REUTERS, Fri Feb 3, 4:38 AM ET
Muslims attack Danish embassy building in Jakarta
Militant Indonesian Muslims went on a rampage inside the lobby of a Jakarta building
housing the Danish embassy on Friday in protest over cartoons that Muslims say
insult Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.
Shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), between 200 to 300 white-clad protesters
from the Islamic Defender's Front (FPI) smashed lamps with bamboo sticks and threw
chairs around in anger at cartoons originally published by a Danish daily.
They threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at the Danish embassy symbol and tore up a
Danish national flag. The embassy is on the 25th floor of the building and protesters
were unable to get past police inside the lobby, a Reuters photographer said.
Outrage has erupted in the Middle East after more European newspapers published
the cartoons, which were originally published by Danish daily Jyllands-Posten last
September. Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.
About 100 Indonesian policemen tried to restrain the FPI protesters as they made
fiery speeches calling on the government of the world's most populous Muslim nation
to sever diplomatic ties with Denmark and evict its ambassador.
The protesters dispersed after an hour. There were no arrests.
About 200 protesters also rallied outside the Danish consulate in Indonesia's
second-largest city Surabaya, witnesses said. One poster held aloft said the world's
Muslims were ready to defend the honor of the Prophet Mohammad.
The Indonesian government condemned the cartoons and said it had expressed its
concern to Denmark's envoy, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin told a weekly
news conference.
As a democracy, Indonesia welcomed freedom of expression but drew the line at
mocking sacred religious symbols, he said.
"I think this is not only about a bilateral issue between Indonesia and Denmark, this is
a much more serious issue ... It involves the whole Islamic world vis-a-vis Denmark
and vis-a-vis the trend of Islamophobia," Thamrin added.
Newspapers in France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Hungary have reprinted the
caricatures this week, saying press freedom was more important than the protests
and boycotts they have provoked.
Many Arab commentators said the European defense rings hollow because, they
said, European media protected Judaism and Israel from criticism.
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