Denmark: Saudi lawyer demands Mohammed cartoon apology (UPDATED)

Denmark: Saudi lawyer demands Mohammed cartoon apology


Danish politician Nader Khader says that "If anybody in the world should apologize to the rest of the world, it's Saudi Arabia. They should apologize for oppressing their women. They should apologize that women can only inherit half the portion of a brother. They should apologize that women can't get a driver's license. They should apologize that you can't build churches and synagogues in the country." Khader adds that Saudi Arabia should also apologize for women having to wear a burka. (DA)


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A Saudi lawyer has demanded a public apology from a number of Danish dailies that reprinted a controversial cartoon of Prophet Mohammed in February 2008, Danish media reported on Sunday.


The lawyer, identified as Faisal A.Z. Yamani from Jeddah, sent an email to the newspapers that republished the drawing first printed in 2005 and demanded that they print an apology by the end of September, Danish news agency Ritzau reported.


"It should be a clear, public and unconditional apology for the offence and harm caused by their newspaper," Yamani wrote, demanding that the statement appear in the first three pages of the newspaper and in four languages, Danish, French, English and Arabic.


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Yamani suggested in the email that Danish interests in the Middle East could suffer if an apology was not forthcoming.


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The Danish newspapers' association, Danske Dagblades Forening, said it would consult the foreign and justice ministry next week, and contact Danish newspapers to see how many had received the email.


The head of the association, Ebbe Dal, told Ritzau the demands were "unacceptable".


Following the publication of the cartoons, the Danish government repeatedly refused to heed calls from the Muslim world for an apology citing freedom of expression.



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Source: Asia One (English)



Update:

A firm of Saudi lawyers, purportedly acting on behalf of descendants of the Prophet Mohammed, has demanded printed and multi-lingual apologies from Danish newspapers who re-printed cartoons of the Prophet, as well as undertakings that all Internet pictures of the caricatures be removed in perpetuity.


The demand from the Saudi Arabian legal firm of A.Z. Yamani, is contained in letters sent to about a dozen Danish editors-in-chief and gives the end of September as a deadline for compliance.


The A.Z. Yamani firm was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi Arabia’s former Oil Minister from 1962 and until 1986 when he was summarily dismissed. The letter in question was sent by his lawyer son Faisal Yamani.



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One editor-in-chief has already commented on the letter, rejecting the ultimatum.


»There must be some people who continue to flog this issue. With all due respect for Muslims in Denmark and elsewhere in the world – this is unacceptable«, says Der Nordschleswiger Editor-in-Chief Siegfried Matlok.



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Source: Politiken (English)

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