Denmark and Norway criticize bounty offer for cartoonists

Feb 20, 2006, 14:13 GMT

Copenhagen - Denmark and Norway criticized Monday recent calls by a Pakistani cleric for a reward to be offered to anyone who killed any of the artists involved in drawing controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

'This is madness. It is incitement to murder, murder is also forbidden in the Koran,' Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller told reporters.

'There is no doubt that all extremists want to use the situation. I have no doubt that al-Qaeda also wants to fan the flames,' he added.

The cartoons, published by a Danish newspaper last September and reprinted earlier this year by a Norwegian magazine, have triggered a crisis that has embroiled the Muslim world.

Moller was speaking at a news conference with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store after the two ministers signed a border treaty between Greenland and the Svalbard islands.

Danish and Norwegian diplomats have worked round the clock in recent weeks to end the crisis, but Moller said it was too early to say that events had calmed down, citing protests over the weekend in Turkey and Pakistan.

Store was a little more upbeat regarding Norway, but warned that violence could flare up again.

Moller said Denmark and Norway were 'basically of the same view' while Store said that Oslo had apologized for the harm the cartoons had caused even though the Norwegian government had no influence over what was published by independent media.

Danish food company Arla Foods has been hit by a consumer boycott in the Middle East linked to anger over the publication.

Arla Foods said it was planning an information drive, aimed at distancing itself from the caricatures.

'Our ethical guidelines say that Arla should not offend other people's religions or ethnic origins. Therefore we clearly distance ourselves from Jyllands-Posten's cartoons,' Arla manager Peder Tuborgh said in an interview with the Politiken newspaper.

Tuborgh said the information drive was aimed at expressing sympathy with customers in the Middle East who had been offended by the cartoons, and the company was also considering financial support to certain charities or organizations active in the Middle East.

'We are considering supporting the Red Crescent with a specific sum per sold unit,' Tuborgh said.

Arla's initiative was questioned by Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Liberal Party and the populist Danish People's Party.

The populist's foreign affairs spokesman Soren Espersen said Arla's actions were 'regrettable' and created 'uncertainty' about Copenhagen's views, the Jyllands-Posten's online edition said.