Arab coverage of the "cartoon" debacle

[unschooler]

JEDDAH, 7 February 2006 — People in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries intensified their boycott of Danish goods as the uproar over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) raged unabated yesterday.

Scholars and regional trade groups also urged Muslims to use this economic weapon to punish other European nations whose dailies printed the inflammatory caricatures.

Yemen shut down a weekly newspaper yesterday for republishing the cartoons.

(snip)

Qatar’s Chamber of Commerce said it had halted dealings with Danish or Norwegian delegations, urging Muslim states to do the same. In Bahrain, Parliament formed a committee to contact Arab and Islamic governments to enforce the boycott.

(snip)

Supermarket shelves remained void of Danish dairy products and Muslim scholars, social organizations and text messages rallied people to maintain their stand. Many scholars urged Muslims to stick to peaceful protest.

(snip)

“Not a single sachet of a Danish product is left on our shelves,” said the director of a Kuwaiti supermarket.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=77417&d=7&m=2&y=2006

Thousands of Pakistanis have rallied in Peshawar in protest against newspaper caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, and one person has been killed in an attack on the Norwegian Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

More than 2000 people, shouting "Hang the cartoonists", attended the rally in Peshawar on Tuesday called by the Islamist legislature of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan.

Akram Durrani, the provincial chief minister, and his cabinet ministers led the demonstration, which follows days of protests throughout the Islamic world.

(snip)

Demonstrators in Peshawar waved placards reading: "Listen Jews, Muslims are united", and "Expel Western diplomats".

The crowd also chanted "Jihad , Jihad" and "Death to Denmark".

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DD43BE5C-B457-4AC0-BE1F-824E5DB30016.htm

Yemen has ordered the arrest of the editor of a newspaper after he republished cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.



The public prosecutor ordered the arrest of Abd al-Karim Sabra, editor-in-chief of privately owned Al-Hurriya (Freedom), late on Monday.

(snip)

SABA reported that Sabra will be "prosecuted because his newspaper took the initiative of republishing cartoons that are offensive to the prophet".

The syndicate of Yemeni journalists said in a statement that Sabra's union membership has been suspended "because he deliberately ignored professional norms".

The Yemeni authorities said the cartoons were considered "harmful to the Islamic faith and derogatory of a monotheistic religion or humanitarian belief".

(snip)

An information ministry spokesman said: "The ministry is very protective of press freedom, but it must be within the bounds of the law."

included depictions of the Muslim prophet as a knife-wielding beduin and another with a bomb-shaped turban.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4EE0817B-BE68-4EAA-AFF4-48C26FAC922D.htm

[JudyM]

1. Saw protest posters advocating beheading those who mock Muslims.

calling for death, beheading, other violence. Hate to say it, but this highlights the historical social advance of the concept of (just) and eye for an eye.

[Skeptor]

2. Prophetic cartoons

Hear about how they found the religious fanatic with a sense of humour? They followed the trail of macrame'd camels.