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Islamic groups call for end to riots
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-08 22:11
Indonesia's foreign minister said Wednesday that radical groups around the
world were exploiting public anger over the cartoons.
"The cartoons have hurt the Islamic community, so it has added to ammunition
for (global) radical groups to exploit the situation and the whole thing has got
out of proportion," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters.
In France, President Jacques Chirac asked media to avoid offending religious
beliefs as another French newspaper on Wednesday reprinted the prophet
caricatures. Chirac said during a Cabinet meeting that he condemned "all obvious
provocations likely to dangerously kindle passions."
In Copenhagen, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen showed no sign of
diverting from his government's stance that it cannot apologize for the actions
of an independent newspaper, as demanded by governments in several Muslim
nations.
Fogh Rasmussen called the protests "a growing global crisis," as Iran
suspended all trade and economic ties with Denmark.
There were several other small protests across Afghanistan on Wednesday,
including one in Kabul. Hundreds of university students, including women,
marched peacefully through the capital, chanting "Death to the Danish! Death to
Americans!"
More than 1,000 people also rallied Wednesday in Muslim-majority Bangladesh's
capital, burning Danish and Italian flags. There were no immediate reports of
violence.
Muslims also demonstrated for the third straight day in Indian-controlled
Kashmir. In Turkey, police using armored vehicles blocked some 500
ultranationalist Turks from reaching the Danish Embassy and the demonstrators
dispersed peacefully.
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