiary of the crisis is the extreme-right
Danish People's party (PDD), which backs the Rasmussen government. It has seen
support leap to 18% from the 13.3% it scored in a general election a year ago.
Sunday 12 February 2006
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