Lebanese protesters torch Danish Embassy

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Thousands of Muslims rampaged Sunday in Beirut, setting fire to the Danish Embassy, burning Danish flags and lobbing stones at a Maronite Catholic church as violent protests spread over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Troops fired bullets into the air and used tear gas and water cannons to push the crowds back after a small group of Islamic extremists tried to break through the security barrier outside the embassy.

Demonstrators attacked policemen with stones and set fire to several fire engines, witnesses said. Black smoke was seen billowing from the area. Security officials said at least 18 people were injured, including policemen, fire fighters and protesters. Witnesses saw at least 10 people taken away by ambulance.

A security official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said staff at the Danish Embassy had been evacuated two days ago.

‘It is a critical situation’

The Danish Foreign Ministry urged Danes to leave Lebanon as soon as possible as Danes and Norwegians heeded a similar call in neighboring Syria, where violent protests broke out on Saturday.

“It is a critical situation and it is very serious,” Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said Sunday on Danish public radio.

Protesters also took to the streets in Afghanistan, the West Bank, Iraq and New Zealand, a day after demonstrators in Syria charged security barriers outside the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and sent the buildings up in flames.

Those attacks earned widespread condemnation from European nations and the U.S., which accused the Syrian government of backing the protests.

The Danish foreign minister said: “enough is enough.”

“Now it has become more than a case about the drawings: Now there are forces that wants a confrontation between our cultures,” Moeller said. “It is in no one’s interest, neither them or us.”

Syria blamed Denmark for the protests, criticizing the Scandinavian nation for refusing to apologize for the caricatures of Islam’s holiest figure.

“(Denmark’s) government was able to avoid reaching this point ... simply through an apology” as requested by Arab and Muslim diplomats, state-run daily Al-Thawra said in an editorial Sunday.

“It is unjustifiable under any kind of personal freedoms to allow a person or a group to insult the beliefs of millions of Muslims,” the paper said.

Rising anger

Anger has broken out across the Muslim world over 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were first published in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten in September and reprinted in European media and New Zealand in the past week.

One depicted the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. The paper said it had asked cartoonists to draw the pictures because the media was practicing self-censorship when it came to Muslim issues.

The drawings have touched a raw nerve in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he personally disapproves of the caricatures and any attacks on religion — but insisted he cannot apologize on behalf of his country’s independent press.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10705393/

Edited February 5, 2006 by rch99

[Fuzzness 2]

I know the majority of muslims are peaceful but.... this really makes you wonder if the cartoon was truthful.

[pedroh 21]

ah the civilized ways of protesting.. yes..

[Fandango 1,439]

Fanatical lunatics....all the while, proving the cartoon true.

Didn't Mohammad preach peace?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Fanatical lunatics....all the while, proving the cartoon true.

Didn't Mohammad preach peace?

original response deleted

Lisa. Why yes, he did

Edited February 5, 2006 by Agent Smith

[britbird 4]

bunch of loonatic whackjobs.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

bunch of loonatic whackjobs.

nope, just pyromaniacs

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

bunch of loonatic whackjobs.

nope, just pyromaniacs

Hey now, be nice. You don't want the cult of pyromania setting your house on fire do you?

[Nizzy 1]

Muslims have every right to be angry...but to react in such a violent way really hurts our argument that Islam is a peaceful religion...I am livid at the fact that these kind of people are becoming the definition of who Muslims are...I just don't know anymore...the world continues to let me down...

I don't think God meant to make religion as a weapon of hate...the many times I have been stuck in religious debates just thinking..."Shut up already!!!" I believe in God and that's that...

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Muslims have every right to be angry...but to react in such a violent way really hurts our argument that Islam is a peaceful religion...

The problem with the 'argument' that Islam (or any other religion) is "peaceful" is that the religion depends on people who follow it. Purists may like to claim that a religion is defined by its books and teachings, but the public face of any religion is its people. And there is no way to go out and "argue" that Islam or Christianity or Hinduism are "peaceful" religions and expect the millions who claim to follow it to fall into line and obey. It just doesn't work that way.

[Nizzy 1]

I don't get what you said just yet but ummmm okay...the people who follow the religion do not in any way define the religion...not if the way they lead their lives is a misrepresentation of what the book teaches...

I'm out...here I am doing what I haateee...religious debates...like totally gross...

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I don't get what you said just yet but ummmm okay...the people who follow the religion do not in any way define the religion...not if the way they lead their lives is a misrepresentation of what the book teaches...

I'm out...here I am doing what I haateee...religious debates...like totally gross...

The public face of any religion are its people. You can't say Christianity is all-inclusive and accepting and expect the Falwell's to shut up. Similarly, saying Islam is peaceful isn't going to make the violent fringe that exists in the Middle East stop. Claims like "Islam is peace" make nice soundbites but are quite meaningless when it comes to religions that consist of millions of sovereign individuals.

Edited February 5, 2006 by Agent Smith

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Didn't Mohammad preach peace?

Sure. But he was a warrior too.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/History.htm

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Didn't Mohammad preach peace?

Sure. But he was a warrior too.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/History.htm

Great website

It's all black and white for you isn't it? Islam is a barbaric religion of hate and violence. Great.

Yet don't lets get started on the whole Protestant / Catholic northern Ireland thing that's been going for decades. We allow ourselves rather more scope for 'grey area' debate when talking about our own extremists, than we do for those of a different cultural background who we don't understand and apparently lack the desire to find out.

Have you read the Koran? Do you have any muslim friends or family? No? Well its always comforting when we can hide behind our own pre-existing prejudices. Apparently there's nothing to learn when all you have to do is pick up a handful of sand and call it the world....

[Fandango 1,439]

Fanatical lunatics....all the while, proving the cartoon true.

Didn't Mohammad preach peace?

original response deleted

Lisa. Why yes, he did

Cmon now don't be shy

It was more of a rhetorical question...and while I do agree that religion is defined by its people, I just can't understand why - if the basis of their religion is peace, and they identify with that religion...especially to the point where they are completely up in arms over something perceived as blasphemous to something so sacred to them - why in the world the reaction is so violent, yet they still say they follow the Muslim religion.

It's like a mutation of the Muslim faith, because they're all ignoring its (what I'm guessing to be) principal teachings. It's cherrypicking the Muslim doctrine.

I'm ranting, and prolly not making any sense