UNITED NATIONS, Feb 6: Hundreds of Muslims held a peaceful demonstration in front of the United Nations on Sunday to condemn the caricatures of Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) published in several European newspapers and demanded apology from them for denigrating Islam.

The leaders of Muslim groups condemned the cartoons and shouted slogans against the Danish, French and Norwegian governments which condoned the cartoons. They said that they were part of a ‘hate speech’ not an exercise of freedom of free speech.

“All of these newspapers claim that they were exercising their right to free speech. But where can we draw the line between free speech and hate speech? These papers may be exercising their right of free speech but to the 1.5 billion Muslims of the world it seems like it is Islamophobia which is really being propagated under the cover of free speech. To denigrate a religion and a historical figure is an act of blasphemy, not democratic freedom,” said a spokesman for New York-based Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). In a statement the ICNA condemned the depiction of any of the prophets from Adam to Moses to Jesus to Muhammad (May peace be upon all of them).