The slogans read: "Butcher those who mock Islam", "Slay those who insult Islam", "Behead those who insult Islam", and "Kill those who insult Islam".

Most of the placards advocating violence appeared on Friday, with chants like "Europe you will pay, your Sept. 11 is on the way", or "July. 7 is on its way", "Europe you will pay, fantastic four are on their way", and "Europe you will pay, Bin Laden is on his way".

However, only two people were arrested for carrying copies of the Danish cartoons which ignited the protests.

The police said in a statement on Sunday that "specialist officers were deployed on both days to record any potential evidence should it be needed at any point in the future. All complaints will be passed to the public order crime unit for further investigation. Arrests, if necessary, will be made at the most appropriate time."

On Thursday the largest number of protesters, in a world of over one-billion Muslims, was “around 300” in Pakistan. As of noon Friday, the only reported demonstration attributed to these cartoons consisted of “about 300” Indonesians, which, somehow, Reuters viewed as meriting the headline “Uproar over Images of Mohammad Spreads across Asia.” Now, self-righteous and xenophobic fires fanned by such hyperbolic headlines, the fires have begun in earnest as people of the East and West glower at the imagined Other shrieking, “How could they!”

The current coverage of this act of “freedom of expression” and the Muslim response is further demoralizing and undermining the anti-war movement as oil-rich Iran gets hauled towards the Security Council, Bush uses the State of the Union Address to shore up waning support for the “War on Terror” and Rumsfeld calls upon the world to unite as, “a war has been declared on all of our nations” by “Islamic militants” intent on creating “a global extremist empire.”

Now come on, Osama bin Laden is so far off the map he cannot be found. And, as for Iran, well yes, their smiley President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does sound terribly threatening in the press coverage he’s getting; but then, he’s been elected by a nation who feels terribly threatened thanks to the gusher of blood and misery unleashed in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan ever since Bush-n-Company came sniffing around for oil, the geo-political leverage it insures and an ongoing excuse to keep tax-payers funding their filthy rich defence contractor and clean-up-the-mess we-made pals.

Moreover, this hyped-up coverage serves to distract (if not recruit) freedom of expression advocates from their struggle with the perceived enemy within—i.e., Western governments intent on using the “War on Terror” as a pretext for spying on and incarcerating citizens of foreign countries as well as their own, and, it may also result in diverting attention from government attempts to monitor and limit freedom of speech as well as from the numerous scandals besetting the Bush Administration.

Well, back to those cartoons…and the coverage we’re getting: By focusing on isolated expressions of anger and by describing these instances as pandemic, the media is force-feeding its viewers with the Neo-Con’s “Clash of Civilizations” thesis and thereby spreading its nefarious “WE—the free, democratic, good, mature and civilized” against “THEM—the freedom-hating, despotic, evil, childlike and barbaric” world-view.

When an entire people are subsumed into this thesis of irreconcilable difference, alarm bells should thunder. One commentator on a British TV news report went so far as to describe Islam as a “virus that requires a cure.” As for the Yahoo Message Boards, a cacophony arose from the featured articles, many calling for nuking the lands of Islam into a “sea of glass” and applying the “Final Solution” to Arabs in the US and Europe. What we are witnessing is a further marginalization of the marginalized, an increased bullying of the bullied.

According to Islam, the crafting of images of Mohammad is the height of blasphemy. The way it was done, repeated and then celebrated is akin to incinerating Holy-of-Holies in public while dancing around the bonfires jeering and threatening Jews. And, who, with open eyes and ears, has not heard an echo of the Nazi’s assessment that Jews behave “like a nation within a nation;” but; now; it comes from our media, our politicians, our family and friends, when they refer to the Islamic problem.

As for those leaders of Muslim nations who have condemned these caricatures, what’s the big deal? They must state, when compelled, that these images are offensive to Muslims. Our own leaders are often quick to decry art and statements offending Christian and Jewish sensibilities—e.g., Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” and the recent imprisonment of David Irving for Holocaust denial.

