Islamic campaign of condemnation of Danish papers' insults against Prophet Muhammad escalated

German interior ministry denies it gave statements encouraging reprinting of offensive cartoons

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Sudanese capital Khartoum marched on foot carrying placards denouncing Denmark and the West in protest against the reprinting of cartoons deriding the Prophet Muhammad.

The march, guarded by the police, delayed the traffic for hours and stopped at the gates of the presidential palace, where President Omar al-Bashir emerged to greet the crowds and deliver a speech.

The rally outside Bashir's palace in Khartoum was the biggest protest in the Muslim world since Danish papers reprinted the cartoons, seen by many Muslims as insulting to their religion's most revered figure. The demonstration raised fears that renewed protests over the cartoons – so far small and scattered – could grow.

Bashir said that he would bar Danes from Sudan and told tens of thousands of people at a government-backed rally that the Muslim world should boycott Denmark because of reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

“We urge all Muslims around the world to boycott Danish commodities, goods, companies, institutions, organizations and personalities,” Bashir told the crowd outside the Republic Palace in downtown Khartoum.

“Down, down, Denmark!” shouted the crowd. Bashir vowed that “not a single Danish foot will from now on desecrate the land of Sudan.”

Seventeen Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoons showing the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban this month in a gesture of solidarity after police said they uncovered a plot to kill the cartoons' artist.

Sudan was one of the nations where large protests were held against Denmark in 2006 when the cartoon and 11 others depicting the Prophet Muhammad and Islam were first published. In riots that followed around the Muslim world, dozens of people were killed and several Danish embassies were attacked, while Danish goods were boycotted.

Germany's interior ministry denied report that Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called on European newspapers to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in solidarity with their Danish counterparts.

Schaeuble was quoted by the weekly Die Zeit as urging the newspapers to follow the Danish example and reprint the controversial cartoons, which triggered mass protests after their initial publication in 2006.

Expressing his "respect" for the Danish newspapers' decision to reprint the cartoons, the minister said they acted according to the principle, "we won't allow ourselves to be divided," Die Zeit said.

"Actually all European newspapers ought to print the cartoons together with the statement 'we find them terrible', but the utilization of press freedom should not be a reason to resort to violence," the minister was quoted as saying.

Interior Ministry spokesman Stefan Paris said the remarks were not a demand but an expression of the minister's support for freedom on the press.

The Saudi Scientific Foundation for the Sunna expressed regret over some Danish newspapers' reprinting of the controversial cartoons, terming the move as "flagrant delusion and sinful assault."

"The Danish government has to stand up firmly against this action and the whole world has to denounce it on the grounds that whoever insults the Prophet Muhammad is practically insulting the Prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus," the foundation said in a statement.

The Azhar, the largest and leading Sunni institution in the Muslim world, also warned in a statement against "continuing this disgraceful act," describing "those who maliciously insulted the Prophet Muhammad" as people who "do not know the meaning of honor and only seek to destroy human relations and world peace."

The Egyptian ministry of information had banned four foreign newspapers that re-published the cartoons against the Prophet Muhammad, while the Egyptian foreign ministry summoned the Danish ambassador in Cairo and conveyed protests against this "shameful conduct."