DHAKA/PESHAWAR, 14 February 2006 — Bangladesh lawmakers yesterday condemned the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and called for an apology from the countries who have published them, sources said.
The Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution late Sunday condemning the cartoons and calling on countries where they were published to “seek apology for their misdeeds and take punitive action against the offenders,” state-run BSS news agency said yesterday.
“The lawmakers said this incident was not an isolated one. Rather, it was a calculated and well-planned design of the Western clique, who are trying to provoke Muslims and subsequently fish in troubled waters capitalizing on the situation,” BSS said.
The parliamentary outrage follows days of protests and marches across Bangladesh, including in the capital Dhaka, during which thousands of demonstrators burned and trampled Danish flags and demanded the expulsion of European envoys.
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that the Cartoons of the Prophet are uniting moderate and radicals in protests.
Musharraf told a group of visiting journalists that newspapers that have printed the caricatures were “being totally oblivious to the consequences for the world, for world peace and harmony.”
Since a Danish paper printed the drawings in September, other publications — mostly in Europe — have published them, saying they were exercising their right to free speech.
But Musharraf said that such an argument was “pathetic” and “ridiculous.”
“I don’t see how any civilized person can take the issue of freedom of press to hurt the feelings of such a large population of the world,” he said.
“I think this is taking freedom of press to its limit.” Musharraf said all Muslims were united in opposing the cartoons. “Whether an extremist or a moderate or an ultramoderate, we will condemn it,” he said.
On Friday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia condemned the publication of cartoons as “extremely arrogant” but warned Muslims against allowing their anger to turn violent.
Khaleda’s statement was the first official comment on the cartoons initially published in a Danish daily in September and since widely reprinted, sparking a wave of Muslim fury.
Meanwhile, police in northwest Pakistan fired teargas to disperse around 4,000 protesters and students demonstrating against the blasphemous cartoons, witnesses said yesterday.
Witnesses said angry students and local traders in Peshawar city smashed up traffic lights, windows and signboards advertising Norwegian telecom giant Telenor.
Norway was the second country after Denmark where the caricatures were published. Muslims say the images are sacrilegious.
“As a Muslim we cannot allow defamation of our Prophet Muhammad at any cost. From today, I will no longer promote Telenor services,” said Qahar, a mobile phone dealer in Peshawar.
Shopkeepers pulled down their shutters and shoppers abandoned Peshawar’s main Saddar bazaar as the protesters went on the rampage.
“More than 20 promotional signboards with Telenor logo and messages were damaged in the bazaar,” a Telenor sales agent in the bazaar said.
Sixteen protesters were arrested for damaging public property, a local police official said. Police estimated the total number of protesters at around 4,000.
Rallies condemning the drawings depicting the Prophet have been held almost daily in Pakistan, around 2,000 people demonstrating Sunday in the central city of Multan.
Pakistan’s Islamic parties Saturday called for a nationwide strike on March 3 in protest at the publication of the cartoons. — Additional input from agencies.