Most Middle Eastern rulers rise by force and/or maintain their regime through force—the source of which is largely supplied by the arms and military training industries of the West. Several Arab political analysts have interpreted the condemnation expressed by the region’s politicos as having much to do with their attempt to keep power. Popular anger has been focused on the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan; but, with these cartoons, regional leaders have a paper-tiger to publicly stab, and thereby show solidarity with their people without risking the ire of their foreign power-base.

What is cause for real outrage is how the Western media also appears enthusiastic about making a storm-in-a-tea-cup of the comprehensible reaction by a small number of Muslims. Doing so, given the human catastrophe visited upon Iraq by the self-proclaimed “civilized world” and the subsequent anguish and humiliation experienced by Muslims, will likely exacerbate this situation, as the past 24-hours is making worrisomely evident.

Our “free-press” is currently offering neither context nor analysis when addressing Muslim reactions to these caricatures. The coverage of what had been tiny isolated protests and threats of violence has been anything but responsible. As such, these reports serve only to stoke the flames of hatred while keeping us in the dark. Our “free-press” is selling-out its stated mission, and its public, most cheaply.

The context is a long history of invasion, occupation, careless killing, intensive pillaging, oppression, humiliation and the subsequent radicalization of many people in the Middle East. Presenting the public outcry of a few hundred Muslims as indicative of a billion people spread over dozens of nations only deepens an already profound sense of divide between "Us and Them." To do so is not merely sensationalist and irresponsible; it’s akin to a crime against truth, justice and humanity.

Copyright: Peter Matthews matthewspeter@hotmail.com

Of course, some would condone or agree with one, two or all three, while others would say “it’s free speech,” although they “find it offensive and in poor taste.” But do you honestly think media outlets such as the BBC, Le Monde, or any media outlet in Copenhagen would pick up these cartoons? The outrage would begin instantly and advertisers would pullout. Yet, those in Denmark and their supporters around Europe call it freedom of speech to have a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed—who is not supposed be depicted to prevent idolatry according to clerical interpretation of the Koran—with a turban shaped like a bomb on his head.

The double standard the West has set for the rest of the world is disgusting. We live in a foolish bubble where we think we are free to say or do whatever we want without consequence. I remember watching Saturday Night Live when Sinead O’Connor ripped up a picture of the Pope. The furor was enormous, which led to NBC receiving a 2.5 million dollar fine by the Federal Communications Commission. Imagine if it was a picture of Jesus—the US Congress would have made the Teri Schiavo intervention look like a joke.

Where are the pictures of the dead soldiers, the dead women and children in the Western media? Some governments won’t allow it and other media outlets just fear the backlash. When I need journalistic honesty, I have to turn to Al Jazeera, why is that? One cannot even deny the Holocaust in Europe, question 9/11 in America (unless you want the Ward Churchill treatment), but the West claims they’re all about free speech.

It is no coincidence the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is grossly pro-Israeli. It is no coincidence that you never heard the full quotes of Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s comments on Israel and the Holocaust—no matter the basis. And it is no coincidence that Arab analysts who are against the war in Iraq, the occupation of Palestine, and America’s “war on terror” are insufficiently represented in the European press.

So what are Muslims to do? Violence is out of the question—that would be “an overreaction.” So why not boycott? That would be a mistake as well, according to the European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini who stated, “Calls for boycotts or for restraints on the freedom of the press are completely unacceptable.” What Frattini meant to say is that Muslims should choose capitalism over faith. Maybe the European Union will clarify through a cartoon—Mohammed selling the Koran for ten bucks in a Danish pawn shop. But boycotting is a friend of the West. However, they more conveniently title it “sanctions.” I’m sure we all remember the 500,000 Iraqi women and children that died because of the UN boycotts on Iraq after the first Gulf War.

Is Europe is willing to continue this new trend against boycotts? Will the European community call on Israel to show Paradise Now in non-independent theatres? It’s the only way to stop the boycott of Palestinian freedom of speech. Will the European Union resume aide to the Hamas-led Palestinian government tomorrow? Since Hamas’ call for the destruction of Israel is protected under the clause of freedom of speech and the group stopped suicide attacks 18 months ago, it only seems logical.

