Protesters torch Danish mission in Beirut
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-06 06:52

Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

"It is unjustifiable under any kind of personal freedoms to allow a person or a group to insult the beliefs of millions of Muslims," the Al-Thawra newspaper said.

Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he disapproves of the caricatures and any attacks on religion, but insisted he cannot apologize on behalf of his country's independent press.

Thousands also took to the streets elsewhere in the Muslim world and parts of Europe, including some 3,000 Afghans who burned a Danish flag and demanding that the editors at Jyllands-Posten be prosecuted for blasphemy.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged forgiveness.

"God instructs us to forgive. Therefore, we — as much as we condemn it strongly — must stay above this dispute and not bring ourselves ... to equating ourselves to those who have published the cartoons," he said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Stepping up the pressure, the Islamic Army in Iraq, a key group in the insurgency fighting U.S.-led and Iraqi forces, posted a second Internet statement Sunday calling for gruesome violence against citizens of countries where the caricatures have been published.

A Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the press, said Danish diplomats had evacuated the mission in Beirut two days earlier, anticipating the protests. Some 2,000 troops and police were deployed around the building.

The protesters, who came in buses from all over Lebanon, waved flags and banners.

"There is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God!" they shouted as they pushed against riot police.

Many Muslim clerics were among them.

"Regretfully, the march did more harm to the prophet than it did good," said Sunni Sheik Ibrahim Ibrahim, who was in the crowd, adding that those who attacked the church were "hooligans." He said he and others tried to stop the mob, but "we got stones and insults."