Tuesday Feb. 7, 2006
News from Iran - ISNA reports:

The leader of the Islamic Republic Ali Khameneie : Publication of Caricature about prophet Mohammad is the conspiracy of Israel !
He said : This is the reaction of Israel about the wining of Hamas in the recent Palestinian election. The leader of the Islamic Republic said : How is that; the west permit profanity to Islam but condemns if someone deny the Holocaust.
In reaction to the cartoon and in examining the support of the west for Freedom of Expression the "Hamshahri" newspaper which belong to the City of Tehran announced that; it is going to hold an international competition for caricature with the subject of "Holocaust".

Continuation of protest against Denmark.

While the government of Denmark called that Iran is responsible for the damages caused by the demostrator during their attack to the embassy in Tehran ,the 2nd day again a group of demonstrator attacked the embassy.
The attack happened because of the caricature by a Denish newspaper.
The demostrators were around hundreds and it happened on Monday, they threw stone,and molotov cocktail towards the embassy building . On Tuesday Feb. 7 again a group of demonstrators gathered in front of the embassy and started throwing stones and Molotov Cocktails.

Hashemi Rafsanjani the former president of the Islamic Republic has said: Profanity to prophet Mohammad is an evil conspirecy , what neutrlizes the enemies plot is the strong presence of the people in the scene.
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Choronology of the event :

Sep. 30, 2005 the caricature was published in a Denish newspaper
Oct. 20, 2005 The Ambassadors from Islamic countries protested to the prime minister of Denmark
Jan. 10, 2006 publication of caricature in Norwegian newspaper
Jan . 26, 2006 Saudi Arabia called his ambassador from Norway
Jan. 30,2006, Armed group stormed to the office of EU in "Ghazeh"city in Saudi Arabia
Jan. 31, 2006, The Denish newspaper apologizes
Feb. 1, 2006 , publications from France, Germany , Italia and Spain published the caricature
Feb. 4,2006 demonstrators in Damascus attacked to the embassy of Denmark and Norway
Feb. 5,2006 , The demonstrators in Beirut ( Lebanon) burned the embassy of Denmark

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Translated by : IRAN Watch Canada
Link to this news in Farsi:
http://www.isna.ir/Main/

IRAN WATCH CANADA respects the Freedom of Expression but believe that journalists, writers, cartoonists , film makers and.......must be caucious when it comes to sacred religious subjects. This kind of cartoon won't help at all and it only helps the rulers in the Islamic countries to take advantage of the situation to abuse the emotion of the ordinary moslem people. For example in Iran a tsunami of reform , Human Rights and Democracy movement is on its way and many religious intellectuals and secular moslems are behind this movement against religious extremists ( like president Ahmadinejad) , the west must help this trend in a peaceful way without intervention and the use of military . The problem in the Middle East is human developement . It seems to me that the cartoonist does not understand this region and its situation and what may bring by drawing a controvercial cartoon such as this.

IRAN WATCH CANADA is against violence and supports cartoonists , journalists ,writers .....all over the world.
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