Denmark: An opinion poll in a Danish Sunday newspaper showed that more than half the Danes questioned said they understood why Muslims around the world were outraged by cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad first published in Denmark.
But fewer than half of those asked thought it was wrong of the daily Jyllands-Posten to publish the 12 cartoons.
The Malaysian newspaper Star reported that the Danish foreign minister had asked his Malaysian counterpart to help calm Muslim anger over the cartoons.
The report appeared shortly after Denmark's foreign ministry urged its citizens to leave Indonesia because of a "clear and present danger" from Muslim extremists and followed the withdrawal of Danish diplomats from Indonesia, Iran and Syria.
The Gallup survey in Denmark's Berlingske Tidende showed that 56 per cent of the 1,003 Danes questioned last week understood that Muslims were offended by the cartoons, while 41 per cent said they did not understand why Muslims were so angry.
Asked if it was wrong of Jyllands-Posten to publish the cartoons, 49 per cent of respondents agreed, but 43 per cent said the paper was right to print them.
However, a poll in Britain showed most people in Britain believed newspapers were right to publish the cartoons.
As thousands gathered in London for a second weekend of demonstrations, which passed off peacefully, the YouGov poll for The Sunday Times found little sympathy.
The decision to publish the cartoons, and the reprint of them elsewhere, was backed by more than two to one - 56 per cent to 29 per cent.
A huge majority - 88 per cent - agreed that the violent protests have been a "gross overreaction" and 58 per cent said they were angered by placards seen in London last week.
Protests against the cartoons appeared to be dwindling. In Tehran, about 60 people staged a protest outside the French embassy, setting fire to a French flag and chanting "Death to America" and "Fascist France is a servant of Zionism". Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference diplomatic missions should be respected "to stop the enemies from taking advantage of the situation to justify the disgusting move that happened in some European countries."
In Afghanistan, where protests last week led to 10 deaths when police fired on angry crowds, there have been only small, isolated protests in recent days, though a leading rebel, a former government minister, condemned the cartoons yesterday.
"The publication of blasphemous cartoons of our great Prophet in European newspapers proves that crusading nations have not forgotten their old enmity to Muslims," Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said in a statement.
In Copenhagen, the foreign ministry urged all Danes on Saturday to leave Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, as soon as possible.
"Concrete information indicates that an extremist group wishes to actively seek out Danes in protest for the publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons," it said. The threat is greatest in eastern Java but "it is feared that it can spread to the rest of the country, including Bali," it added.
Malaysia's Star quoted foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar as saying he had received a call from his Danish counterpart Per Stig Moeller asking Malaysia to help calm Muslim anger.
"He told me they respect Islam and it was never their intention to hurt the feelings of Muslims," the newspaper quoted Syed Hamid as saying. "He hopes Malaysia can help in explaining and containing the situation from getting out of control and causing a divide between Muslims and non-Muslims."
Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottak had also contacted him, asking for an emergency meeting of OIC (Organisation of the Islamic Conference) foreign ministers to discuss the issue, he said.
In Lebanon, a militant Muslim group loyal to al-Qaeda said the torching of Danish missions in Lebanon and Syria in protest at the cartoons should spark a holy war against the West.
"The fire you set is but a signal to start jihad from the Palestinian refugee camps . . . against the crusaders who still insult (the Prophet)," Usbat al-Ansar said in a statement.
In Yemen, the authorities detained three journalists and closed their newspaper for reprinting cartoons of the Prophet, officials said.
Meanwhile, it emerged that the United Nations last week temporarily grounded all helicopters involved in earthquake relief work in northern Pakistan due to growing anger over the cartoons.
- (Reuters; additional reporting PA)