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Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Muslim leaders will debate the blasphemous cartoons during their Makkah summit.
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COPENHAGEN,
November 5, 2005 (IslamONline.net & News Agencies) –Caricatures
of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) recently published in Denmark's main daily,
which have triggered an outcry among Muslims in Denmark and abroad,
will be high on the agenda of the upcoming Islamic summit in Saudi
Arabia.
"We
have been informed by our foreign minister that this caricature affair
will be on the agenda at a special summit of the Organization of
Islamic Conference," Mohab Nasr Mostafa Mahdy, Egypt's deputy
ambassador, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"This
is a collective initiative taken by the Islamic Conference (OIC) and
Egypt played a leading role," he maintained.
Twelve
drawings depicting Prophet Muhammad in different settings appeared in
Denmark's largest circulation daily Jyllands-Posten on
September 30.
In
one of the drawings, the Prophet appeared with a turban shaped like a
bomb strapped to his head.
The
images, considered blasphemous under Islam, have drawn criticism from
across the Muslim minority in Denmark, with religious leaders
insisting they are an insult to the prophet and calling for an
official apology.
No
Cooperation
Egypt's
ambassador in Beirut, Hussein Darrar, said Wednesday he and Lebanese
Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh had discussed which measures to take
against Denmark over the cartoons.
"We
have asked the Danish government to take measures, but have not
received a response to our request.
"As
a result, we have decided not to continue talks with Denmark on the
issue of human rights and discrimination and other measures concerning
Denmark's" agenda within international bodies, Darrar told
reporters.
Sources
close to the Danish foreign ministry insist that the ministry has
never received such a request.
The
ambassadors of Pakistan, Iran, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Indonesia and a
number of Arab countries have written a letter to Danish Premier
Anders Fogh Rasmussen to say they were offended by the caricatures and
demanded an official apology from the newspaper.
Rasmussen
said in a written reply that he would not intervene in the affair, on
the grounds of freedom of expression, but said the diplomats were free
to undertake legal proceedings.
Danish
Muslims are estimated at 180,000 or around 3 per cent of Denmark's 5.4
million.
Islam
is Denmark's second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant
Church, which is actively followed by four-fifths of the country's
population.
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