COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Reuters):
DENMARK AND Norway yesterday condemned as incitement to murder, a Pakistani cleric's offer of a reward to anyone who kills any of the 12 Danish cartoonists who lampooned the Prophet Mohammad.
"It's murder and murder is also forbidden by the Koran," Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller told a news conference with his colleague Jonas Gahr Stoere from Norway, which has been dragged into the row after a paper there published the cartoons.
"Islam is also a religion of peace, mercy and forgiveness. That is why it is my opinion, but also the opinion of many Muslims, this is un-Islamic," said the Danish minister.
A Pakistani Muslim cleric and his followers offered rewards on Friday amounting to more than $1 million for killing one of the Danish cartoonists, who are under police protection.
At Friday's prayers in Peshawar, Maulana Yousef Qureshi set a bounty of 500,000 rupees ($8,400) and two of his congregation put up rewards of $1 million and one million rupees plus a car.
The Danish paper Jyllands-Posten first published the cartoons last September, but Danish Muslim leaders brought them to the attention of imams in the Middle East in December and January. Many newspapers and magazines in Europe and elsewhere have run the cartoons in defence of free speech.
Scandinavian Muslim groups denounced the bounty offer.
Ahmed Abu-Laban, a Danish imam who helped organise a trip to Egypt and Lebanon last year by local Muslim leaders to rally support against the drawings, condemned the threats and said he was now satisfied with the development of dialogue in Denmark.
