Feb 8, 2006 8:20 am US/Mountain
Rocky Reprints Controversial Cartoon Of Muhammad
by Raj Chohan
DENVER (CBS4) ―
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John Temple, publisher of the Rocky Mountain News
CBS4
The Rocky Mountain News joined the controversy over cartoons that depict the Prophet Muhammad by reprinting one of the pieces that first appeared in a Danish newspaper. The Rocky provided an editorial with the cartoon.
"We thought it was very important to tell our readers that the reaction to these cartoons was outrageous and that reaction needed some sort of condemnation by the free world and that this was inappropriate and we needed to speak up," John Temple, publisher of the Rocky Mountain News said.
Reaction in the Muslim world to the cartoons has sparked violent protests against western institutions. Some of those protests have also been deadly.
"We condemn all that kind of violent behavior," Imam Ammar Amonette of the Colorado Muslim society said. "There are people who would be demagogues who inflame and incite riots."
Muslims called the cartoons an abuse of their religious symbols. Western media outlets published them as a matter of free expression.
"In Islam, we don't picture prophets," Imam Ammar Amonette said. "If you look in the mosque, you won't see them because this is a form of idolatry. But to use it in a disrespectful way to imply the Prophet Muhammad was a bomber or something like that, of course that was designed to inflame people's passions."
The cartoon published in the Rocky showed the Prophet Muhammad in a lampoon on suicide bombings. It was one of 12 to appear in a Danish newspaper last September.
"I think it gets at what some people might think is the ludicrous nature of the alleged reward for a suicide bomber, so I think its legitimate and fair comment," Temple said.
Leaders in Afghanistan said Al-Qaeda and the Taliban may be using the controversy over the cartoons to incite violent protests.
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