ISTANBUL, Feb 19: Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Istanbul on Sunday to protest against cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States.

The protest was organized by the Islamic Felicity Party, whose leaders shouted over loudspeakers that the massive crowd symbolized the anger of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims and urged them to “resist oppression.”

Turkey is a 99 per cent Muslim nation and protests of various sizes against the cartoons have been a nearly daily occurrence in the past week. Turkey is also the only Islamic majority country which has applied to join the European Union. Here as in other Islamic countries, protests against the cartoons have become mass outlets for rage against the West in general, and Israel and the US in particular.

“They are the ones who are trying to depict the expanding Islamic community as terrorists, though all we want is peace,” said Ethem Erkovan, 47, who held a banner in one hand and his daughter in the other. “Our difference: you are writing the history of occupation and tyranny and we are writing the history of justice and mercy,” his banner read.

Some protesters carried posters combining a Jewish star, a Christian cross and a Nazi swastika. Others depicted a man with a dog, which was attacking a red rose. The dog symbolized the United States, the man holding it Israel and the rose Islam. Another banner showed an equation: Jewish star plus Christian cross equals blood and tears.

The protesters called for a boycott of Denmark goods, where the cartoons were first published in a newspaper in September, and banners could be seen reading: “The Muslim Turkish nation is with its Palestinian and Iranian brothers.”

“Down with global imperialism!” Felicity Party leaders led the crowd in shouting. One spokesman yelled over a loudspeaker: “The Western spirit is Abu Ghraib, it is Guantanamo, it is Hiroshima and genocide!”

After the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed the caricatures, other newspapers, mostly in Europe, followed suit, asserting their news value and the “right to freedom of expression.”—AP