ROME,
February 16, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Italian
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has asked his Reforms Minister
Roberto Calderoli to resign over his anti-Islam remarks as the Czech
Republic urged a united EU backing for Denmark in the face of Muslim
boycott over the cartoon row.
"[Berlusconi)]
has even asked me to resign," Reuters quoted Calederoli as saying
on Wednesday, February 15.
Calderoli,
a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, said he had
T-shirts made emblazoned with cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad (peace
and blessing be upon him).
"I
have had T-shirts made with the cartoons that have upset Islam and I
will start wearing them today," he told the Italian Ansa news
agency on Tuesday, February 14.
Last
September, Denmark's mass circulation daily Jyllands-Posten ran
12 cartoons of the Prophet.
The
drawings included portrayals of the Prophet wearing a bomb-shaped
turban and another showing him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by
shrouded women.
Many
European newspapers reprinted the drawings, considered blasphemous
under Islam, on the grounds of freedom of expression, triggering an
outcry across the Muslim world and calls to boycott Danish products.
"Dialogue"
Berlusconi
said Wednesday he wanted to promote dialogue between the West and
Islam.
"The
search for dialogue represents one of our foreign policy
priorities," he told reporters after talks with Lebanese
counterpart Fouad Siniora.
But
Calderoli claimed that the West should not try to reach out to those
who have protested against the cartoons.
"I
believe in a religion of love and not one of hate which some people
follow. I believe that we should all be respected. It is out of the
question that people coming to our house should want to impose other
traditions on us," he argued.
A
cohort of 100 Muslim and Western dignitaries will be working on
defusing the cartoon crisis and promoting better understanding between
the West and the Muslim world.
EU
Stance
 |
|
Svoboda was seeking a united European economic support for Danish companies hit by Muslim boycott.
|
The
Czech Republic said it was seeking united European Union support for
Denmark in the face of the Muslim boycott.
"He
[Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda] has been given a mandate to negotiate
a common position," Foreign Ministry spokesman Vit Kolar told
Agence France Presse (AFP).
The
move is meant to persuade the EU to agree to provide economic support
for companies hit by the widespread boycott of Danish goods in Muslim
countries, Kolar added.
The
spokesman said Svoboda would lobby other EU governments ahead of the
meeting of foreign ministers.
"We
expect support from many countries," he added.
The
Czech foreign minister has criticized the EU's disarray over the
caricatures, arguing that Europe "was behaving chaotically, like
a wild bee".
Several
leading Muslim scholars have exhorted Muslims across the globe to
boycott Danish products as a demonstration of anger of the publication
of the provocative cartoons.
Danish-Swedish
dairy company Arla Foods, one of Europe’s largest dairy producers,
said it was losing $1.8 million of sales a day in the Middle East over
the boycott.
The
company's products were removed from shelves of major supermarkets in
many Gulf countries.
Branches
of French hypermarket Carrefour in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) have also stopped selling Danish goods.
