Hundreds of Danes gather for a peace torchlight demonstration to appeal for a peaceful dialogue to resolve the cartoons row. (Reuters)

By Nidal Abu Arif, IOL Correspondent

COPENHAGEN, February 12, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – More Danes have joined forces with fellow citizens who have been trying to mend fences with the Muslim world after relations badly soured due to the publication of cartoons lampooning Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in one of the country's best-selling dailies.

"I launched five days ago a Web site called "reconciliation now" and urged the Danish people to sign a letter demanding the Danish Government help defuse the current standoff," Hans Kuttel, a professor in Aalborg University, told IslamOnline.net Sunday, February 12.

"I was really moved by the scenes of burning the Danish embassy in the Syrian capital and decided to stand up and be counted," he said, slamming the "imprudent" act of Jyllands Posten, which first published the blasphemous cartoons in September.

Kuttel said he will go on collecting support signatures from Danes nationwide till the end of this month and send a letter to each of the Danish government and embassies of Muslim countries in Copenhagen .

His campaign, according to Kuttel, has drawn so far 50,000 signatures from lay people, politicians, artists and famed writers over the past six days only.

"We want to send a message to the entire world that there are Danes who support constructive dialogue and peaceful co-existence based on mutual respect," he said.

"This is, in effect, the responsibility of all the people including the prime minister himself," he said.

Twelve cartoons mocking a man presumed to be Prophet Muhammad were first published the Posten and then reprinted by several European dailies.

The drawings included portrayals of the Prophet wearing a time-bomb shaped turban and showed him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.

"Another Denmark "

Danish youths have further tried to reveal the tolerant and peaceful face of their country, launching an online "Another Denmark" campaign.

"We are a group of young Danes who felt it incumbent upon themselves to do something positive and voice our condemnation of the offensive cartoons," campaign spokesman Nikola Lang told IOL.

Lang further explained that "the Danish people are not to blame for what the independent Danish newspapers publish," but they "strictly condemn hurting Muslims all the world over and fully understand Muslim call for a clear-cut apology from the paper at issue."

The Danish newspaper has apologized for offending Muslims, although not for printing the drawings.

Lang's Web site (www.anotherdenmark.org) has received 10,500 messages of support since its launch on Wednesday, February 8.

A new opinion poll undertaken by the Gallop Center for Berlingske Tidende newspaper showed that the majority of Danes think Jyallands Posten was wrong when it decided to publish the cartoons.

The poll said 56% of the Danes understood the Muslim anger, while 41% believed that Muslims made much fuss about nothing. Three percent of the 1,003 respondents were undecided.

Most of the polled further believed that the free speech argument sparked by the cartoon crisis was useful, but said the publication did more harm than good to the country's image.

The cartoons have sparked protests across the Muslim world over the last two weeks, several of which turned violent.

Denmark has turned for Malaysia , the current chair of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to help ease the cartoon row in the Muslim world.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Saturday he received a call from his Danish counterpart Per Stig Moeller on Friday, February 10, over the issue.

Reports, however, said that Denmark and other European countries rejected a Malaysian proposal to hold a joint OIC-EU summit over the crisis.  

Denmark said Saturday it had closed its embassies in Iran and Indonesia and ordered its diplomats to leave following "concrete threats" against its staff.

Muslims protesting against the cartoons set fire to the Danish consulate in Beirut earlier in the month and Syrian protesters did the same with the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus .