CAIRO, 30 December 2005 — Arab foreign ministers yesterday lashed out at the Danish government over a growing controversy aroused by the publication in a Copenhagen daily of caricatures representing the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Gathered at the Arab League, they issued a statement expressing their “surprise and indignation at the reaction of the Danish government, which was disappointing despite its political, economic and cultural ties with the Muslim world.”
Twelve cartoons, which were published in the Jyllands-Posten daily late last September, have sparked an uproar among Muslims in Denmark and abroad. The paper and the cartoonist have even received death threats.
Liberal Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has refused to meet 11 Copenhagen-based ambassadors from Muslim countries who wanted to complain about the cartoons and demand an official apology.
The foreign ministers also said they were unhappy that European organizations dealing with human rights have not taken a clear position on the issue.
They decided that the Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and his counterpart from the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, would pursue the matter with the Danish authorities.
The foreign ministers and diplomats from 21 Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority met yesterday to begin talks on reforming the 60-year-old Arab League and rewriting its charter.
