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Cartoon Protest: Slogans surprised some
organisers and Sulaimaniyah residents
11.2.2006
By Haider al-Musawi in Baghdad and Amanj Khalil in
Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 163, 10-Feb-06)
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Widespread Iraqi Protests
Over Prophet Cartoons
Sunni, Shia and Kurds take to the streets in
non-violent demonstrations against Danish newspaper.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis throughout the
country have taken to streets to protest caricatures
of the Prophet Muhammed in emotional but peaceful
demonstrations.
The demonstrations have drawn Sunni and Shia Muslims
and have coincided with Ashura, the Shia holiday
honouring Imam Hussein, a central figure in their
faith. Demonstrations this week have been reported
in Kut in central Iraq; Sulaimaniyah in the northern
Kurdish province; Baghdad and Samarra, just north of
the capital.
Denmark's leading newspaper, Jyllands-Posten,
published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that
sparked protests against the newspaper and
government throughout the Muslim world.
The cartoons, which included a caricature of the
prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban, were
republished in a Norwegian paper in January. Islamic
tradition prohibits images of the prophet, including
respectful ones, to discourage idolatry.
Some of the demonstrations in the region, which have
called for everything from censoring the newspaper
to killing the artists who drew the cartoons, have
turned violent. The Danish embassies in Syria,
Lebanon and Iran were set on fire this week, and
Afghan forces shot and killed four demonstrators.
But in Iraq, where security is always tight and was
heightened for Ashura, the demonstrations were
peaceful. As many as 60,000 Shia worshipers on
February 8 turned a march from Baghdad to Karbala,
120 kilometres from the capital where Hussein's tomb
lies, into a protest against the cartoons.
"Hussein is our model of leadership," said Shia
cleric Muhammed Hussein, 45, from al-Kadhimiya
neighbourhood. "He stood against injustice and
affirmed the freedom and religion of Muhammed. We
are facing the same challenges of abuse against the
Prophet Muhammed, the grand Islamic symbol
representing Shia and Sunnis.
"We believe in Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, and
we never offended them because we consider those who
offend them disbelievers. We want to be treated the
same way."
Fatma Muhammed, a 25-year-old student of college of
education in Baghdad University, said, “ We can't
allow the grand Islamic symbol to be offended. If
required, we will die for it."
Ibrahim Abdulla, 27, a businessman, said, "Armed
operations against Americans should be stopped and
turned toward Danish and Norwegian forces in Iraq."
The Danish ambassador in Iraq, Christian Oldenburg,
said there "have been some rather unspecified new
threats against the Danish troops in Iraq, and the
Danish battalion has stepped up precautions." He did
not elaborate.
Norwegian forces are no longer in Iraq. Denmark has
about 530 troops serving near the southern port city
of Basra. A roadside bomb targeted a joint
Danish-Iraqi patrol near the city this week. A
British military official said multi-national forces
would investigate whether it was tied to the cartoon
controversy, the Associated Press reported.
Oldenburg said there have not been any threats
against the Danish embassy, which is housed in the
heavily fortified Green Zone. He noted that all of
the leading Iraqi ministers have heavily criticised
and deplored the caricatures but also "expressed
their strong desire that Denmark continue its
ongoing cooperation with Iraq".
However, a source in the ministry of
transportation's media bureau said the minister of
transportation, Salam al Maliki, has decided to cut
relations with Danish and Norwegian companies. Many
Muslims are calling for a boycott of Danish goods,
and Iran has announced it will no longer trade with
Denmark.
The Iraqi government has offered to help provide
more security support for the embassy and the Danish
battalion, Oldenburg reported, but he said Denmark
thus far believes it can handle its own security.
He speculated that Iraq's protest were more limited
than other places because "the Iraqis face other and
bigger problems demanding their attention".
In Sulaimaniyah, Kurdish police estimated that
nearly 1,000 people on February 6 protested against
the cartoons and a Kurdish author they accused of
insulting Islam. The Sulaimaniyah demonstration was
not organised by any political party but included
members of several Kurdish Islamic parties, many of
whom came from outside of the city to protest.
The demonstrators, some dressed in traditional
Kurdish clothing, carried banners condemning the
newspaper and the book and waved Kurdish flags. The
protesters were primarily young men but included
women, who marched separately. They all called for
the Danish newspaper and the Kurdish author to be
tried.
The protest was not authorised by the interior
ministry, as is procedure in Iraqi Kurdistan. Police
broke it up after three hours over concern that some
of the demonstrators were heading downtown and would
begin to riot, said brigadier-general Sarkawt Hassan,
head of Sulaimaniyah's security office.
Iraqi Kurdistan, and particularly Sulaimaniyah, are
considered the most secular areas in Iraq and aren't
usually a centre of political activity. But the
protesters echoed some of the more extreme
sentiments that some Muslim demonstrators have
voiced since the cartoon controversy erupted.
Together, the men and women chanted "Allah Akbar"
(God is great), and "They should be killed; they
should be destroyed".
"The West is behind this," said Hameed Muhammed, a
45-year-old resident of Zarayan, about 50 kilometres
from Sulaimaniyah. "This isn't the first time
they've insulted Islam."
The protest and slogans surprised some organisers
and Sulaimaniyah residents.
"It's true that it was ugly to publish the
caricatures, but the demonstrators don't need to
condemn them in such an extreme way," said Awat
Muhammed, a 23-year-old university student. "I don't
think it is genuine. They just wanted to imitate
Arab Muslims -- they are under their influence."
"There were some extremists among us calling for
killing," admitted Kamal Saeed, a 19-year-old
demonstration organiser. "We didn't want the
demonstration to take the direction it took. We
wanted to show solidarity with the other Islamic
countries."
Last month, Mariwan Halabjaee, a Kurdish writer from
Halabja, published a book in Sulaimaniyah about
women and sex in Islam. Many, including
Sulaimaniyah's minister of religious affairs,
considered it blasphemous and have called for his
trial. Halabjaee's phone has been shut off since the
protest, and he could not be reached for comment.
Muhamad Gaznaiy, the minister of endowments and
religious affairs in Kurdistan region's Sulaimaniyah
administration, addressed the demonstrators when
they marched to the council of ministers. He said he
agreed that Halabjaee and the Danish newspaper
should be condemned but did not support street
protests over the issue. He announced that he has
sued Halabjaee for blasphemy.
"We condemn the Danish newspaper, but we can't
officially do anything," he said. "We don’t have any
commercial ties with Denmark that we can cut."
Amanj Khalil is an IWPR trainee journalist in
Sulaimaniyah. Haider al-Musawi is an IWPR trainee
journalist in Baghdad. Iraqi Crisis Report editor
Tiare Rath contributed to this report.
www.iwpr.net
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