If Denmark, Norway, France, Germany and the rest of Europe believe in the freedom of speech, it should include all instances and all religions. These nations are carelessly defending their hypocrisy and reinforcing the double standard that alienates Muslims and desecrates the Muslim faith, under the guise of free speech. I guess only one question remains for small Norwegian Christian newspapers like Magazinet that reprinted the cartoons: What would Jesus do?

*** Remi Kanazi is the primary writer for the political website www.PoeticInjustice.net. He lives in New York City as a Palestinian American freelance writer and can reached via email at remroum@gmail.com

"Lets us calm things down. We have had enough hate and intolerance," he said on French radio. "There is not a religion in the world that condones killing, or the burning of flags."

One Afghan protester was shot and killed when police opened fire after demonstrators threw stones at them in a second day of demonstrations by more than 1,000 people in eastern Laghman province. Four others were injured.

In the capital Kabul about 300 people marched on Denmark's embassy where they torched a Danish flag and threw stones at the embassy, shouting "Death to Denmark, death to Norway, death to America, death to Bush."

Around 1,000 protestors also gathered in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and burnt the flags of France, Denmark and Norway. Hundreds protested in Kandahar, while more than 5,000 marched in Parwan province near Kabul.

In Lebanon, one person died and almost 50 people were wounded during rioting in the capital Beirut which saw the Danish consulate set ablaze, police said Monday.

One of the demonstrators involved in torching the mission was found dead in the staircase of the building, which was attacked by crowds of protestors on Sunday amid fury over the cartoons which are seen as blasphemous by Muslims.

In Indonesia's second city of Surabaya, police fired warning shots outside the US consulate to disperse 200 protesters from the hardline Front of the Defenders of Islam who earlier smashed windows at the Danish consulate.

Some 30 armed police took away two of the group who tried to remove the US consulate's plaque, triggering fury from the mob which shoved police. They retaliated by firing a volley of about 20 shots into the air to disperse them.

In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, hundreds of people demonstrated outside the Danish embassy, which was closed, calling for an apology from the Danish government over the offending images.

Demonstrators left a coffin draped with a white sheet scattered with miniature red-and-white Danish flags, and a sign reading "Press freedom does not mean you may insult our Prophet Mohammed!"

Hundreds of Iranian demonstrators pelted the Austrian embassy in Tehran on Monday with stones, firecrackers and eggs, smashing several windows.

The 300-strong crowd, who were mainly members of the hardline Basij militia, also burned the flags of several European nations and demanded that the embassies of countries where the media have printed the cartoons be shut down.

Austria is the current holder of the rotating European presidency.

In Turkey, a massive manhunt was under way after a Roman Catholic priest was shot dead at his church by a gunman shouting "God is great," a common rallying cry for Islamic militants.

Authorities said police were investigating claims that the incident was connected to the caricatures.

Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, banned from Britain for his radical views and now living in Lebanon, called for capital punishment for cartoonists who dare depict the Prophet Mohammed.

Witnesses in Indian-administered Kashmir said much of the territory had ground to halt due to a general strike called to protest the cartoons. Groups of protestors took to the streets of Srinagar, the summer capital.

In Thailand, some 200 people rallied peacefully outside the Danish embassy and demanded an apology for the cartoons, which included an image of Mohammed with a bomb-shaped turban.

A junior editor of the Sarawak Tribune, a local newspaper in Malaysia resigned for publishing the cartoons in Saturday's edition.

In Australia, which was drawn into the debate after a weekend newspaper printed one of the images, there were warnings that reproducing the cartoons would "only create more bin Ladens".

"Which is more important, to preserve the freedom of speech or to antagonise one-fifth of humanity," asked Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ameer Alito.

Denmark on Monday issued a list of 14 Muslim countries which travellers should avoid -- Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller has said he is "horrified" at the way the violence and attacks have spread.

"We don't have much to go on to make a proper interpretation of what happened. However, the only element which a collaborator of Father Santoro's mentioned to me is that the person who killed him shouted 'Allahu Akhbar'," Monsignor Antonio Lucibello was quoted as saying by Italy's ANSA news agency.

The acclamation, used in prayer, is also employed as a rallying cry by Islamic militants.

