A wave of Muslim fury spread across the Middle East and Asia over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed yesterday as leaders struggled to contain a deepening diplomatic crisis between Europe and the Muslim world.
In Iran, which has cut trade ties with Denmark where the satirical images were first published, a crowd pelted the Danish embassy in Tehran with gasoline bombs and stones for a second day.
Denmark's Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller called his Iranian counterpart "and demanded in clear terms that Iran does all it can to protect the embassy and Danish lives," a spokesman said, as the Tehran mission was attacked again.
Meanwhile, Denmark's ambassador to Indonesia urged his countrymen to leave Indonesia to avoid possible threats.
"The Foreign Ministry is advising Danes not to travel to Indonesia and Danes already in Indonesia to leave the country," Ambassador Niels Erik Andersen said.
Andersen said Danish flags and pictures of the Danish prime minister had been burned in three Indonesian cities.
"Some of the information I have provided to the Foreign Ministry is about threats we have received in the embassy, the threats that have been published against Danes and the activities going on in terms of demonstrations in front of our consulate," he said.
Denmark has been the focus of Muslim rage since the images -- one showing the prophet with a turban resembling a bomb -- appeared in a newspaper there and were later published elsewhere.
Depicting the prophet is prohibited by Islam but moderate Muslims, while condemning the cartoons, have expressed fear about radicals hijacking the affair.
The latest reported death came yesterday in Afghanistan when a mob attacked a base manned by Norwegian troops in Maymana, Faryab Province.
The Norwegian troops fired on hundreds of protesters outside the base, after the demonstrators shot at them and threw grenades, provincial Governor Mohammed Latif said, adding that one of the demonstrators had been shot dead.
A Norwegian military statement said 200 to 300 demonstrators broke through the base's main gate, started fires and hit two Norwegian soldiers with stones.
The fighting came one day after four people died and 19 were injured on Monday in protests.
At least seven people have now been killed in protests in Somalia, Lebanon and Afghanistan.
Afghan police used batons to beat stone-throwing protesters outside the Danish diplomatic mission and the offices of the World Bank in Kabul yesterday.
In Herat, an Italian peacekeeping base was attacked by about 3,000 stone-throwing protesters, but no one was injured, said a witness, Faridoon Pooyaa.
In Pakistan, two rallies in conservative provinces bordering Afghanistan drew an estimated 5,000 protesters apiece.
Further protests erupted yesterday in Egypt, Yemen, Djibouti, Gaza and Azerbaijan, while Croatia became the latest country where a newspaper printed the cartoons.
Iran, which has withdrawn its ambassador from Denmark and moved to the front-line of the confrontation, said the cartoons had "launched an anti-Islamic and Islamophobic current which will be answered."
In a new twist, Iran's top-selling newspaper yesterday launched a competition to find the best Holocaust cartoon.
The daily Hamshahri said the contest was designed to test the boundaries of free speech, the reason put forward by European newspapers for publishing the cartoons of Mohammed.
"Does Western free speech allow working on issues like America and Israel's crimes or an incident like the Holocaust or is this freedom of speech only good for insulting the holy values of divine religions?" the paper said.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki of Iran called for an emergency meeting of the world's largest Muslim body, the Organization of the Islamic Conference to discuss Islamophobia in the West.
Meanwhile, an editorial, Saudi Arabia's Okaz urged restraint.
"The use of violence, spreading chaos and destroying facilities ... only distorts Islam's image, especially after our enemies have tried to label us with so many accusations," the Saudi daily said.
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