Danish affront

---

Cartoon battle turns uglier Punishing Denmark

UNPRECEDENTED waves of anger, diplomatic and economic boycotts swept across the Islamic world over 12 blasphemous cartoons published in Denmark's daily Jyllands-Posten, ultimately forcing an apology from the newspaper on Monday. The offensive cartoons, one depicting Prophet Mohamed with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head, were published on 30 September and subsequently republished in Norway, sparking an outrage amongst Muslim nations who asked for an immediate official apology. The newspaper and the Danish government, however, insisted on not apologising on grounds of freedom of expression and 79 per cent of the Danes supported their stance.

Danish intransigence escalated anger amongst Arab nations to an unprecedented peak. Libya closed its embassy in Denmark in protest on Sunday and threatened to take "economic measures" against Denmark while Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Copenhagen and Saudi businessmen and people stopped dealing in Danish products in response to boycott calls by Saudi religious leaders. Similar boycotts appeared in several Gulf countries, Egypt, Yemen and Iran while a spate of protests erupted in different parts of the world. On the West Bank, members of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades carried out a major protest. The demonstrators burned the Danish flag and called on the Palestinian authorities to cut diplomatic ties with Denmark.