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If they
[Danish/French] want to defend their freedom of _expression_, then Muslims should
also be able to exercise their freedom by boycotting products of French, Danish
[please add to this list],
withdrawal of ambassador, cancel trading agreement etc. After all, they are
facing uncontrollable forces !!
From: Media Watch
To: IslahOnLine
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 9:16 AM
Subject: Kuwait may ban Danish medicine Kuwait may ban Danish
medicine
(Kuwait Times Via Thomson Dialog
NewsEdge)COPENHAGEN: Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed alarm
yesterday at the wave of anger in the Muslim world prompted by caricatures in a
Danish newspaper depicting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He said his government
considered the growing dispute "extremely serious." "Our diplomats are currently
attempting to repair the misunderstandings that have surfaced," he said. "We are
up against uncontrollable forces. It will take a huge effort to calm things
down," he told Danish media after the offices of Jyllands-Posten, which
published the controversial cartoons, were evacuated following a false bomb
threat.
Meanwhile, with the growing momentum of the
national public campaign against Denmark and Danish products in Kuwait, the
Ministry of Public Health too has got onboard. The chairman of the Kuwait
Pharmacists Society, Salah Al-Qattan announced that the ministry was considering
imposing an embargo on Danish medicines, including insulin. Al-Qattan stressed
that the decision needed further discussions in order to avoid affecting
patients if no alternatives were available. Meanwhile, informed sources in the
private sector highlighted that insulin could be obtained from sources other
than Denmark and that the only argument against the embargo was that warehouses
of some local agents were already stocked with Danish products. On his part, the
chairman of Kuwait Medical Association, Dr Abdul Aziz Al-Enezi, said the issue
should be studied prior to any decision being made. Various groups have been
circulating lists of Danish products that should be boycotted and
blacklisted. Muslim anger over the 12 cartoons, which depicted the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and were published in the Danish paper in September, has boiled over into a diplomatic crisis threatening Danish trade relations with the Muslim world. Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador to Denmark, Libya has shut down its embassy in Copenhagen, and on yesterday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari summoned Denmark's ambassador over the cartoons. Interior ministers from 17 Arab countries called yesterday on the Danish government to "punish the authors" of the cartoons. In Iraq, the influential Sunni Muslim Cleric's Association backed the boycott, and widened it to Norway where a newspaper has also printed the cartoons. "We join our voices to those who called for an economic and diplomatic boycott of Denmark and Norway unless those two countries submit an official apology and admit their mistake," a spokesman said. Thousands of Palestinians also demonstrated outside the United Nations compound in Gaza City to denounce the caricatures, burning a large picture of the Danish prime minister, while dozens of others demonstrated outside the Danish embassy in Tel Aviv. Demonstrators burnt Danish flags, chanted "War on Denmark, Death to Denmark" and called for an Arab boycott of products from the small north European country until it showed contrition for the satirical caricatures deemed blasphemous by Islam. "We feel great rage at the continued attacks on Islam and the Prophet of Islam and we demand that the Danish government make a clear and public apology for the wrongful crime," Nafez Azzam, a leader of Islamic Jihad, told the crowd of supporters of his militant group outside UN headquarters. The protesters fired bullets in the air and burnt Danish and US flags as well as portraits of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and US President George W Bush. Azzam called for a pan-Arab boycott of all Danish products, many of which - dairy goods, shampoo and sweets for example - are sold in the Palestinian territories. The caricatures were published in Jyllands-Posten last September and reprinted in a Norwegian magazine Magazinet in January. Magazinet said yesterday it "regretted" offending Muslims but stopped short of issuing an apology. The small publication said in its online edition that its editor-in-chief, Vebjoern Selbekk, "regretted if the drawings offended Muslims". Selbekk said that Magazinet's reprinting of the 12 cartoons on January 10 was "not aimed at provoking" Muslims and that it was justifiable under freedom of _expression_ laws. "To regret the use of freedom of _expression_ in a democratic society would damage our democratic foundations," he said. Selbekk was unavailable for comment yesterday, but Magazinet said he had received about 20 death threats amid heavy criticism of Denmark and Norway over the cartoons. The Norwegian government yesterday reiterated that it regretted if Muslims were offended but stressed its belief in fundamental rights. "We will not apologise because in a country like Norway, which guarantees the freedom of _expression_, we cannot apologise for what the newspapers" print, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian daily NTB. "But I am sorry that this may have hurt many Muslims," he said. Jyllands-Posten's editor long refused to apologise for publishing the caricatures, insisting on the right to freedom of _expression_, but finally apologised late Monday for offending Muslims. Prime Minister Rasmussen, who has refused to apologise on behalf of the Danish people, was quick to welcome the editor's contrition and called on Muslims in Denmark to "participate in calming and stopping the unreasonable protests against Denmark and Danish interests." Danish-Swedish dairy giant Arla Foods has been hardest hit by the boycotts, and was on Monday forced to shut down production completely in Saudi Arabia. "We are against economic boycotts and are sincerely sorry that it has come to this. It was not our intention that Denmark should be hit by such sanctions," Abu Laban said. Denmark's leading media also called for the government to try to ease tensions. "These last few days have been a catastrophe for Denmark's reputation, its exports and the security of Danes," the Politiken daily stated in an editorial. Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller met yesterday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and several of his Muslim counterparts at a conference in London, and was scheduled to meet with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan later in the day to discuss the controversy. The offices of Jyllands-Posten faced a bomb threat yesterday in both the northern town of Aarhus and in downtown Copenhagen and were evacuated yesterday evening, according to an AFP reporter at the scene in Copenhagen. Police said the newspaper had received a telephone call saying there was a bomb and bomb-sniffing dogs were being sent in, Copenhagen police spokesman Flemming Munch told AFP. Also yesterday, the paper reported that hackers had been trying to shut down its website, with more than 80,000 emails flooding its inboxes, but that technicians had managed to ward off the attack. Juste told Danish news agency Ritzau that the bomb threat was an attack on democracy. "It is an attack on the freedom of the press and against one of democracy's most important prerequisites, the free word," Juste said. Muslim leaders in Denmark however called for a more conciliatory tone from the Muslim world, saying the row had gone too far. "We have from the beginning said that these drawings are making Muslims angry and hurt. But we honestly never thought that this case would develop to the point where Danish products in the Middle East are being threatened to this extent," Ahmed Abu Laban, a prominent imam in Denmark's Muslim community, said in a statement. It was time to calm the tensions, Muslim leaders said, amid reports of Danish flag-burnings, protest rallies, boycotts and threats against Scandinavians in Muslim countries. "We have to work together now to establish a more reasonable tone in the debate and a good dialogue about Islam and Muslims," Muslim community spokesman Kasim Amat was quoted by Danish media as saying. Danish imams, representing 27 different Muslim organisations, however called on the paper late yesterday to go further and apologise "irrefutably" for publishing the cartoons. The Muslim community demands "a clear and irrefutable apology for publishing the cartoons and offending Muslims," Imam Ahmed Akkari, a spokesman for the Muslim groups, told AFP. - Agencies *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest".
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