Widespread Iraqi Protests Over Prophet Cartoons

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis throughout the country have taken to streets to protest caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed in emotional but peaceful demonstrations.



The demonstrations have drawn Sunni and Shia Muslims and have coincided with Ashura, the Shia holiday honouring Imam Hussein, a central figure in their faith. Demonstrations this week have been reported in Kut in central Iraq; Sulaimaniyah in the northern Kurdish province; Baghdad and Samarra, just north of the capital.



Denmark's leading newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked protests against the newspaper and government throughout the Muslim world.



The cartoons, which included a caricature of the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban, were republished in a Norwegian paper in January. Islamic tradition prohibits images of the prophet, including respectful ones, to discourage idolatry.



Some of the demonstrations in the region, which have called for everything from censoring the newspaper to killing the artists who drew the cartoons, have turned violent. The Danish embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran were set on fire this week, and Afghan forces shot and killed four demonstrators.



But in Iraq, where security is always tight and was heightened for Ashura, the demonstrations were peaceful. As many as 60,000 Shia worshipers on February 8 turned a march from Baghdad to Karbala, 120 kilometres from the capital where Hussein's tomb lies, into a protest against the cartoons.



"Hussein is our model of leadership," said Shia cleric Muhammed Hussein, 45, from al-Kadhimiya neighbourhood. "He stood against injustice and affirmed the freedom and religion of Muhammed. We are facing the same challenges of abuse against the Prophet Muhammed, the grand Islamic symbol representing Shia and Sunnis.



"We believe in Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, and we never offended them because we consider those who offend them disbelievers. We want to be treated the same way."



Fatma Muhammed, a 25-year-old student of college of education in Baghdad University, said, “ We can't allow the grand Islamic symbol to be offended. If required, we will die for it."



Ibrahim Abdulla, 27, a businessman, said, "Armed operations against Americans should be stopped and turned toward Danish and Norwegian forces in Iraq."



The Danish ambassador in Iraq, Christian Oldenburg, said there "have been some rather unspecified new threats against the Danish troops in Iraq, and the Danish battalion has stepped up precautions." He did not elaborate.



Norwegian forces are no longer in Iraq. Denmark has about 530 troops serving near the southern port city of Basra. A roadside bomb targeted a joint Danish-Iraqi patrol near the city this week. A British military official said multi-national forces would investigate whether it was tied to the cartoon controversy, the Associated Press reported.



Oldenburg said there have not been any threats against the Danish embassy, which is housed in the heavily fortified Green Zone. He noted that all of the leading Iraqi ministers have heavily criticised and deplored the caricatures but also "expressed their strong desire that Denmark continue its ongoing cooperation with Iraq".



However, a source in the ministry of transportation's media bureau said the minister of transportation, Salam al Maliki, has decided to cut relations with Danish and Norwegian companies. Many Muslims are calling for a boycott of Danish goods, and Iran has announced it will no longer trade with Denmark.



The Iraqi government has offered to help provide more security support for the embassy and the Danish battalion, Oldenburg reported, but he said Denmark thus far believes it can handle its own security.

He speculated that Iraq's protest were more limited than other places because "the Iraqis face other and bigger problems demanding their attention".



In Sulaimaniyah, Kurdish police estimated that nearly 1,000 people on February 6 protested against the cartoons and a Kurdish author they accused of insulting Islam. The Sulaimaniyah demonstration was not organised by any political party but included members of several Kurdish Islamic parties, many of whom came from outside of the city to protest.



The demonstrators, some dressed in traditional Kurdish clothing, carried banners condemning the newspaper and the book and waved Kurdish flags. The protesters were primarily young men but included women, who marched separately. They all called for the Danish newspaper and the Kurdish author to be tried.



The protest was not authorised by the interior ministry, as is procedure in Iraqi Kurdistan. Police broke it up after three hours over concern that some of the demonstrators were heading downtown and would begin to riot, said brigadier-general Sarkawt Hassan, head of Sulaimaniyah's security office.



Iraqi Kurdistan, and particularly Sulaimaniyah, are considered the most secular areas in Iraq and aren't usually a centre of political activity. But the protesters echoed some of the more extreme sentiments that some Muslim demonstrators have voiced since the cartoon controversy erupted.



Together, the men and women chanted "Allah Akbar" (God is great), and "They should be killed; they should be destroyed".



"The West is behind this," said Hameed Muhammed, a 45-year-old resident of Zarayan, about 50 kilometres from Sulaimaniyah. "This isn't the first time they've insulted Islam."



The protest and slogans surprised some organisers and Sulaimaniyah residents.



"It's true that it was ugly to publish the caricatures, but the demonstrators don't need to condemn them in such an extreme way," said Awat Muhammed, a 23-year-old university student. "I don't think it is genuine. They just wanted to imitate Arab Muslims -- they are under their influence."



"There were some extremists among us calling for killing," admitted Kamal Saeed, a 19-year-old demonstration organiser. "We didn't want the demonstration to take the direction it took. We wanted to show solidarity with the other Islamic countries."



Last month, Mariwan Halabjaee, a Kurdish writer from Halabja, published a book in Sulaimaniyah about women and sex in Islam. Many, including Sulaimaniyah's minister of religious affairs, considered it blasphemous and have called for his trial. Halabjaee's phone has been shut off since the protest, and he could not be reached for comment.



Muhamad Gaznaiy, the minister of endowments and religious affairs in Kurdistan region's Sulaimaniyah administration, addressed the demonstrators when they marched to the council of ministers. He said he agreed that Halabjaee and the Danish newspaper should be condemned but did not support street protests over the issue. He announced that he has sued Halabjaee for blasphemy.



"We condemn the Danish newspaper, but we can't officially do anything," he said. "We don’t have any commercial ties with Denmark that we can cut."



Amanj Khalil is an IWPR trainee journalist in Sulaimaniyah. Haider al-Musawi is an IWPR trainee journalist in Baghdad. Iraqi Crisis Report editor Tiare Rath contributed to this report.