Religious leaders say drawings abused free expression
European religious leaders today called caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have stirred violent protests around the world an abuse of free expression.
In a joint statement, the seven-member executive committee of the European Council of Religious Leaders said the drawings “are a misuse of the freedom when it is done without regard to the damaging affect on people or groups”.
It also condemned attacks on Danish, Norwegian and other embassies in some Islamic countries by demonstrators angered by the drawings.
The council includes leaders of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths in Europe.
“We want to make it perfectly clear that we stand for religious freedom, we stand for a free press, but we also stand for the principle that one shall not, under the cover of fighting for press freedom, mock others and create disdain for religions,” said committee leader Gunnar Staalsett, the former Lutheran bishop of Oslo.
“We want to promote respect for what people consider holy, and we want dialogue to promote tolerance and not be party to sharpening conflicts,” he said.
The 12 cartoons, first published in a Danish newspaper in September, have now been published in a rising number of newspapers which say they are defending free expression.
Under Islamic tradition, any depiction of the Prophet is banned due to fears of idolatry. Many Muslims also saw the drawings as blasphemous.
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