Videos showing anti-immigrant party members mocking the Prophet Muhammad were pulled from Web sites Monday as two youths seen in the clips were reported in hiding and the Foreign Ministry warned Danes against travel to much of the Middle East.
Muslim clerics from Egypt and Indonesia condemned the video broadcast in Denmark last week showing members of the Danish People’s Party youth wing with cartoons of a camel wearing the head of Muhammad and beer cans for humps. A second drawing placed a turbaned, bearded man next to a plus sign and a bomb, all equaling a mushroom cloud.
Citing critical media reports from many Muslim regions, the Foreign Ministry cautioned against travel to Gaza, the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
“Against that background, we urge Danes to use caution as the matter could possibly lead to negative reactions. The atmosphere and reactions can vary dependent on time and place. Danes should be aware of the local mood,” the ministry said.
Extreme right wing party infiltrated
The video was produced by an artists’ group, Defending Denmark. In a message posted along with the video, the group said it had infiltrated the Danish People’s Party Youth, known as DFU, for 18 months “to document (their) extreme right wing associations.”
“This is not an example of something that is meant to provoke. This is an example to show how things are in Danish politics,” artist Martin Rosengaard Knudsen told Danish public radio.
The clip was removed from that broadcaster’s Web site Monday, as well as from a newspaper’s site.
The purpose of the original publication was “not to insult Muslims or expose any members ... to any danger,” said the paper’s editor, David Trads.
A party official reportedly said that two youths seen in the video clips had gone into hiding.
“They are very shaken by the huge reaction the drawings have had,” Kenneth Kristensen was quoted as saying on the Web site of the newspaper Politiken.
Group advocates severing ties with Denmark
In Jordan on Monday, a powerful umbrella for some 200,000 professionals including engineers, doctors and journalists, said the video “reveals hatred toward the Prophet who came to the world with a message to enlighten the people.”
“We call on all Muslim states to sever relations with Denmark or any other country which harms Islam,” the associations said in a statement.
They said the video revealed the “nature of the struggle between Muslims and their enemies which are led by America.”
The associations are vocal critics of the moderate policies of Jordan’s pro-Western government. Hard-line Muslims and leftists in these associations have repeatedly called on the government to abolish a 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
The episode comes in the aftermath of an outcry across the Muslim world after the original September 2005 printing in Danish newspapers of 12 cartoons portraying Muhammad — considered taboo for most Muslims.
Four months later, the images were reprinted in a range of Western media, triggering massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia.
