COPENHAGEN, Feb 13: A senior member of Denmark’s Muslim community urged followers on Monday to ‘move on’ in the row over the cartoons after holding crisis talks with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
“The majority of Muslims may feel offended by the cartoons as they link Islam with terrorism, but let’s take it easy and move on now,” Naser Khader, a member of parliament and founder of a new group called Democratic Muslims, told reporters.
Mr Khader said a few ‘fundamentalist clerics’ had set the agenda on behalf of all Danish Muslims and said his network of around 700 members was more broadly representative.
Mr Rasmussen asked for a meeting with Democratic Muslims after the conservative government accused some local Muslim leaders of showing the cartoons to Muslims in the Middle East in an effort to fan the flames of the scandal.
“All participants had valuable proposals and assessments of not just the actual situation, but also with regard to Danish integration policy,” Mr Rasmussen said after the meeting.
Since the protests erupted, Mr Rasmussen has tried to drum home the message that Denmark is a tolerant society with respect for religious freedom — but also for freedom of speech. He has not apologised on behalf of the independent Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which first commissioned the images.
Arab fury at the West intensified on Monday after video footage of British soldiers beating Iraqi youths was aired.
The row with Muslims all over the world has drawn new support to the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party, the country’s third-biggest party.—Reuters