"There are claims that the incident may be related to the cartoons," Trabzon Governor Huseyin Yavuzdemir told Anatolia news agency. "This will become clear when the suspect is captured."

The Turkish government "ferociously" condemned the murder and promised to find the perpetrator, described by witnesses as a male in his late teens who ran away after the shooting.

A person who was inside the 19th century church told the police the assailant fired three shots as the priest opened the gate before evening prayers, Anatolia reported.

Two bullets hit the victim and a preliminary examination established that he died of a wound in his chest, it said.

The Vatican embassy in Ankara said Santoro was originally from Piverno, a small town near Rome.

Yavuzdemir said the police had information the priest had been threatened by locals in the past over alleged efforts to convert Muslims, but there was no indication the church was involved in missionary work.

"The security forces are investigating the people who have threatened and criticized him," he said, adding that Santoro had not asked for protection from the police.

Missionary activities are generally met with suspicion in Turkey, but attacks on religious personalities are virtually unheard of.

The Santa Maria Church in Trabzon, a port city on the Black Sea coast, was built in the second half of the 19th century on the orders of an Ottoman sultan to serve foreign visitors.

"We ferociously condemn this murder committed in a religious sanctuary and against a man of religion," Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, who is the government's spokesman, told Anatolia.

"The government is making all possible efforts to shed light on this incident and find out who perpetrated it and why," he said.

Police stepped up security measures at main crossroads in Trabzon and at the entrances and exits of the city, Anatolia reported.

Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the torching of Danish and Norwegian missions in Syria and Lebanon and warned that violence over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons would further undermine efforts to bring different cultures closer.

Erdogan maintained his criticism of the drawings but stressed that "torching and destruction cannot be a means of correcting mistakes", Anatolia reported.

"The solution should be at the negotiating table, in diplomacy," he said.

"One cannot look for a solution at the barrel of a gun. This is the wish and objective of those who want a clash of civilizations."

Turkey, a strictly secular state with a predominantly Muslim population, sees itself as a bridge between East and West and is seeking to join the European Union.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul convened an emergency meeting with senior diplomats late Sunday to discuss what initiatives Turkey can undertake to help bring an end to the cartoon crisis, officials said.

In a statement condemning the priest's murder, the foreign ministry insisted that Turkey remained an example of peaceful co-habitation between Islam and other religions.

"We believe this brutal murder is an isolated incident," it said. "We hope it will not be repeated and will not harm the climate of tolerance in our country."

The statement was released this morning after Mr Blair spoke by phone to his Danish counterpart.

"We understand the offence caused by the cartoons depicting the prophet and of course regret that this has happened. Such things help no one," Mr Blair's spokesman said. "It is always sensible for freedom of expression to be exercised with respect for religious belief. But nothing can justify the violence aimed at European embassies or at the country of Denmark.

"The attacks on the citizens of Denmark and the people of other European countries are completely unacceptable as is the behaviour of some of the demonstrators in London over the last few days."

Mr Blair's spokesman, reading from the prepared statement, went on: "We also strongly welcome the statements of Muslim leaders here who are themselves tackling the extremists who abuse their community's good name."

The European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, is holding talks with EU governments in a bid to win "a return to peaceful debate" about the cartoons. A spokesman, Johannes Leitenberger, said Mr Barroso had consulted the Austrian EU presidency this morning and was now in contact with other member states.

He denied there was any suggestion "at the moment" of reducing or halting EU aid to the countries where there was rioting over the weekend, in which national and EU buildings were targeted.

Earlier, the exiled radical cleric, Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, called for the people behind the Danish cartoons that have caused outrage and offence around the Muslim world "to be tried and executed".

The Syrian-born preacher, who left Britain last August and has since been banned from returning, warned that countries that refused to put people on trial for insulting Muhammad must "face the consequences".

"The insult has been established now by everybody, Muslim and non-Muslim, and everybody condemns the cartoonist and condemns the cartoon," Mr Bakri told the BBC's Today programme. "However, in Islam, God said, and the messenger Muhammad said, whoever insults a prophet, he must be punished and executed. This man should be put on trial and, if it is proven, to be executed."

