Muslim anger at Danish cartoons

The cartoons have prompted protests in Copenhagen

The ambassadors of 10 Muslim countries have complained to the Danish prime minister about a major newspaper's cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

A letter from the ambassadors said the cartoons published in Jyllands-Posten last month showed the Prophet as a stereotypical fundamentalist.

Pictorial depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are forbidden in Islam.

A Danish government spokesman said Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen was preparing a response.

Danish Muslim community leaders who held talks with Mr Rasmussen in July complained about press coverage of Islam.

At the time, he said he could not tell newspapers what to print - or what not to.

On Thursday, the Jyllands-Posten reported that two illustrators who produced the cartoons had received death threats.

Rights

The daily published the series of cartoons, after a writer complained that nobody dared illustrate his book about Muhammad.

"We must quietly point out here that the drawings illustrated an article on the self-censorship which rules large parts of the Western world", the paper said.

"Our right to say, write, photograph and draw what we want to within the framework of the law exists and must endure - unconditionally!"

The ambassadors who signed the letter to the prime minister included a number of Arab countries, Pakistan, Iran, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Indonesia.

"We hope there will be understanding of Muslims' feelings about Mohammad. And we hope there will be an apology from Jyllands-Posten," Mascud Effendy Hutasuhut, counsellor at the Indonesian embassy in Denmark, told Danmarks radio.