COPENHAGEN, February 14, 2006 (IslamOline.net & News Agencies) – The Danish Broadcast Corporation News (DR) launched on Monday, February 13, a new online section on Islam and the Muslim minority in Denmark.

"We believe that our audience needs to know more about Islam and Muslims," the page's editor Ulrik Aarhus told IslamOnline.net on Tuesday, February 14.

"They need information on Islamic history, civilization and culture for that Danes can better understand Muslims and Islam."

Aarhus said the current turmoil over the Danish cartoons that lampooned Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is largely because "we do not know each other."

Twelve cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad were first published by Denmark's best-selling Jyllands Posten in September and then reprinted by several European dailies, sparking Muslim outrage worldwide.

The new portal, which has been prepared by DR editors, is the first government online service on Islam.

The section serves as a directory for Muslim organizations in Denmark and provides stories of some 5000 native Danes who reverted to Islam.

It further provides a virtual tour of a grand mosque and has a question-and-answer section to satisfy Danish curiosity on Islam.

"We received up to 2,000 page views in just 12 hours since the page saw the light," Aarhus said.

Muslims make up around three percent of Denmark’s 5.3 population, making Islam the second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church.

Islam, however, is not recognized by the state unlike Christianity and Judaism.

"What the Muhammad drawings have caused is just a symptom. It's much more complex ... than just the drawings," said Olesen.

DR presented last summer a radio program titled "Islamic Facets."

The program highlighted over 25 series Muslim day-to-day life, Islamic teachings and hot issues like jihad, education and integration.

The program also interviewed prominent Muslim figures in Denmark and appealed to the Muslim minority.

Islam has taken center stage after the publication of the Danish cartoons with many newspapers creating online pages on Islam.

In her "1:1" movie, now being shown in the Berlin Film Festival, famed Danish director Annette Olesen explores "hidden" tensions between Danes and Muslims long before the cartoons row.

"Watching the film again last night ... was very strange, because I think there is a parallel feeling between my little film, and these characters, and the crisis," she told Reuters.

"I think something happened to the Western world and America after 9/11 ... and there's a certain loss of innocence," said the 40-year-old director.

"We were very interested in seeing how that affected people in the street and how that has affected small communities."

Olesen said her film, and the global protests that have erupted over the cartoons, had been a long time in coming.

"What the Muhammad drawings have caused is just a symptom. It's much more complex ... than just the drawings," she said.

The famed director said the drawings were the "last straw" for some Muslims.