The cleric added that Muslims in Britain were not allowed to kill people who insulted Islam because it was against the law of the country.

Mr Bakri, the former head of the radical group al-Mujahiroun, which disbanded in 2004, left Britain last year as the government signalled its intent to detain a number of radical preachers following the July 7 bombings. Mr Bakri, who had spent 20 years in Britain, flew to Lebanon, originally saying he wanted to visit his mother. He has since been banned from returning by the home secretary, Charles Clarke.

Al-Ghuraba, an offshoot of al-Mujahiroun, organised the angry protest outside the Danish embassy in London on Friday during which demonstrators carried placards calling for people who insult Islam to be killed.

The Metropolitan police were under continuing pressure today to arrest those behind Friday's protest.

"It is very worrying, in the sense that the demonstrators on the streets over the weekend were doing things and saying things that are completely unacceptable and intolerable," the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, told the BBC. "The police need to bear down on them very heavily and chase down those who have committed offences and prosecute them where they can get the evidence, because there is freedom of speech on the one hand - that is sacrosanct.

"But on the other hand, incitement to terror, incitement to suicide bombing - all of those are clear infringements of the law. And where there is evidence to back that up, then prosecutions will obviously follow and the police are investigating that now."

Scotland Yard received more than 100 complaints after Friday's protest. Specialist police officers who attended the demonstration were understood to have taken film and photographic evidence, but no protesters were arrested. A Metropolitan police spokeswoman said any arrests would be made "at the appropriate time".

The police's decision not to make immediate arrests received some support today.

"I remember similar concerns around the way BNP [British National party] events were being policed in London - people saying the police shouldn't have allowed it to happen, they should have intervened at an earlier stage," Lord Harris, a board member of the Metropolitan police authority, said.

"The prime approach that the police take on all of these things is, is there an immediate danger to public safety? And it is much more important to deal with that and to make sure that people in the immediate environment are physically safe and then to assess whether other offences have been committed.

"That, I think, seems to have been the approach in this case, but we will need to look at it in some detail," he told the BBC.

Friday's demonstration was condemned by a range of Islamic organisations, from the moderate Muslim Council of Britain to the more radical Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which Tony Blair is seeking to outlaw because of claims it backs terrorism. Hizb-ut-Tahrir organised a less incendiary protest in London on Saturday, which passed off without incident.

To Danish Muslims denouncing this as an instance of racism - a provocation capitalised upon by the ever expanding far right in the country - my advice was to avoid reacting emotionally, to try to explain quietly why these cartoons were offensive and neither to demonstrate nor to risk activating mass movements that could prove impossible to master. At the time, a resolution seemed to be at hand.

One might ask, then, why it is that three months later, some find it in their interests to pour fuel on the fire of a controversy, with tragic and potentially uncontrollable consequences? A few Danish Muslims visited Middle Eastern countries and ramped up the resentment: governments in the region, only too happy to prove their attachment to Islam - to bolster their Islamic legitimacy in the eyes of the public - took advantage of this piece of good fortune and presented themselves as champions of a great cause. On the other side, the controversy was just what some politicians, intellectuals and journalists needed to paint themselves as champions of the equally great struggle for freedom of expression and as resistance fighters against religious obscurantism in the name of western values.

We are facing an incredible simplification, a gross polarisation: apparently a clash of civilisations, a confrontation between principles, with defenders, in one corner, of inalienable freedom of speech and, in the other, of the inviolable sacred sphere. Presented in such terms, the debate has unfortunately become a battle of wills, and the question becomes: who will win? Muslims, wanting apologies, threaten to attack European interests, even to attack people; western governments, intellectuals and journalists refuse to bend under threats, and certain media outlets have added to the controversy by republishing the cartoons. Most people around the world, observing these excesses, are perplexed: what sort of madness is this, they ask?

It is critical we find a way out of this infernal circle and demand from those stoking this fire that they stop their polemics at once and create a space for serious, open, indepth debate and peaceful dialogue. This is not the predicted clash of civilisations. This affair does not symbolise the confrontation between the principles of Enlightenment and those of religion. Absolutely not. What is at stake at the heart of this sad story is whether or not the duelling sides have the capacity to be free, rational (whether believers or atheists) and, at the same time, reasonable.

