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Cartoon protests rage in muslim world
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-08 06:54
Ahmadinejad, who was Tehran's mayor until being elected president in June,
provoked outcries last year when he said on separate occasions that Israel
should be "wiped off the map" and the Holocaust was a "myth."
Iran said last month it would sponsor a conference to examine the scientific
evidence supporting the Holocaust, an apparent attempt to give voice to
Holocaust deniers.
Hamshahri invited foreign cartoonists to enter the competition.
"Does the West extend freedom of expression to the crimes committed by the
United States and Israel, or an event such as the Holocaust? Or is its freedom
only for insulting religious sanctities?" Hamshahri wrote, referring to the
Prophet Muhammad cartoons.
Violence has escalated sharply in Afghanistan this week, and seven people
have died in demonstrations during the past two days. Protests, sometimes
involving armed men, have been directed at foreign and Afghan government targets
— fueling suspicions there's more behind the unrest than religious
sensitivities.
"It's an incredibly emotive issue. This is something that really upset
Afghans," said Joanna Nathan, senior Afghanistan analyst at the International
Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research institute. "But it is also being used to
agitate and motivate the crowds by those against the government and foreign
forces" in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, protesters armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked the
NATO base in the northern city of Maymana, which is manned by peacekeepers from
Norway, Finland, Latvia and Sweden, local officials said.
Sayed Aslam Ziaratia, the provincial deputy police chief, said three
protesters were shot and killed by Afghan and Norwegian forces and that 22
others were wounded. However, NATO said it only fired live ammunition into the
air and rubber bullets. Five Norwegian peacekeepers suffered minor injuries.
Provincial governor Mohammed Latif said he suspected al-Qaida may have had a
hand in the unrest. He said two men from eastern Afghanistan were arrested
during the protest and were being interrogated.
"The violence today looked like a massive uprising. It was very unusual,"
Latif said.
On Monday, about 2,000 protesters tried to storm the main U.S. military base
at Bagram, the hub of the operations for some 20,000 American forces in the
country. Police shot dead two protesters. A top local official said al-Qaida and
Taliban militants incited the crowd.
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