Hasyim asks Muslims not to be provoked over new Danish cartoon controversy

Jakarta, NU Online
While condemning a video lampooning the Prophet Muhammad, which was broadcast in Denmark, the leader of the country's largest Muslim organization (Nahdlatul Ulama), Hasyim Muzadi Sunday asked Muslims not to be provoked and suggested the case be taken to an international court.

"This phenomenon shows a designed attack carried out systemically to taint the holiness of Islam," NU leader Hasyim Muzadi said.

On Friday, Denmark's national TV2 channel aired excerpts from a video depicting Muhammad as a beer-drinking camel and as a drunken terrorist attacking Copenhagen.

Filmed in August, the video was made by members of the far-right Danish People's Party, which is known for its anti-immigration stance. The video showed people in their 20s and 30s participating in a drawing contest at a summer camp for the Party's youth group and they appeared to have been drinking alcohol.

Video clips of the contest were posted on some Web sites after the annual Aug. 4-6 camp. Nearly all of the dozens of people shown in the videos had their faces blurred, but the images they drew were clear.

In one, a woman displayed a drawing of a camel with Muhammad's head and beer bottles as humps while the group laughed.

Kenneth Christensen, chairman of the Party's youth group, refused to apologize Friday for the actions of its members, but acknowledged they were problematic.

In February, Danish cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad sparked Muslim anger all over the world and led to calls for a boycott of Danish products. (dar)