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Cartoon protesters direct anger at US
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-09 06:56
At the State Department, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "Iran and
Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their
own purposes. And the world ought to call them on it."
The United States and other countries were looking into whether extremist
groups may be inciting protesters to riot, said Yonts, the U.S. spokesman in
Afghanistan.
Zahor Afghan, editor for Erada, Afghanistan's most respected newspaper, said
the riots in his country have surprised him.
"No media in Afghanistan has published or broadcast pictures of these
cartoons. The radio has been reporting on it, but there are definitely people
using this to incite violence against the presence of foreigners in
Afghanistan," he said.
Afghans who rioted Wednesday said they heard about the cartoons on the radio
but none questioned had seen printed versions.
"The radio is talking about them all the time. Everybody heard about them
this way," said 28-year-old shopkeeper Ramatullah, who uses only name.
Wednesday's riot erupted despite an appeal from Afghanistan's top Islamic
organization, the Ulama Council, for an end to the violence.
"Islam says it's all right to demonstrate but not to resort to violence. This
must stop," senior cleric Mohammed Usman told The Associated Press. "We condemn
the cartoons but this does not justify violence. These rioters are defaming the
name of Islam."
In France, President Jacques Chirac asked media to avoid offending religious
beliefs as another French newspaper reprinted the caricatures. The satirical
French weekly Charlie-Hebdo also printed a new drawing under the headline
"Muhammad Overwhelmed by the Fundamentalists" that showed the prophet with his
head in his hands, remarking, "It's hard to be loved by
idiots."
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