Iran rejects charge of inflaming violence
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-13 08:54

About 25 Muslim graves were vandalized at a cemetery in western Denmark, police said Sunday. The prime minister quickly condemned the attack.

Graffiti insulting the Prophet Muhammad — including slogans equating him with a pig, an animal Muslims regard as unclean — also were found scrawled on a West Bank mosque.

Israeli soldiers erased the slogans, but they still touched off a protest in which three Palestinians were shot by Israeli soldiers. An Israeli woman also was slightly injured by stones thrown at her car.

The Iranian foreign minister told reporters Sunday that Denmark could have resolved the problem by apologizing immediately for the caricatures. He also repeated claims by Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the drawings were part of an Israeli conspiracy.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen reiterated Sunday that he cannot apologize for the actions of a free press.

"Neither the government, nor the Danish people can be held responsible for what is published in a free and independent newspaper," he said on CNN's "Late Edition."

He also said he agreed with Rice.

"It's obvious to me that certain countries take advantage of this situation to distract attention from their own problems with the international community, including Syria and Iran," he said.

Denmark has withdrawn embassy staff from Iran, Syria and Indonesia and warned Danes to leave Indonesia, saying they faced a "significant and imminent danger" from an extremist group.

Fogh Rasmussen stressed the decision was made for security reasons.

"We have not cut the diplomatic relations because my country believes in building bridges, not burning them," he said on CNN.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Sunday that Denmark's decision was "too hasty" as protests in the world's most populous Muslim nation had been "orderly enough" and police had boosted security at Danish diplomatic facilities.

About 1,000 Muslims staged a noisy but peaceful demonstration Sunday in the West Java town of Sumedang, according to the el-Shinta radio station, while some 500 turned out in Jakarta.

Also Sunday, a poll published in Jyllands-Posten showed that the anti-immigration Danish People's Party is gaining support.

The party received 17.8 percent support in the Feb. 6-8 survey by pollster Ramboll Management, up 3.6 points from a similar survey a month earlier. The margin of error was not available, but pollsters said they questioned 1,058 people.

The Danish People's Party leader Pia Kjaersgaard has accused a group of Danish Islamic leaders of inciting the outrage in Muslim countries. She called them "the enemy within" in her most recent weekly newsletter.