Muslim protest
BangkokPost.com, dpaAround 800 Thai Muslims claiming to represent the Bangkok Islamic community burnt a Danish flag and marched on the country's embassy on Wednesday to protest the reprinting of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad by Danish newspapers.
Members of the Thailand-based Muslims Group for Peace rallied outside the embassy, shouting "Allah Akbar," (God is great"), burnt a flag and photos of the Danish prime minister Anders Fosh Rasmussen and Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

They called on all Thai Muslims to boycott Danish goods.

There also were demonstrations in Pakistan, where young people burnt tyres and blocked roads in Multan to protest the reprinting of the cartoons.

In Bangkok, leaders of the group denied reports they were organised or supported by the Iranian embassy in Bangkok.

They said that the protesters came from Nong Chok district in Minburi, a Muslim neighbourhood in Bangkok, but were Sunni Muslims with no affiliation to Iran.

They also denied any political motivation behind their demonstration, apart from a protest against the Danish government's "disregard" of the offensive cartoons.

"We should do something more violent than just protest, but today we are keeping it peaceful," said Suloh Salaimad, a member of the Muslim group for Peace.

The Bangkok protest followed a call last Friday in Teheran by prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami for the Islamic world to cut ties with Denmark over the cartoons, and hardline members of parliament echoed that call.

According to the Teheran media, Iran hopes to make the cartoons and "those who desecrate Prophet Muhammad" a central issue at the summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference which opens on Thursday in Dakar, Senegal.

The protesters, some of them wearing T-shirts reading "Jihad" or "We Love Mohammad," sat in the road in front of the embassy and listened to speeches denouncing the Scandinavian country. Several demonstrators unfurled a banner saying "Boycott Denmark."

The Bangkok protest was purportedly prompted by last month's reprinting of 12 cartoons that triggered an uproar in 2006 when they were first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspapers, sparking violent protests in many Muslim countries.

The cartoons were reprinted in February in several Danish newspapers after police said they had foiled a murder plot against Danish newspaper cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban was deemed especially offensive.

"We want the world to know that you can't fool with Islam," said Mureed Teemasean, addressing the demonstration outside the Danish embassy in Bangkok.


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Hundreds of pro-Iran Muslims marched on the Danish embassy in Bangkok on Wednesday to protest the reprinting last month of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad in Danish newspapers and the Danish government's "disregard" of the incident.

About 600 members of the "Muslims Group for Peace," rallied outside the embassy, shouting "Allah Akbar," (God is great") and calling on all Thai Muslims to boycott Danish goods.

Most of the protesters came from Nong Chok district in Minburi, a Muslim neighbourhood in Bangkok.

"We should do something more violent than just protest, but today we are keeping it peaceful," said Suloh Salaimad, a member of the pro-Teheran Muslim Group for Peace.

The Bangkok protest followed a call last Friday in Teheran by prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami for the Islamic world to cut ties with Denmark over the cartoons, and hardline members of parliament echoed that call.

According to the Teheran media, Iran hopes to make the cartoons and "those who desecrate Prophet Muhammad" a central issue at the summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference which opens on Thursday in Dakar, Senegal.

The protesters also burned the Danish flag and photos of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fosh Rasmussen and of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, one of the offending humourists.

The protesters, some of them wearing T-shirts reading "Jihad" or "We Love Mohammad," sat in the road in front of the embassy and listened to speeches denouncing the Scandinavian country. Several demonstrators unfurled a banner saying "Boycott Denmark."

The Bangkok protest was purportedly prompted by last month's reprinting of 12 cartoons that triggered an uproar in 2006 when they were first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspapers, sparking violent protests in many Muslim countries.

The cartoons were reprinted in February in several Danish newspapers after police said they had foiled a murder plot against Danish newspaper cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban was deemed especially offensive.

"We want the world to know that you can't fool with Islam," said Mureed Teemasean, addressing the demonstration outside the Danish embassy in Bangkok.

A late afternoon call to the Bangkok Post by Abdul Khaliqmooktaree, who claimed to be one of the protesters and a media monitor of Muslim Group for Peace, said the marchers were not pro-Iranian.