Afghan police kill four amid rage over cartoons

Afghan protesters attack a building belonging to the Danish diplomatic mission in Kabul. Picture / Reuters

KABUL - Afghan police shot dead four people protesting today against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that have unleashed waves of rage and soul-searching across the Muslim world and Europe.

Tens of thousands of Muslims demonstrated in the Middle East, Asia and Africa over the drawings, first published in Denmark, then Norway and then several other European countries. Some Muslim leaders urged restraint.

In Iran, locked in a nuclear stand-off with the West, a crowd pelted the Danish embassy with petrol bombs and stones for a second day. Protesters hurled a petrol bomb and broke windows at Norway's mission.

The 12 cartoonists whose work touched off the firestorm were reported to be in hiding, frightened, and under police guard. Iran's best-selling newspaper launched a competition to find the best Holocaust cartoon.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller called his Iranian counterpart "and demanded in clear terms that Iran does all it can to protect the embassy and Danish lives", a spokesman said. Tehran has cut trade ties with Denmark.

Afghan crowds attacked a base of NATO Norwegian troops with guns and grenades and police opened fire, bringing the death toll in protests against the cartoons to nine.

F-16 warplanes flew overhead in a show of force while the Norwegians fired tear gas, rubber bullets and warning shots, managing to restore order by early evening.

After rioters set Danish missions ablaze in Syria and Lebanon at the weekend, the European Union presidency issued a strongly-worded warning to 19 countries across the Middle East that they were obliged to protect EU missions.

Iran's ambassador to Vienna said an attack on Austria's embassy in Tehran on Monday was directed at "the EU presidency" rather than Austria itself, current holder of the presidency.

Accusing "radicals, extremists and fanatics" of fanning the flames of Muslim wrath to "push forward their own agenda", Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen repeated a call for dialogue with offended Muslims.

US President George W. Bush called him to express support and solidarity, Rasmussen said. The White House said both leaders "reiterated the importance of tolerance and respect for religions of all faith and freedom of the press".

Depicting the Prophet is prohibited by Islam. Moderate Muslims, while condemning the cartoons, have expressed fears radicals are hijacking debate over the boundary between media freedom and religious respect.

Militants in Iraq have called for the seizure and killing of Danes and the boycott of Danish goods over the cartoons, one of which depicts Mohammad wearing a turban resembling a bomb with a burning fuse.

In London, protesters have brandished placards demanding the beheading of those who insulted Islam. One dressed as a suicide bomber but later apologised.

Copies of a British student paper which reproduced one of the cartoons were hastily shredded and the editor suspended from a student union. A French court however refused to order the confiscation of a magazine which planned to print the images.

Echoing calls for calm by leaders, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: "I urge all who have authority or influence in different communities ... to engage in dialogue and build a true alliance of civilizations, founded on mutual respect."

Further protests erupted on Tuesday in Pakistan, Egypt, Yemen, Djibouti, Gaza and Azerbaijan.

At least 10,000 people marched in the Bangladeshi capital and tens of thousands turned out in Niger's capital Niamey to vent their anger. State assembly members in mostly Muslim Kano, northern Nigeria, burnt Danish flags.

Croatia became the latest country where a newspaper printed the drawings. The cartoons have appeared in Australia, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Fiji, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United States, Ukraine and Yemen.

Iran, which has withdrawn its ambassador from Denmark, said the cartoons "launched an anti-Islamic and Islamophobic current which will be answered".

A radical Muslim group in Belgium put on its website a cartoon of Adolf Hitler in bed with Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who wrote a wartime diary of hiding from Nazi persecution.

Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper rejected violence:

"Violence, spreading chaos and destroying facilities ... only distorts Islam's image, especially after our enemies have tried to label us with so many accusations," it said.

Some Danish Muslims agreed. "Fire and stones are taking things too far," said Copenhagen barber Farzan Khatami.

Denmark's Jyllands-Posten daily has apologised for the cartoons, first published last September. The Danish government has refused to do so, saying it is the paper's responsibility.

- REUTERS