On the phone with me, the artist declined to do an on-camera interview, telling me the work speaks for itself, but adding, the resemblance to Bin Laden was no accident.

The art show's producer Josh Wainwright, insisted he hadn't even made the Bin Laden connection. "Knowing what you know now would you have barred the painting from being part of your show?" I asked. "Absolutely not," he replied. Wainwright says he's a military veteran and despises Bin Laden, but he added, "I don't think it's anyone's job or vocation to limit the expression of artists."

While some at the show did recognize the Bin Laden face on the Christ body, we found none who were offended. Instead most defended "Tafa" the artist's right to speak his mind. The painting is bordered with hand lettered expressions and names including "mujahadin," "McCarthyism," and "Amadou Diallo," a man killed by New York City police in 1999.

You could take the painting out of circulation, or not, for a mere $12,000 and change. You can see the painting, or not, by visiting the show which runs through Sunday. Daily admission is $15.

Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.

El Pais editors were not immediately available to comment on the decision to publish the cartoon on its front page.

On Thursday, a dozen Palestinian gunmen surrounded European Union offices in the Gaza Strip demanding an apology for the Danish cartoons, one of which showed Islam's founder wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

Afghanistan has condemned the publication of the caricatures and about 400 Islamic students set fire to French and Danish flags in protest in the city of Multan in central Pakistan.

The owner of France Soir, a Paris daily that reprinted the cartoons on Wednesday along with a German paper, sacked its managing editor to show "a strong sign of respect for the beliefs and intimate convictions of every individual".

But the tabloid defended its right to print the cartoons, first published last September in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten.

Our interest in this story was sparked by an angry email sent to us here at WCBSTV.com. The writer wasn't angry at us, but rather about what he'd seen at the current National Black Fine Art Show in the Puck Building. This is the 10th anniversary edition of the show which features galleries from across the country selling the works of America's top African American painters, sculptors, and photographers.

But the writer had big problems with a painting by Harlem artist "Tafa". It depicts an upside down Christ-like figure with a face strongly resembling Osama Bin Laden. The email read in part, "This is outrageous. This is an attack against my religion. How can an artist go so low? Most people are outraged, most Christians."

On the phone with me, the artist declined to do an on-camera interview, telling me the work speaks for itself, but adding, the resemblance to Bin Laden was no accident.

The art show's producer Josh Wainwright, insisted he hadn't even made the Bin Laden connection. "Knowing what you know now would you have barred the painting from being part of your show?" I asked. "Absolutely not," he replied. Wainwright says he's a military veteran and despises Bin Laden, but he added, "I don't think it's anyone's job or vocation to limit the expression of artists."

While some at the show did recognize the Bin Laden face on the Christ body, we found none who were offended. Instead most defended "Tafa" the artist's right to speak his mind. The painting is bordered with hand lettered expressions and names including "mujahadin," "McCarthyism," and "Amadou Diallo," a man killed by New York City police in 1999.

You could take the painting out of circulation, or not, for a mere $12,000 and change. You can see the painting, or not, by visiting the show which runs through Sunday. Daily admission is $15.

In Indonesia a crowd of aroud 100 men stormed the building housing the Danish embassy, chanting "Let's go jihad (holy war), we're ready for jihad", before being ejected by security forces.

Muslims attending Friday prayers in Middle Eastern and European capitals listened to denunciations of the Danish, Norwegian and French newspapers that printed the pictures.

In Jerusalem thousands of angry worshippers demonstrated in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, shouting: "Condemnations are not enough, you have to reply with fire."

There were scuffles with police but no injuries.

But by early afternoon there were no reports of serious unrest, raising tentative hopes that the crisis could have passed a key test.

What has been widely described as a new battle in the continuing culture wars between Islam and the secular West began in September when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten commissioned cartoons of Mohammed in a deliberate affirmation of its right to free expression.

The row smouldered for several months before being reignited by republication of the drawings in Norway and France, prompting outrage among Muslim faithful, a campaign of consumer boycotts and on Thursday death threats from militants against nationals of the three countries.

In Europe many newspapers leapt to the defence of their sister publications, insisting on the right to free speech. But others have been more cautious, warning that liberty must be tempered by the duty not to provoke religious sensibilities.

Governments have also been circumspect, stressing the right to free expression but also urging mutual respect. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Friday the decision to republish the cartoons was "insulting ... insensitive ... disrespectful ... and wrong."

In the Middle East there has been universal condemnation of the cartoons, which include one of the prophet in a bomb-shaped turban and another of him telling suicide bombers at the gates of heaven that there were no more virgins.

But there were also calls for a measured response Friday that suggested the anger could be contained.

In Teheran veteran revolutionary cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani condemned the European press, but urged the faithful to respond calmly.

"We need to put forward our calm and compassionate side, our gentleness. It is enough to look at the Koran," he said.

And in Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said: "We are people who by the instructions of religion are bound to take the course of forgiveness... we must have as Muslims the courage to forgive and not make it an issue of dispute between religions or cultures."

In Denmark Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen had an hour-long meeting with 76 foreign diplomats including many from Muslim countries in a bid to defuse the crisis, but insisted at the end that his government could not apologise on behalf of the press.

"I think it's in our mutual interest to calm down the situation. If the protests in the streets escalate further, it may have unpredictable repercussions on all the affected countries, and then the problem can grow to a more global problem," Rasmussen said.

Egypt's ambassador to Denmark Mona Omar Attia who attended the meeting said the Jyllands-Posten would have to issue a clear apology.

In France the centre-left newspaper Liberation reprinted two of the cartoons, describing them as "exhibits in the case".

While criticising the caricatures as "mediocre," the daily said its decision was taken "out of a concern for comprehension and for reaffirming values which... have been damaged in the crisis."

France-Soir newspaper, which printed all 12 cartoons on Wednesday, published a message from the staff in support of editor Jacques Lefranc who was sacked by the paper's Egyptian-French owner Raymond Lakah.

"Let us repeat again and again: there is absolutely no question ... of stigmatising Islam and Muslims. Religion is not the issue but intolerance," it said.