Thousands of Muslims took to the streets in Jerusalem and Gaza Friday demanding vengeance for a controversial cartoon that has sparked outrage across the Muslim world.



The cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were first published in a Danish newspaper, and were reprinted this week in several other European countries, sparking anger.



Large rallies were held in the Gaza Strip and Iraq, and raucous demonstrations were staged outside the Danish embassies in Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia Friday.



One of the cartoons depicts the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a burning fuse. In another, an Islamic star and crescent moon are superimposed over his face.

Police were prepared for Friday's demonstrations in Jerusalem, and tussled with angry mobs that spilled out of mosques after Friday prayers, protesting in the streets near Islam's third-holiest site.

In Gaza, an angry crowd screamed "God is great," and an imam told 9,000 worshippers that the hands of those who drew the cartoons should be severed.


Muslims marched in droves through other Palestinian cities on Friday, burning the Danish flag and threatening repercussions for the European countries where the cartoons were published.

In the Palestinian cities of Nablus and Jenin, Danish flags and product imports were burned.

"Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," protestors in Ramallah shouted, Associated Press reported.

The Palestinian legislature was taken over by Hamas gunmen as 10,000 demonstrators chanted "Down, down Denmark," AP reported.

After weekly prayer services in Iraq, about 4,500 people held a rally in Basra while hundreds in Baghdad demonstrated outside of a mosque, AP reported. The protestors burned the Danish flag and threw Danish-made products into the flames.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, condemned the cartoon depictions in a posting on his website Jan. 31.

"We strongly denounce and condemn this horrific action," al-Sistani said.



However, the cleric did not encourage any protests and he even placed some responsibility on militant Muslims for the negative way that Islam is depicted, AP reported.

He said some segments of the Muslim community were "misguided and oppressive" and that their actions "projected a distorted and dark image of the faith of justice, love and brotherhood."

At the Danish embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, more than 150 protestors pushed passed security into the building's lobby demanding an apology for the cartoons.

They were unable to get up to the embassy on the 25th floor but they did tear the Danish flag down and set it on fire. They also pelted the embassy with eggs.

"We are not terrorists, we are not anarchists, but we are against those people who blaspheme Islam," one protestor shouted, AP said.

In Islamabad, Pakistan, about 800 people shouted "Death to Denmark" and "Death to France" while around 1,200 people demonstrated in the southern city of Karachi.

The country's parliament condemned the drawings as "vicious" in a unanimous vote.

In Turkey, hundreds protested in Istanbul, with many making their way to the Danish consulate.

"Hands that reach Islam must be broken," a group of Muslims chanted outside of an Istanbul mosque, AP reported.

At Islam's third holiest site, Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque, Israel banned access to Palestinians aged 45 and under.

About 100 men did protest outside Jerusalem's Old City on Friday chanting Islamic slogans and carrying Hamas flags. Israeli police broke up the protest along with another one at Damascus Gate using tear gas and stun grenades, AP reported.

The caricatures of the Prophet were first published by Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, in September. They were republished in papers in France, Norway, Germany, Switzerland and Hungary this week, causing tension that quickly spread around the Muslim world.

On Friday, Belgium, Italy and Spain's leading newspaper, El Pais, became the latest papers to run the images.

"What shame, Europe gives into Islam and apologizes for the satire of Allah," Libero, an Italian right-wing paper, wrote in a Friday headline.

Muslims worldwide are outraged as Islam strictly forbids any depiction of the revered father of the religion. Even positive images of the Prophet Muhammad are not allowed to prevent idolatry in the religion.



Canadian reaction

Syed Soharwardy, of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, appeared on Canada AM Friday saying that Canadian Muslims were upset but that they were dealing with the situation constructively, by emailing and phoning officials.

"The Muslims in Canada, they are outraged," Soharwardy said. "They are expressing their anger through peaceful means… they are protesting against these horrible cartoons that have offended Muslims around the world."

Soharwardy said he received an email from a Danish media watch group, dated Dec. 14, that outlined peaceful ways that the international Muslim community initially tried to deal with the situation.

"They tried very hard to ask them to withdraw the cartoons and apologize, nothing happened," he said. "They contacted us in December and said that we should do something about it."

Globe and Mail cartoon columnist, Brian Gable, said that the debate lies between freedom of expression and the freedom not to be offended. He said that one taboo area is religious faith, but not how people use their faith.

"If someone of any faith chooses to proceed with a violent act, I feel that's fair game," Gable said.



But Soharwardy said there has to some restrictions.

"The freedom of expression has to have some limits," Soharwardy said. "Would they make fun of any ethic group in Canada? Aboriginal people, South Asians, Chinese community?"

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