60,000 Danes sign petition to solve cartoon row

DANISH Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller yesterday received a petition with 60,000 signatures calling for reconciliation between Denmark and the Muslim world following the crisis over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons.

Organisers of the campaign Forsoning Nu, or Reconciliation Now, urged all parties, particularly the governments of Denmark and other countries involved in the dispute, “to work together to solve the conflict”.

“It’s a good initiative and it shows that Danes want to move on,” Mr Moeller said upon receiving the petition.

The Mohammed cartoons were first published in September by a Danish newspaper, which said it was challenging self-censorship.

The conflict simmered for months before erupting into a firestorm of protests in the Muslim world, including attacks on Western embassies and a boycott of Danish goods.

Critics say the Danish government mishandled the crisis by refusing to apologise to Muslims and not granting Muslim ambassadors a meeting with the prime minister.

The petition noted that there was “a distinction between the opinions expressed by a Danish newspaper and the opinions of the Danish people as a whole”.

The document renounced the drawings, but stopped short of urging the Danish government to give an official apology.