RESOURCE GUIDE |
MSNBC Home » World News » Middle East and North Africa |
Vahid Salemi / AP |
|
Slide show |
Most Popular |
| |||||
RSS FEEDS ON MSNBC.COM |
Add these headlines to your news reader |
TEHRAN, Iran - Hundreds of angry protesters hurled stones and fire bombs at the Danish Embassy in the Iranian capital Monday to protest publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Police used tear gas and surrounded the walled villa to hold back the crowd.
It was the second attack on a Western mission in Tehran on Monday. Earlier in the day, 200 student demonstrators threw stones at the Austrian Embassy, breaking windows and starting small fires. The mission was targeted because Austria holds the presidency of the European Union.
Thousands more people joined violent demonstrations across the world to protest publication of the caricatures of Muhammad, and the Bush administration appealed to Saudi Arabia to use its influence among Arabs to help ease tensions in the Middle East and Europe.
In a meeting with local authors, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the cartoons and addressed the West: “Insulting the Prophet Muhammad would not promote your position,” the official Iranian news agency quoted him as saying.
Rushdie death warrant recalled
Also Monday, 200 members of Iran’s parliament issued a statement warning that those who published the cartoons should remember the case of Salman Rushdie — the British author against whom the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a death warrant for his novel “The Satanic Verses.”
Anger has spread across the Muslim world over 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were first published in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten in September and recently reprinted in European media and elsewhere in what the newspapers say is a statement of free speech.
Islam prohibits any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.
U.S. State Department reaction
The United States condemned the protests Monday, as administration officials continued to walk a fine line between supporting free speech and calling the cartoons offensive. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, “What we can do is to speak out very clearly in support of freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and urge understanding and tolerance — not violence.”
|
Iran has withdrawn its ambassador to Denmark, and Iranian Commerce Minister Massoud Mirkazemi said on Monday that all trade with Denmark had been severed because of the cartoons, first published in September in a Danish newspaper.
“All trade ties with Denmark were cut,” he was quoted by the Iranian student news agency ISNA as telling a news conference.
Mirkazemi said from Tuesday Iran would stop any Danish goods from entering its customs’ areas. Iran imports some $280 million worth of goods a year from Denmark.
Related stories |
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he disapproves of the caricatures, but insisted he cannot apologize on behalf of his country's independent press.
In other incidents:
MORE FROM MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA |