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Palestinian Hamas supporters burning French flag in Ramallah to protest publication of Muhammad cartoon in some newspapers in France. (AP)
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What all the fuss is about: cartoon of Muhammad in Danish newspaper. But isn't being a suicide bombing shaheed a good thing?
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| By Associated Press February 3, 2006 |
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| Caricature of Israel PM on fire as Gazans protest Muhammad cartoon |
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Palestinian gunmen threw a bomb at a French cultural center in Gaza City on Friday and many Palestinians began boycotting European goods in the latest expressions of Muslim outrage against the publication of cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers.
Large-scale demonstrations against the cartoons were planned throughout the Gaza Strip and West Bank following noon prayers Friday. Hundreds of Israeli police fanned out throughout the Old City of Jerusalem and Israel barred all Palestinians under the age of 45 from praying at the Al Aqsa Mosque there in an effort to prevent violence after prayers.
About 100 men chanting Islamic slogans and carrying a green flag of the Islamic Hamas party faced off against Israeli police outside the Old City on Friday afternoon. The crowd scattered when police on horseback arrived and some of the protesters threw rocks. A nearby protest by about 30 people outside Jerusalem's Damascus Gate was also broken up by police.
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"It cost me 900 shekels (about US$200) but I am ready to pay 9 million to voice my anger over those who had harmed the image of our beloved prophet. God willing, they are going to face a hard time, have a collapse in their economy and God also will avenge his prophet. It won't be a surprise if a new tsunami or strong earthquake will hit (Denmark)."
Noman Malahi, 49, owner of Gaza store, who said he threw out three boxes of Danish cheese that he bought three days ago.
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About 2 a.m., unknown militants attacked the empty French cultural center in Gaza City, shooting at the entrance to the building's garden and throwing a bomb, Palestinian security officials said. The attack, which caused no injuries or damage, came hours after militants burst into a West Bank hotel and briefly kidnapped a young German teacher there to protest the cartoons.
The cartoons, one of which shows Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, were originally published in a Danish newspaper. In recent days, they have been republished in several European newspapers in a show of solidarity and support for freedom of expression. Two Italian newspapers published the drawings Friday.
Islamic law, based on clerics' interpretation of the Quran and the sayings of the prophet, absolutely forbids depictions of the prophet Muhammad, even positive images, in order to prevent idolatry.
Protests against the cartoons have swept the Muslim world. In Jakarta, Indonesia, more than 150 hardline Muslims stormed a high-rise building housing the Danish Embassy on Friday and tore down and burned the country's flag. Pakistan's parliament unanimously passed a resolution condemning the cartoons as a "vicious, outrageous and provocative campaign."
A boycott against many European products began to take hold Friday in Gaza supermarkets, despite shortages of some goods due to Israel's two-week closure of the Karni cargo crossing into Gaza.
"Boycott Danish products. For the sake of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, boycott and fight these products," read a banner outside one market in the Beach camp in Gaza that displayed pictures of cheese and shampoo.
Noman Malahi, 49, the owner of the store, said he threw out three boxes of Danish cheese that he bought three days ago.
"It cost me 900 shekels (about US$200) but I am ready to pay 9 million to voice my anger over those who had harmed the image of our beloved prophet," he said. "God willing, they are going to face a hard time, have a collapse in their economy and God also will avenge his prophet. It won't be a surprise if a new tsunami or strong earthquake will hit (Denmark)."
Maher Abdel Kader, who owns a supermarket in Gaza City, said he decided to pull French and Danish products, including dry milk and cheese, from the shelves after three men came to his store and told him about the boycott on Thursday.
His shop was already suffering shortages of some products because of the closure of Karni, "but we are talking about the Prophet Muhammad here," he said. "Those people crossed the red line and for the Prophet Muhammad, I am ready to close my shop."
Foreign diplomats, aid workers and journalists began pulling out of Palestinian areas Thursday because of kidnapping threats against some European nationals.
Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city of Nablus searched several hotels for foreigners to kidnap, and nabbed Christopher Kasten, a 21-year-old English teacher, for less than an hour before Palestinian police rescued him unharmed.
The furor cuts to the question of which is more sacred in the Western world -- freedom of expression or respect for religious beliefs. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the protests came just a week after the Islamic militant Hamas defeated the ruling Fatah Party in parliament elections and prepared to form the next government.
In one unusual twist, Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader, visited a Gaza church Thursday and promised protection to Christians, after Fatah gunmen threatened to target churches as part of their protests. Zahar offered the local priest the protect of gunmen from Hamas' military wing, the Izzedine al Qassam Brigades.
"You are our brothers," Zahar told Father Manuel Musallam of the Holy Family Church.
On Monday, gunmen briefly took over the EU Commission's office in Gaza and several shots were fired at the Danish representative office in the West Bank town of Ramallah, which was empty at the time.
The protests intensified Thursday, when a dozen gunmen linked to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' defeated Fatah Party surrounded the EU Commission's office in Gaza.
One of the militants, flanked by two masked men with assault rifles, said the governments of Germany, France, Norway and Denmark must apologize for the cartoons by Thursday evening. If no apology was issued, the gunmen said they would target citizens of the four countries and shut down media offices, including the French news agency. "Any citizens of these countries, who are present in Gaza, will put themselves in danger," the gunman said.
Only a few dozen foreigners from the targeted countries were in Gaza on Thursday. Many others had pulled out in recent months, following a spate of abductions of foreigners by Fatah-linked gunmen.
Many foreign reporters pulled out of Gaza or canceled plans to go.
Danish and French members of international observer team at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt stayed away from Gaza on Thursday, and instead worked from the group's headquarters in the Israeli town of Ashkelon, said a spokesman, Julio de La Guardia.
Gunhild Forselv, spokeswoman for the international observer mission in the West Bank city of Hebron, said she was in touch with community leaders and was not concerned for the safety of the 72-member observer force, which includes 21 Norwegians and 11 Danes. "We don't feel threatened," she said.
Norway closed its representative office in the West Bank to the public on Thursday because of the threats, but said the 23-member staff remains on the job.
The Danish Foreign Ministry in Copenhagen said all Danes, except for two diplomats, have left the West Bank and Gaza in recent days. The Danish representative office in the West Bank was to be closed Friday because of the threats, a local diplomat said.
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