March 04, 2008	Tuesday	Safar 25, 1429

RABAT: Morocco’s highest religious authority has said a decision by Danish newspapers to reprint a blasphemous cartoon was “a short step from terrorism”.

Last month Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoon, which had prompted violent protests and riots in many Muslim countries in 2006, in solidarity with the artist after three men were arrested on suspicion of planning to kill him.

Morocco’s Higher Council of Ulema said in a statement issued on Sunday that the reprinting “reflects like a mirror a surprising ethical deficiency that is a short step from terrorism, with destructive effects for all humanity”.

It said the cartoons represented “aggression against the sacred values of Muslims” and urged authorities in countries where the cartoons have also been reprinted to “act with all haste to bring the aggressors to cease their aggression”.

The latest reprinting has sparked protests or warnings to Denmark in several Muslim countries, including Egypt, Iran, Sudan, Mauritania, and in the Palestinian territories.

A number of Western newspapers also reprinted the cartoon last month, including the Wall Street Journal and Britain’s Observer. —Reuters