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Filipino Muslims burn Danish flag in protest over cartoons+
[February 07, 2006]

Filipino Muslims burn Danish flag in protest over cartoons+


(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)MANILA, Feb. 7_(Kyodo) _ Filipino Muslims enraged by caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad burned a Danish flag in a rally in the southern Philippines on Tuesday.

Hundreds of demonstrators in Kidapawan in Cotabato Province, about 900 kilometers southeast of Manila, said the cartoons were an insult to Islam and condemned racial slurs equating Muslims to terrorists which they say fuel anti-Muslim views.



The protesters called for a boycott of Danish products and demanded that Denmark take action against the newspaper that published the cartoons, which also appeared in some other European newspapers.

The cartoons were originally published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September, and recently reprinted in several other European papers in the defense of free expression.


While trying to uphold the ideals of free expression, the media should be sensitive in reporting on culturally sensitive issues, they said.

"Our freedom of expression ends when we trample upon the freedom of other people. Muslims also have the freedom of religion," said Ren Jalaluddin Ropeta, vice president of the Christian Muslim People's Alliance.

Muslim militants have been waging a three-decade-old campaign for independence in the south of what is a predominantly Christian country.

"Muhammad is man of peace," said Eid Kabalu, spokesman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim separatist group that is negotiating peace with the Philippine government. "It is not right to desecrate his image."

He said the controversy over caricatures will not affect relations between Muslims and Christians in Mindanao Island, home to about 4.4 million Muslims among the country's 88 million people.

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