CAIRO, February 2, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by a Danish daily and other European newspapers are risking to trigger acts of violence around the world, officials and commentators warn.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned that the insistence of European newspapers on printing the cartoons risked provoking what he termed as "a terrorist backlash", Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Thursday, February 2.

"The president warned of the near and long term repercussions (of the) campaign of insults against the noble Prophet," Mubarak's spokesman said in a statement in English.

"Irresponsible management of these repercussions will provide further excuses to the forces of radicalism and terrorism," the statement said.

Last September, Denmark's Jyllands-Posten published twelve drawings that included portrayals of a man assumed to be the Prophet wearing a time-bomb shaped turban and showed him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.

Several European newspapers, in the name of freedom of the press, reprinted some or all of the blasphemous cartoons, including the French daily France-Soir and Germany's Die Welt.

On Thursday, two armed Palestinian resistance groups threatened to target Danish, French and Norwegian nationals in the occupied Palestinian territories unless their governments apologize for insulting cartoons.

"All nationals and those who work in the diplomatic corps of these countries can be considered targets of the Popular Resistance Committee and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades," the two Palestinian groups warned.

"We give the Danish, French and Norwegian governments 48 hours to present their apologies," the two groups added.

Palestinian gunmen earlier surrounded EU offices in the Gaza Strip, demanding an apology for the anti-Prophet caricatures.

Norway, in turn, announced the closure of its West Bank mission to the public, saying it was taking the threats "very seriously".

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emphasized, during a phone call with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, the "need for a vigorous" reaction to the insulting caricatures.

The Danish government has consistently rejected Arab and Muslim calls for an apology, arguing that the drawings were part of the press freedom of expression.

Jyllands-Posten editor-in-chief Carsten Juste said Thursday that he would not have published the cartoons if he had known the consequences.

Many Muslims said the running of the blasphemous cartoons by many European newspapers was a deliberate provocation, Reuters said.

"It's no longer a matter of freedom of thought or opinion or belief. It's a plot hatched against Islam and Muslims, the preparation of which began many years ago," former editor Samir Ragab wrote in the Egyptian state daily El-Gomhuria.

"If practical concerted measures are not taken, the campaign will become more ferocious," he added.

Columnist Mohammad Kharoub in the Jordanian daily Al-Rai agreed.

"They promote their hatred under the pretext of freedom of expression and turn a blind eye to the crimes that are committed in the name of Christianity and more dangerously Judaism."

Saudi commentator Hussein Shobokshi, in the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, said the West had inconsistent moral criteria.

"If the Danish cartoon had been about a Jewish rabbi, it would never have been published," he said.

Some liberal commentators, however, questioned the wisdom of pressing an issue they saw as secondary.

"This active movement against the insults to the Prophet has been absent on many other issues which are no less important," Saad Hagras wrote in Egypt's Nadhet Misr.