Norway stresses respect to religions, denounces Prophet Muhammad depiction

Norway has stressed respect to the Islamic faith and denounced all forms of insult to other religions, describing the publication of the offensive cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in a Norwegian magazine as "unfortunate and deplorable."

A statement issued by the Norwegian ambassador in Damascus, Svein Sevje, said all peoples have the right to respect for their religion, and the right to that neither their religion nor religious affiliations will be subject to contempt.

He added that he could understand that the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the Norwegian magazine of Magazinet being perceived as offensive and that they have caused a stir in Muslim communities.

Sevje added that "Islam constitutes the spiritual foundation for a large part of the world's population, and their religion is entitled to our respect."

The Norwegian ambassador said that "utterances such as these caricatures are not conducive to fostering trust between people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds. On the contrary, they encourage distrust and confrontation. This incident is unfortunate and deplorable."

He asserted that freedom of expression is a constitutional right and one of the mainstay of his country's society. "This also entails tolerance for views that are not shared by everyone. I note that none of the leading Norwegian media have published similar offensive illustrations of utterances," the ambassador said.

The Norwegian ambassador in Damascus stressed that his government "condemns any action or statement that expresses contempt for a person on the basis of religion or ethnic background. Tolerance, mutual respect and dialogue are fundamental values both in Norwegian society and in its foreign policy," he concluded.

Meantime, in an indication of the severity of the losses some western companies are suffering as a result of this incident, CNN in a report said that one company, Arla, is loosing 2 million dollars a day as a result of this incident, where Arla product have seen a wide boycott in the Middle East.

Danish companies are suffering similar boycott, and a CNN report said that some Norway companies such as Nestle had said that its products does not use in them products from Denmark.