Danish newspapers reprint controversial Muhammed cartoons
This week newspapers in Denmark reprinted the controversial cartoons of Muhammed whose first printing led to massive outrage and deadly riots in the Muslim world.
According to the Associated Press, the newspapers made the decision to reprint the cartoons as a show of solidarity after a plot was revealed to kill one of the cartoonists , who had depicted the Muslim prophet with a turban resembling a bomb with a lit fuse.
In 2006, when the cartoons were first printed, the Danish flag was burned in violent protests in Muslim countries, which also saw widespread boycotts of Danish products.
While many Danish Muslim organizations have said that they are not intending to take retaliatory action, the fact that a right-wing lawmaker is planning to air a film condemning Islam as fascist has many worrying that a new wave of religious tension and violence will erupt.
Hezbollah commander dies in bomb blast
A bomb attack in Syria on Tuesday killed Imad Moughniyah, a senior commander in Hezbollah.
According to Reuters, Moughinyah, 45, was at the top of a list of foreigners that Israel sought to capture or kill. In the U.S. he was at the top of their list until the emergence of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Israel has denied involvement in the bombing; Hezbollah is claiming that Israel placed the bomb in Moughinyah’s vehicle.
In 1983, Moughinyah was implicated in bombings of the U.S. embassy in Beirut as well as U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping baracks; the attacks killed over 350 people. The U.S. also has indicted him for several other terrorist incidents as well. Israel holds him responsible for bombings in Argentina that killed over a hundred people.
The United States has unsuccessfully tried to detain him several times in the past.
“The world is a better place without this man in it. He was a cold-blooded killer, a mass-murderer and a terrorist responsible for countless innocent lives lost,” said Sean McCormack, State Department spokesman.