http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5392778-119665,00.html
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7pm update
Danish embassy in Tehran attacked
Staff and agencies
Monday February 6, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Hundreds of angry protesters threw stones and firebombs at the Danish embassy in Tehran today to protest against the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
Police had encircled the embassy building but were unable to hold back up to 400 demonstrators as they pelted the mission with stones and incendiary devices.
So far the protesters have not breached the police cordon to get inside the structure, but they managed to throw a handful of firebombs over the building's high outer wall. The embassy had already been evacuated.
The Bush administration today condemned the violent protests against the cartoons that have taken place around the world and urged governments to take steps to lower tensions.
"We understand fully why people, why Muslims, find the cartoons offensive, and we've also spoken out about the importance of the right for people to express their views and freedom of speech in society," the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said.
"Those who disagree with the views that were expressed certainly have the right to condemn them but they should be peaceful and we urge constructive dialogue about this difficult issue."
The caricatures were first published in Denmark in September and have since been republished in other newspapers in Europe and elsewhere. Muslims consider any images of the prophet to be blasphemous. One of the cartoons featured Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.
Some 200 Iranian student demonstrators also threw stones at the Austrian embassy in Tehran, breaking some windows and starting small fires. Austria was targeted because it currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU. Members of the Iranian parliament issued a statement warning that those who published the cartoons should remember the case of Salman Rushdie.
The late Iranian leader issued a "fatwa", or religious edict, in 1989 calling for Rushdie's death following the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims found blasphemous.
Iranian radio and television also reported a series of boycotts of Danish medical equipment and consumer goods, and the suspension of trade negotiations with Denmark.
In Afghanistan, two protesters were shot dead and three other people, including two police officials, were injured in the central city of Mihtarlam when police fired on hundreds of demonstrators, an interior ministry spokesman, Dad Mohammed Rasa, said.
Meanwhile, Syria apologised to Chile after a mob set fire to the Chilean embassy in Damascus on Saturday while attacking the Danish embassy, which is in the same building.
In Romania, the country's main press organisation today urged all media not to publish the cartoons, and in Chechnya, the pro-Russian government banned Danish humanitarian organisations from the war-torn Muslim region in protest against the pictures.
Demonstrators threw stones at EU offices in the Gaza Strip and pulled down the EU flag.
In Yemen, a small newspaper, al-Hurriya, was closed down and its editor arrested for printing the caricatures, while in Warsaw, the editor of Rzeczpospolita - a Polish newspaper that reprinted the images - said that he was sorry if the publication had caused offence to Muslims, but defended it as an act of solidarity.
In Jordan, a majority of parliamentarians demanded that the government cancel agreements with Denmark, Norway, New Zealand and other nations where the drawings were published.
In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, police fired warning shots to stop protesters from ripping a plaque from the wall of the US consulate in Surabaya, the country's second largest city, witnesses said. Hundreds of demonstrators threw rocks at the Danish consulate in the city before moving on to the US consulate.
In India, riot police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of student protesters who burned Danish flags and chanted slogans in New Delhi. Dozens of protesters torched Danish flags, burned tyres and shouted slogans in several parts of Srinagar, Kashmir, police said.
In Bangkok, about 400 members of Thailand's Muslim minority shouted "God is Great" outside Denmark's embassy, and some demonstrators stamped on a Danish flag.
In Malaysia, an editor of a newspaper that ran one of the drawings to accompany an article about the lack of impact of the controversy inside the country resigned, according to a statement seen Monday.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006[/q]
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/06/news/islam.php