Rioting over the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad claimed another 16 lives on Saturday night in Nigeria as churches were burned by protesting Muslims.
The violence erupted as the Danish cartoonist whose drawings originally sparked the furore, Kurt Westergaard, used an interview with a British newspaper to defend the right to a free press — and said the Islamic faith provides ”spiritual ammunition” for terrorism.
More than two weeks after the controversy began, after-effects are still being felt around the world. The first protests in Nigeria flared in the provinces of Borno and Katsina: witnesses said hotels and shops were torched by protesters who ran wild after police fired tear gas to disperse them.
In Britain, a poll of Muslims on Saturday night found evidence of growing alienation, with four in 10 calling for religious sharia law to be imposed in parts of the United Kingdom with a mainly Muslim population. The law specifies stonings and amputations as punishments, and involves religious police bringing suspects before courts.
One in five also expressed some sympathy with the ”feelings and motives” of the July 7 bombers. However, the survey for the Sunday Telegraph found 91% still felt loyal to Britain and only 1% actually backed the London bomb attacks.
The cartoonist at the heart of the row, who has gone into hiding after a bounty was put on his head and conducted his interview with the Glasgow Herald newspaper via written questions, said he did not expect such controversy but does not regret the drawings — the most controversial of which depicts the Prophet with a bomb in his turban — or their publication.
He defended it as ”a protest against the fact that we perhaps are going to have double standards [in Denmark and Western Europe] for freedom of expression and freedom of the press”. The inspiration for it was, he said, ”terrorism – which gets its spiritual ammunition from Islam”.
The Italian Reforms Minister, Roberto Calderoli, resigned on Saturday after being blamed for sparking clashes in Libya — which killed 11 — by wearing a T-shirt on TV bearing the most controversial cartoon.
Libya announced on Saturday it had suspended its security minister and other officials, a day after at least 10 people were killed during a demonstration at the Italian consulate in the north-eastern city of Benghazi.
”Security Minister Nasr Mabrouk has been suspended from his duties and taken before an investigating magistrate,” read a statement from the general secretariat of Libya’s Parliament.
The statement added that a national day of mourning would be observed on Sunday to honour ”our martyrs”.
The Libyan deaths took place after about 1 000 people had gathered to protest outside the Benghazi consulate. Police used live ammunition on the demonstrators, who set fire to Italian flags and part of the consulate premises, according to witnesses and television images.
An Italian diplomat, citing police, said at least 10 people had been killed. Other sources said the final toll could be as high as 25. It was the first action against Italian interests in a Muslim country since the cartoon controversy began.
The Nigerian riots were the first protests in Africa’s most populous country, which is divided equally between Christians and Muslims. The worst of the trouble, involving 15 deaths, was in the north-eastern state of Borno — a predominantly Muslim state with a sizeable Christian population, which has recently seen an increase in militancy. Troops were deployed in the state capital to restore order.
In London, another protest against the publication of the cartoons brought more than 10 000 Muslims on to the streets on Saturday. The rally and march, organised by the Muslim Action Committee, saw scores of imams, who usually avoid such demonstrations, on the streets of the capital.
Mozambique independent weekly Savana on Saturday republished eight of the 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, including the one showing Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
Muslims account for about 18% of the Mozambican population, according to the 1997 census. So far, their leaders have kept a low profile on the cartoon row, which has inflamed Muslims around the world since the drawings were published in a Danish newspaper.
The Muslim community had thought of street demonstration against the cartoons, but instead wrote articles in the media and letters to the Danish embassy.
Savana said it is not anti-Muslim, pointing out that one of its regular columnists is an Islamic theologian.
The cartoons were originally published in Denmark in September, but only triggered worldwide protests when they were republished around Europe earlier this month. — Guardian Unlimited Â