COPENHAGEN,
January 4, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Muslim
leaders have welcomed Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's
address urging the Danish people to practice their right to freedom of
speech without inciting hatred against Muslims or other minorities.
"It's
a very positive signal for the Arab world that he now addresses the
issue and indirectly condemns Jyllands-Posten in his speech,"
Kasem Ahmad, spokesman for the Islamic Religious Community in Denmark
told Reuters Wednesday, January 4, referring to the mass-circulation
newspaper which published a series of cartoons deemed offensive by the
Muslim world.
Rasmussen
said in a New Year address translated into Arabic and distributed to
Middle Eastern countries that the Danes should exercise the right of
free speech without inciting hatred against Muslims.
He
added that "free speech should be exercised in such a manner that
we do not incite hatred and cause fragmentation of the community that
is one of Denmark's strengths."
Twelve
drawings depicting Prophet Muhammad in different settings appeared in
Jyllands-Posten on September 30.
In
one of the drawings, an image assumed to be that of the Prophet
appeared with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.
The
blasphemous images have drawn rebuke from the Muslim minority and
triggered a diplomatic crisis between Denmark and Arab and Muslim
countries.
Positive
Step
Egyptian
ambassador Mona Omar Attia, whose country has led a diplomatic
campaign against Denmark, also welcomed the move.
"It
is a positive step towards dialogue and I hope my own and other Arab
governments view this as a positive signal," Attia told the daily
Politiken.
Rasmussen
has consistently defended Denmark's tradition of free speech, which he
said included the right to satirize all authorities.
Late
December, Arab foreign ministers lambasted the Danish government's
reaction to the controversial anti-Prophet cartoons.
Ahmad
insisted that Jyllands-Posten extends an official apology to the
Muslim world.
But
the call was rejected by Jyllands-Posten's editor-in-chief Carsten
Juste.
"We
can't apologize for the drawings. We live under Danish law and freedom
of speech," he said. "But we didn't mean to offend
anyone."
Danish
Muslims are estimated at 180,000 or around three 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.
