Angry protest in Iran over prophet cartoons

Hundreds of angry students staged a protest in front of the Danish embassy in Tehran today to condemn the reprinting of cartoons deemed insulting of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers.

Some 300 foreign and Iranian students from Qom seminary schools chanted “Death to Denmark” and “Death to America”, warning the Danes “not to follow the American anti-Islamic policy” and asking Islamic countries to boycott Danish products.

Naim Ahmad, a Bangladeshi student, said: “Today, we have peacefully gathered to protest. It will not be so in future if Denmark continues insulting the prophet.”

Some 10,000 foreign students, mostly from south Asian and African countries, take Islamic religious courses in Qom, south of the capital, Tehran.

The embassy was protected by dozens of police lining a protective fence in front of its wall in northern Tehran. The protest ended after an hour.

Last month a group of Danish politicians cancelled a trip to Iran because Tehran demanded they condemn the reprinting of the cartoons in newspapers. Iran also summoned the Danish ambassador to Tehran in protest.

Leading Danish newspapers reprinted the most controversial of the 12 cartoons that enraged Muslims in early 2006 and sparked deadly riots. The reprint came as a gesture of solidarity after police revealed a plot to kill the creator of the caricature.

The drawing, by newspaper cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, depicts Islam’s prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.

In 2006, angry mobs burned the Danish flag and attacked Danish and other Western embassies in Tehran. Similar attacks took place in other Muslim countries, and the violence led to the deaths of some protesters in Afghanistan and Libya.

As a consequence, Danish products were boycotted by many Muslim consumers around the world.