UAE | General
Editor defends paper's action
An editor at a Saudi tabloid newspaper that was closed down for republishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) defended the paper's action yesterday
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 February 22, 2006
Muslim uses 1933 blasphemy law against editor
A Norwegian Muslim has reported a newspaper editor who published cartoons of the Prophet to the police for violating a blasphemy law last used in 1933 against a poet who called Christians cannibals.
In January a Norwegian Christian paper published the drawings, which originated in Denmark. That sparked attacks on Norwegian interests in the Middle East and Asia.
"I have been reported to the police for blasphemy. We will have to see what happens as this law has not been used since 1933," Verbjoern Selbekk, editor of newspaper Magazinet, told Reuters by telephone from Spain, where he was on holiday.
Paragraph 142 of Norway's criminal code states a person can be prosecuted if he or she "in word or action publicly insults or in a demeaning or hurtful way displays scorn for any religious belief that is permitted in the country".
In 1933 the state failed to convict poet Arnulf Overland for comparing Christians to cannibals for their ritual of eating bread and drinking wine to symbolise Christ's body and blood.
The 1902 law was last used successfully to fine the editor of the Free Thinker newssheet in 1912 after he wrote an article entitled The Great Humbug the Christians' Christmas.
"There are limits for what expressions are acceptable, even in a democracy. This is a case for the police, it cannot be solved by the masses," Khalid Mohammah, the Muslim who made the charge, told Aftenposten newspaper.
Danish PM: Row now between Muslim world and EU
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen yesterday said that the conflict over the cartoons first published in his country had evolved into a clash between the entire European Union and the Muslim world.
"This affair is not just an issue between Denmark and the Muslim world. It has to a much greater degree evolved into an affair between the European Union and the Muslim world," Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen.
"That is why [EU foreign policy chief Javier] Solana has decided to travel around the Middle East, which I appreciate. ... The next step in this crisis will be carried out in coordination with the EU and at the European level," he added.
Envoy returning to Indonesia
Denmark's ambassador to Indonesia was expected to return to Jakarta yesterday, 10 days after he left because of threats linked to cartoons in Danish papers that have enraged Muslims, the foreign ministry said.
The envoy left Indonesia on February 11 because of a "serious, concrete threat" against the mission by extremists.
"Denmark's ambassador arrives in Jakarta today to reopen the embassy as soon as possible," the ministry said in a statement.
Another Russian newspaper closed down
A Russian newspaper's owner said on Tuesday that he closed the weekly down after it republished the cartoons, because he did not want it to cause religious strife. It was the second Russian newspaper in a week to shut down amid heightened sensitivities about the drawings.
"I shut it down so that it wouldn't become a real cause of religious strife," Mikhail Smirnov, owner of the weekly Nash Region, said.
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