The fracture is not between the west and Islam but between those who, in both worlds, are able to assert who they are and what they stand for with calm - in the name of faith or reason, or both - and those driven by exclusive certainties, blind passions, reductive perceptions of the other and a liking for hasty conclusions. The latter character traits are shared equally by some intellectuals, religious scholars, journalists and ordinary people on both sides. Facing the dangerous consequences these attitudes entail, it is urgent we launch a general call for wisdom.

In Islam, representations of all prophets are strictly forbidden. It is both a matter of the fundamental respect due to them and a principle of faith requiring that, in order to avoid any idolatrous temptations, God and the prophets never be represented. Hence, to represent a prophet is a grave transgression. If, moreover, one adds the clumsy confusions, insults and denigration that Muslims perceived in the Danish cartoons, one can understand the nature of the shock expressed by large segments of Muslim communities around the world (and not only by practising Muslims or the radicals). To these people, the cartoons were too much: it was good and important for them to express their indignation and to be heard.

At the same time, it was necessary for Muslims to bear in mind that, for the past three centuries, western societies - unlike Muslim-majority countries - have grown accustomed to critical, ironical - even derisive - treatment of religious symbols, among them the pope, Jesus Christ and even God. Even though Muslims do not share such an attitude, it is imperative they learn to keep an intellectual distance when faced with such provocations and not to let themselves be driven by zeal and fervour, which can only lead to undesirable ends.

In the case of these cartoons - as clumsy as they are idiotic and malicious - it would have been, and it would remain, preferable if Muslims expressed their values and grievances to the public at large without clamour, better if they paused until such a time as calm was possible. Instead, what is welling up today within some Muslim communities is as unproductive as it is insane: the obsessive demands for apologies, boycotting of European products and threats of violent reprisals are excesses that must be rejected and condemned.

However, it is just as excessive and irresponsible to invoke the "right to freedom of expression" - the right to say anything, in any way, against anybody. Freedom of expression is not absolute. Countries have laws that define the framework for exercising this right and which, for instance, condemn racist language. There are also specific rules pertaining to the cultures, traditions and collective psychologies in the respective societies that regulate the relationship between individuals and the diversity of cultures and religions.

Racial or religious insults are not addressed in the same way in the various western societies: within a generally similar legal framework, each nation has its own history and sensitivities; wisdom requires acknowledging and respecting this reality. The reality is also that the Muslim presence within western societies has changed their collective sensitivity. Instead of being obsessed with laws and rights - approaching a tyrannical right to say anything - would it not be more prudent to call upon citizens to exercise their right to freedom of expression responsibly and to take into account the diverse sensitivities that compose our pluralistic contemporary societies?

This is not a matter of additional laws restraining the scope of free speech; it is simply one of calling upon everybody's conscience to exercise that right with an eye on the rights of others. It is more about nurturing a sense of civic responsibility than about imposing legislation: Muslim citizens are not asking for more censorship but for more respect. One cannot impose mutual respect by means of legislation; rather one teaches it in the name of a free, responsible and reasonable common citizenship.

We are at a crossroads. The time has come for women and men who reject this dangerous division of people into two worlds to start building bridges based on common values. They must assert the inalienable right to freedom of expression and, at the same time, demand measured exercise of it. We need to promote an open, self-critical approach, to repudiate exclusive truths and narrow-minded, binary visions of the world.

We are in dire need of mutual trust. The crises provoked by these cartoons shows us how, out of "seemingly nothing", two universes of reference can become deaf to each other and be seduced by defining themselves against each other - with the worst possible consequences. Disasters threaten that extremists on both sides would not fail to use for their own agendas. If people who cherish freedom, who know the importance of mutual respect and are aware of the imperative necessity to establish a constructive and critical debate, if these people are not ready to speak out, to be more committed and visible, then we can expect sad, painful tomorrows. The choice is ours.

· Tariq Ramadan is visiting fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford University and senior research fellow at the Lokahi Foundation, in London