Agence France-Presse . Copenhagen

Denmark's foreign policy committee said Saturday it had cancelled a trip to Iran next week over demands it apologise for a controversial Prophet Mohammad [SM] cartoon printed in Danish newspapers. 'The Iranian parliament wanted our delegation to present an official apology to Iran.

We said "absolutely not"...We cannot do that, it would be a violation of freedom of expression,' the committee's deputy chairman Jeppe Kofod told the news agency. The nine members of the foreign policy committee were to visit Iran from Monday to Wednesday to discuss human rights and Iran's nuclear programme.

'They told us they would not meet us unless we apologised. And they knew we would not present any apology, they know our democracy doesn't work that way,' Kofod said. Iran on Wednesday summoned Denmark's ambassador to protest the reprinting in at least 17 Danish newspapers of the cartoon, one of 12 that caused bloody riots in the Islamic world two years ago.

The drawing featured the prophet's head with a turban that looked like a bomb with a lit fuse. The newspapers chose to republish it after Danish police uncovered an alleged plot in the Scandinavian country to kill the cartoonist. Hundreds of Iranian demonstrators twice in February 2006 attacked the Danish embassy, causing serious damage by throwing Molotov cocktails.

They also briefly stormed the building to protest the cartoons. Eight months later, demonstrators angered over a satirical video of the Prophet Mohammed aired on Danish television hurled firebombs and rocks at Denmark's embassy. Protests against the reprinting have also been voiced in recent days in Bangladesh, Kuwait, and Pakistan, while the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference have condemned the publication.

Comments

Add New

Write comment
Name:
Email:	We don't publish your mail. See privacy policy.
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.