Syria, Denmark discuss means of handling cartoons crisis
Syria-Denmark, Politics, 3/4/2006

Syria and Denmark have discussed means of handling the crisis resulting from caricatures that can be considered as depicting the Prophet Mohannad as a terrorist, which were first published by a Danish newspaper, the official SANA news agency reported on Friday.

Syrian Information Minister Muhsen Bilal and Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller held a meeting in this regard on Thursday at the Syrian embassy in Spain's capital of Madrid, SANA said.

"Moeller demanded Syria's help to deal with the crisis due to her key role in the region and her big effect in this domain," SANA quoted a source as saying.

In turn, Bilal underlined "the necessity of the Danish government to tackle the passive results of the cartoons that hurt Moslems feelings all over the world," the source said.

The Syrian and Danish authorities have been engaged in contact to solve the crisis as Danish Ambassador to Damascus, Ole Mikkelsen, returned to Dmascus Sunday after he had left for his home country after furious Syrians stormed and set fire to his embassy earlier this month.

Syria has said it will compensate for the damages made in these incidents in which the Swedish, Norwegian embassies were partly or fully destroyed.

Although declining to apologize on behalf of the newspaper which originally printed the cartoons, Denmark still sought to calm the Muslim anger by saying it will hold a religious conference, make a donation to a UN agency fighting prejudice and stage a Muslim cultural exhibition.

The cartoons were first published by the Danish newspaper last September and republished in some other European newspapers last month. One of the cartoons depicted the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.

According to Islamic tradition, realistic depiction of prophets were prohibited and caricatures of them were considered profane.

Previous Stories:
  Syria, Denmark discuss enhancing ties   (2/28/2006)
  Denmark's ambassador returning to Syria   (2/25/2006)
  Danish ambassador leaves Syria   (2/13/2006)

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