French & German Newpapers Reprints Danish Cartoons Showing Prophet Mohammed (Peace Been Upon Him) (Link)

Front Page of Die Welt German Newspaper

A French newspaper reprinted on today a series of 12 controversial Danish newspaper cartoons that have sparked protests in the Muslim world and prompted Saudi Arabia to recall its ambassador from Denmark.

The France Soir daily said it had published the cartoons in the name of freedom of expression and to fight religious intolerance, saying a secular country like France could not be bound by the precepts of any religion.

The German Die Welt daily put one of the drawings on its front page today, saying the picture was "harmless" and regretting that the Danish Jyllands-Posten daily had apologised for causing offense.

"Democracy is the institutionalised form of freedom of expression," the paper said in a front-page commentary.

"There is no right to protection from satire in the West; there is a right to blasphemy."

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French Paper Reprints Explosive Danish Cartoons (Islam Online)
Germans print Muhammad caricatures (The Jarusalem Post)
More papers join cartoon furore (Aljazeera Net)