AP News, January 25th, 2007
Ties between Muslim nations and the West suffered no long-term damage from the international uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published in European countries last year, Denmark's foreign minister said Thursday.
The 12 drawings were first published in September 2005 in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and were reprinted four months later by a range of Western publications, triggering massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia and some attacks on Danish embassies.
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, who is visiting Malaysia and Indonesia during a tour of Southeast Asia, said there were "no problems" lingering from the crisis, adding that Denmark wants healthy relations with Muslim nations.
"We must understand that the crisis is over, and all countries want it to be over," Moeller told a news conference. "I think it would be wrong to create problems."
The crisis, however, showed that nations must improve religious understanding, Moeller added.
"We have to respect the differences between our cultures and our religions," Moeller said. "It's stupid to destroy the world because of something that you don't like in this culture or something that you don't like in that culture."
Denmark wants to develop more economic and social links with Muslim-majority countries such as Malaysia, Moeller said, noting that he has also met with Arab representatives about improving cross-cultural relations.
Moeller met Wednesday with Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who said he told Moeller that Western nations should show more respect and sensitivity toward the Islamic world.
The cartoons offended many Muslims because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depiction of the prophet for fear it could lead to idolatry.
Throughout the crisis, the Danish government resisted calls to apologize for the cartoons and said it could not be held responsible for the actions of independent newspapers.
One of the cartoons showed Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb, while another portrayed him holding a sword. Jyllands-Posten said the decision to print the drawings was meant as a challenge to perceived self-censorship, not as an insult to Muslims.
