Region | Iran
Iran launches cartoons contest
A contest for cartoons of the Holocaust was launched in Iran on Monday in a tit-for-tat move over the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 February 14, 2006
Tehran: A contest for cartoons of the Holocaust was launched in Iran on Monday in a tit-for-tat move over the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
The first entry was said to be from renowned Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig, according to the website organising the competition with Iran's biggest selling newspaper Hamshahri, triggering outrage in the United States and Germany in particular.
"As a show of solidarity with the Muslim world, and an exercise in free speech, I would like to submit a cartoon to you on the theme of the Holocaust," Leunig was quoted as saying in a statement on the Irancartoons.com website.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already prompted international anger by dismissing the systematic slaughter by the Nazis of mainland Europe's Jews as a "myth" used to justify the creation of Israel.
The editor of an Indonesian magazine that published the cartoons has been fired and is now the subject of a police investigation, the magazine said on Monday.
Muslim protesters repeatedly rallied outside the offices of Gloria, a Christian magazine based in the east Java capital of Surabaya, since it ran three of the 12 cartoons last week.
Gloria's chief editor David da Silva was fired late last week for publishing the cartoons, said Tommy, a spokesman for the magazine's management. Police have also questioned da Silva, he said.
"We withdrew about 8,000 copies of the edition once we knew about its contents," said Tommy. "However, some copies have been read by people who then reacted to it."
It was not clear why the magazine published the cartoons.
Editors released on bail
Jordan's prosecutor released on bail two editors charged with blasphemy for republishing cartoons, judicial sources said on Monday.
They said Jihad Momani and Hashem Khalidi of the weekly tabloids Shihan and Al Mihwar were released on 500 dinars (Dh2,611) bail on Sunday by judge Sabri Rawashdeh who had previously turned down two requests.
PM to meet Muslims
Denmark's prime minister was on Monday set to meet with a newly formed network of moderate Muslims in an effort to defuse tensions over the cartoons.
However, critics said the group, led by centrist lawmaker Naser Khader, was not representative of Denmark's estimated 200,000-strong Muslim population, and suggested the meeting could cause internal division in the Muslim community.
Khader founded the Democratic Muslims network on February 5 to counterbalance a group of conservative imams who have been accused of fuelling the outrage against Denmark in Muslim countries.
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