LEBANON: Hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims yesterday turned a religious ceremony in Lebanon into a protest against cartoons in the western media lampooning the Prophet Muhammad. Meanwhile, the United States accused Iran and Syria of deliberately stoking Muslim rage.
"Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes," US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday evening.
The leader of Lebanon's Hizbullah guerrilla group pledged no compromise until there was a full apology from Denmark, where the cartoons first appeared, and European countries passed laws prohibiting insults against the Prophet.
"Today, we are defending the dignity of our Prophet with a word, a demonstration, but let [ US president] George Bush and the arrogant world know that if we have to. . . we will defend our Prophet with our blood, not our voices," Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told the crowd.
The annual Shia mourning ceremonies mark the death of the Prophet's grandson, Imam Hussein, killed in Karbala in Iraq 1,300 years ago. Security sources put the turnout in Beirut at 400,000 and similar processions were due throughout the day in other Shia centres, notably in Iraq and Iran.
There were also demonstrations against the cartoons in Indonesia, South Africa - 30,000 out in Cape Town - Bangladesh, Indian Kashmir and Azerbaijan yesterday, but all passed off largely peacefully.
UN secretary general Kofi Annan scolded the media yesterday for continuing to publish cartoons lampooning Muhammad and defended an attempt by Islamic nations to have a new UN human rights council address religious defamation.
The text proposed by 57 Islamic countries would promote universal respect for all religious and cultural values. It would "prevent instances of intolerance, discrimination, incitement of hatred and violence arising from any actions against religions, prophets and beliefs which threaten the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms".
It also notes that "defamation of religions and prophets is inconsistent with the right to freedom of expression" and emphasised that states, organisations and the media have a "responsibility in promoting tolerance and respect for religious and cultural values". The aim is to have the new human rights body adopted this month, so it can begin to function this summer.
Mr Annan also said he had no knowledge that Iran and Syria were stirring up trouble. "I have no evidence to that effect," Mr Annan told reporters.
"Honestly, I do not understand why any newspaper will publish the cartoons today," Mr Annan said. "It is insensitive. It is offensive. It is provocative and you see what has happened around the world."
Mr Annan said this did not mean he opposed freedom of the press, but he said it did entail "exercising responsibility and judgment" and media should not "pour oil on the fire". He again condemned violence as unacceptable.
Malaysia has decided to suspend the publishing licence of a daily newspaper after it printed the cartoons. Prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ordered the licence of the publisher of the Sarawak Tribune to be suspended indefinitely with immediate effect.
The Sarawak Tribune is published in the eastern state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. It is one of the few Malaysian states where Muslims are in a minority.
Egypt has banned the latest Arabic editions of the German magazines Der Spiegel and Focus because they reprinted the cartoons.