A prominent pro-Islamic Turkish business group has decided to sever economic ties with Denmark over the publication in a Danish newspaper of blasphemous cartoons, the Anatolia news agency reported. The chairman of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MUSIAD), Omer Bolat, charged that the drawings, which have been reprinted in other European dailies, were part of planned action to tarnish Islam. “Denmark is the hitman in this affair. One cannot hide behind the pretext of press freedom. All this is done under a plan,” Bolat said late Saturday at a MUSIAD gathering in Kayseri, central Turkey, attended also by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. “Despite all that, the Muslims are standing upright on their feet,” he said. “We, as MUSIAD, made a decision to cut our economic ties with Denmark.” MUSIAD, which groups mainly pro-Islamic and conservative business people in Turkey, has about 2,000 members. No figures were immediately available on how much trade MUSIAD members do with Danish businesses. Bilateral trade between Turkey and Denmark stood at about 1.1 billion dollars (915 million euros) as of November, according to government statistics.
In case you didn’t know, there are already laws prohibiting “free speech”, there are limitations to it. Try not to be so oblivious . There is a difference between radicals chanting death to America (oh how I’d love to be a part of that) and newspapers printing offensive and blasphemous cartoons of the Holy Prophet. The former is no where near equivalent to or as offending as the latter.
In YOUR view. Who are you to decide that you are more offended than others? It is not blasphemous to the people writing, and most likely reading, these cartoons.
In their view they may be offended that some invoke the prophet's teachings while slicing the throat of innocents. One is hardly equivalent to the other. As I've said before, THAT is what Muslims should protest about, but nary a peep on it.
There is a huge movement in Europe for Israel to stop the heavy-handed tactics.
But can you leave the Jews out of it this time? What does that have to do with radical Muslims blaspheming the prophet and being honored instead of castigated?
It's about freedom of speech mon, The editior of the rag that spewed hate speech against Muslims said he would not print a cartoon of sharon eating babies, he said he drew the line there?
While you see the difference as being it's a deragatory portrayal of 2 very diferent men, others see it as the difference of one is wearing a bomb-turban and the other is eating babies.
Iraqi transport ministry freezes deals with Denmark
BAGHDAD - Iraq’s transport ministry said on Sunday it had frozen contracts with Denmark and Norway in protest against blasphemous cartoons published in the countries’ newspapers. “This decision was taken to protest the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad and we will not accept any reconstruction money from Denmark or Norway,” said a spokesman on behalf of Transport Minister Salam Al Malaki. The spokesman said he did not know the value of contracts between Iraq and Denmark and Norway. Denmark has more than 500 troops in Iraq. The uproar over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper and were reprinted in other European countries, has swept across the Muslim world.
RAMALLAH: Mahdi Karaji, a fan of Danish-made cheese and butter, filled his supermarket trolley this weekend with Palestinian-made dairy products. “The insult to our Prophet was very deep and this is the least I can do,” the 45-year-old emergency physician said of his decision to join a Muslim boycott of Danish goods to protest cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) printed in European newspapers. A vast majority of shoppers interviewed over the weekend in the West Bank vowed not to buy Danish cheese spread, butter and other products until European governments apologised. “They have committed a grave insult against Islam,” Haifa Siyam, 61, said inside the Bravo supermarket chain, the biggest in the Palestinian territories. The boycott is already having an economic impact. Danish-Swedish dairy company Arla Foods said it is losing about $1.8m of sales a day in the Middle East. Its products have been taken off store shelves in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. “My boycott is a message to the Danish government that you have crossed the red light,” said Siham Rayyan, a 50-year-old teacher from Ramallah.
So now the Danes are admitting that ‘freedom of opinion and expression should not be used to offend or to attack beliefs and holiness of any religion.’ Good carry on, you have quite a distance to go, before you are let off the hook.
**FM gets call from Danish FM **
Doha: The First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani yesterday received a telephone call from Denmark’s Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller. The Danish Foreign Minister expressed his country’s respect to the tolerant religion of Islam and all other religions. He also said his statements on cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) which have been published in Danish newspapers were handled by the international mass media in an incorrect way. The Foreign Minister stressed importance of respecting all religions and stressed that freedom of opinion and expression should not be used to offend or to attack beliefs and holiness of any religion.
At least $80 million worth of exports are at risk after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the cancellation of economic contracts with countries where the media have carried cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed. The cartoons, first published last September by the conservative Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, have since appeared in newspapers in many countries including New Zealand. New Zealand exports millions of dollars worth of goods to Iran, including dairy products, meat and wool. In 2005, exports to Iran totalled $76.1 million. The ISNA news agency reported the president ordered the creation of an official body to respond to the cartoons, saying the government “must revise and cancel economic contracts with the countries that started this repulsive act and those that followed them.” The presidential decree also condemned the “the insult by certain Western media of the Prophet which shows the hatred towards Islam and Muslims of the Zionists who govern these countries and the absence of serious action by the leaders of these countries.” ISNA said the body looking into reprisals will be headed by Iran’s commerce minister and include a deputy foreign minister, a deputy oil minister and a deputy industry minister.
**Iran Orders Review Of Business Deals With Nations Where Cartoon Published **
DAMASCUS (AP)–Iran’s president ordered his commerce minister to study canceling all trade contracts with European countries whose newspapers have published the caricatures, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the caricatures showed the “impudence and rudeness” of Western newspapers against the prophet as well as the “maximum resentment of the Zionists (Jews) ruling these countries against Islam and Muslims.” The leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan denounced the publication of the cartoons. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned nine envoys to lodge protests against the publication of the “blasphemous” sketches, said Tasnim Aslam, a spokeswoman for the ministry. “Let the perpetrators of the insult see the gravity of their own mistakes which only they themselves can and should correct,” said Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, while urging calm.
WELLINGTON: New Zealand is braced for fallout from the Islamic world after two newspapers published controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, with a potential trade ban by Iran the main concern. New Zealand diplomats in Muslim countries were also warned to take precautions against possible threats to staff and property, the Sunday Star Times reported. The New Zealand Government attacked the two newspapers, both owned by Australia’s Fairfax group, with Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton dubbing them “gratuitously offensive” and saying that by upsetting Muslim nations the publishers were putting the nation’s economy at risk. The Government’s immediate worry was a reported threat by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to review all economic relations with countries where the cartoons had been published. Iran is an important market for New Zealand, buying more than $NZ100 million (K223.86 million) in goods annually from the world’s biggest exporter of dairy products. Reports Of demonstrators setting fire to Denmark’s embassy in Syria’s capital Damascus in protest against the original publication of the caricatures in September in a Danish newspaper led news bulletins yesterday morning on Radio New Zealand. Some Muslim shopkeepers reportedly refused to sell the two newspapers — Wellington’s Dominion Post and Christchurch’s The Press — which claimed they published the cartoons as part of “the battle between freedom of speech and religion”. Javed Khan, president of the Federation of Islamic Associations, said Muslim groups in New Zealand would discuss whether to lodge complaints with the race relations commissioner and Ethnic Affairs Minister Chris Carter. “It is hard to see why the publication of cartoons known to be deeply offensive to Muslim communities is such an important point of principle to the New Zealand media who have published them,” Mr Carter said yesterday. “What good did it do publishing these cartoons and what damage could it do to communities in New Zealand and to New Zealand’s international reputation?”
. There is a difference between radicals chanting death to America (oh how I’d love to be a part of that) and newspapers printing offensive and blasphemous cartoons of the Holy Prophet. The former is no where near equivalent to or as offending as the latter.