"I was greatly encouraged to launch this initiative after 93 per cent of some 80,000 Muslim youths polled opted for a dialogue with the Danish people," said Khaled.

By Sobhy Mujahid, Khaled El-Sioufi, IOL Correspondents

CAIRO, February 18, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Egyptian preacher Amr Khaled announced on Friday, February 17, that a host of Muslim youths would visit Denmark soon to engage in a constructive dialogue with their Danish peers and intellectuals after relations between the Muslim world and the West badly soured over the Danish cartoons that lampooned Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

"They will explain four main things: Who our prophet is, what Islam is all about, freedom of expression in Muslim eyes and respect of the other's holy scriptures," Khaled told a press conference in Cairo's deluxe Intercontinental Citystars Hotel.

"They will finally launch practical projects entrenching mutual respect and co-existence," he added.

Khaled said the Muslim youths traveling to Denmark , expected to take place on March 3, will be picked through a competition.

"I was greatly encouraged to launch this initiative after 93 per cent of some 80,000 Muslim youths polled opted for a dialogue with the Danish people to acquaint them with the noble prophet of Islam to defuse the current standoff."

Yassmin El-Hosari, a famed female preacher, said businessmen pledged to pay for the delegation's journey expenses.

Khaled said 42 scholars, who have signed a statement calling for Muslims to help remove stereotypes on Islam and the prophet, support the visit and are ready to join forces with the Muslim youths.

The cartoons, one of them showing the Prophet with a bomb-shaped turban, were first published in September by Denmark 's mass-circulation daily Jyllands-Posten, and later reprinted by newspapers in many countries on the ground of freedom of expression.

That argument has been rejected by Muslims who believe it should not be used as a pretext to insult their religion.

Any image of the Prophet -- let alone biting caricatures -- is considered blasphemous under Islam.

The caricatures have triggered massive and sometimes violent demonstrations across the Muslim world, with no sign of abating.

Sedition

Khaled called the insults against the prophet "sedition sparked by irresponsible people, which ended up in a vicious cycle of actions and reaction and spelled a disaster."

The editor of a Norwegian magazine, which reprinted the cartoons, had apologized for leaders of the Muslim minority in Norway for "publishing" the drawings.

Jyllands-Posten only apologized for "offending" Muslim feelings but not for the publication.

Khaled said that an apology is not enough when it comes to a great man like Prophet Muhammad.

"Protests will never stop unless the state of ignorance about Islam and its prophet in the West comes to an end," said the preacher, suggesting that Westerners should also take the initiative and tell their people about the Muslim faith.

IslamOnline.net has decided earlier in February to launch a multi-lingual Web site to acquaint non-Muslims with the life history of the prophet.

The controversy has further prompted Muslim minorities in the West to champion local campaigns to promote awareness of the messenger of God.

Revising Curricula

Gomaa urged the West to revise its curricula and remove any materials demonizing Islam.

Egyptian Mufti Ali Gomaa, at the same press conference, urged the West to revise its curricula and remove any materials demonizing Islam.

Strongly denouncing the blasphemous caricatures, he called on Muslims to make capital of what happened.

"We ask the international community to activate or issue laws banning blasphemy, and the European Union to reverse opposition to issue similar laws," Goma said.

European Union lawmakers on Thursday, February 16, called for freedom of expression to be exercised with responsibility but rejected calls for limits on media freedom.

Muslim countries are pressing for a ban on religious intolerance to be part of the bedrock of a planned new United Nations human rights body.

A cohort of Muslim dignitaries and organizations are calling for the enactment of an international law banning the publication of any insults to religious symbols and values.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League, the Muslim world's two main political bodies, are seeking a UN resolution, backed by possible sanctions, to protect religions following the publication of provocative cartoons.