Iran summons Danish ambassador over cartoon issue
TEHRAN (AP): Iran has summoned the Danish ambassador to Tehran in protest over the reprinting of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed by leading Danish newspapers, state TV reported on Thursday.
The report said that during a meeting between Foreign Ministry officials and the Danish envoy, the Iranian side strongly condemned Wednesday's reprint and demanded the Danish government take a ``serious approach'' to the case and prevent its recurrence.
Leading Danish newspapers reprinted what was arguably the most controversial of the 12 Muhammed cartoons that enraged Muslims in early 2006 when they appeared in a range of Western newspapers and sparked deadly riots across the Muslim world. The reprint came as a gesture of solidarity after police revealed a plot to kill the creator of the caricature.
The drawing, by newspaper cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, depicts Islam's prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable.
In 2006, angry mobs burned the Danish flag and attacked Danish and other Western embassies in Tehran. Similar attacks took place in other Muslim countries, and the violence led to the deaths of some protesters in Afghanistan and Libya.
As a consequence, Danish products were boycotted by many Muslim consumers around the world.
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