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| By Associated Press February 7, 2006 |
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One of Iran's biggest newspapers on Tuesday called for artists to submit caricatures of the Nazi Holocaust, saying it wants to target a subject as taboo in the West as the Prophet Muhammad is for Muslims.
Violent protests over the caricatures of the prophet published in European newspaper erupted for a second straight day in Tehran, where around 50 demosntrators hurled stones and firebombs at the Norwegian Embassy. A small fire outside the embassy was quickly contained.
Iran announced it was cutting all commercial ties with Denmark in retaliation for caricatures of the prophet published in a Danish newspaper. The European Union, Iran's biggest trading partner, warned Iran to "think twice" about the move, which it said would be considered a boycott of all of Europe.
It was the first move by an Islamic nation to officially try to sanction Denmark for the cartoons -- underlining the tough tone Iran's hard-line clerical regime has taken over the controversy, which has sparked protests in many Muslim countries. The drawings were now becoming yet another point of contention in Iran's ties with the West, already deteriorating over its nuclear ambitions.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a speech aired on state radio Tuesday that the cartoons were part of a "conspiracy by Zionists who were angry because of the victory of Hamas," referring to the Palestinian militant group that won a surprise landslide victory in last month's elections.
However, the cartoons were first published in September, four months before the Palestinian elections. In the past 10 days, numerous European newspapers have reprinted them in the name of free expression.
The daily Hamshahri, one of Iran's five biggest newspapers, said its contest for Holocaust cartoons was meant as a test of the West's principle of freedom of expression.
"Does the West extend freedom of expression to the crimes committed by the United States and Israel, or an event such as the Holocaust? Or is its freedom only for insulting religious sanctities?" Hamshahri wrote in a short article on its back page.
The newspaper invited foreign and Iranian artists to send in cartoons about the Nazi genocide against the Jews, saying it would publish more details on the rules on Monday. The contest is being organized in cooperation with the House of Caricatures, a Tehran exhibition center for cartoons. Both the paper and the center are owned by the Tehran Municipality, which is dominated by allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is well known for his opposition to Israel.
Last year, Ahmadinejad provoked outrage in Europe when he said Israel should be "wiped out" and the Holocaust was a "myth."
Supreme leader Khamenei -- whose word is law in Iran -- denounced the prophet cartoons as a scandal, particularly as they came "from those who champion civilization and free expression."
"The West condemns any denial of the Jewish Holocaust, but it permits the insult of Islamic sanctities," Khamenei said in his speech at a ceremony for Iranian air force personnel.
The cartoons have offended many Muslims because most Islamic scholars forbid any illustration of the prophet and because several drawings depict Muhammad as a man of violence, one of them showing him with a turban in the shape of a bomb.
Denmark's prime minister appealed for calm amid the increasing protests.
"We are now facing a growing global crisis," Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference in Copenhagen. "Now it has become an international political matter. I urge calm and steadiness."
After the announcement that trade ties with Denmark had been severed, the European Union warned Iran that attempts to boycott Danish goods or cancel trade contracts with European countries would lead to a further rupture in already cool relations.
"I hope that the government (of Iran) will think twice," EU trade chief Peter Mandelson told The Associated Press in Prague.
But Iranian Commerce Minister Masoud Mirkazemi told reporters that his country would not be put off. "The EU can respond any way it wants," he said.
"If Denmark apologizes for the insulting cartoons, Iran will review its policy," Mirkazemi said. The Danish government has said it cannot apologize on behalf of an independent newspaper.
Iran will bar all Danish products from entering the country and suspend all contracts and negotiations with Danish firms, Mirkazemi told state radio.
Denmark's exports to Iran totaled US$205 million in 2004 while imports from Iran were worth US$13.57 million, according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat. The bulk of the Danish exports were machinery and pharmaceutical and medical products.
A spot check of three Tehran stores found Danish goods, such as cheeses, still on the shelves Tuesday.
Hundreds of Iranians hurled stones, and sometimes gasoline bombs, at the Danish and Austrian embassies in Tehran in protest against the cartoons on Monday. The Austrian mission was targeted as the country currently holds the EU presidency.
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