JEDDAH: The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday criticized a Danish court which it said had linked Islam to terrorism and warned its ruling could exacerbate. A spokesman for the 57-nation OIC voiced “disappointment and dismay” at the decision by a Danish appeals court which rejected a suit against newspaper editors who published cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in 2005.
The Danish court ruled last Thursday that the caricatures, which were reprinted earlier this year by Danish newspapers, did not aim to insult followers of Islam as the plaintiffs, seven Muslim organizations, had charged.
“The Danish court ruling came as a surprise to the OIC at a time when almost all Western governments, including the United States, had made categorical statements rejecting any linkage between Islam and terrorism,” the OIC spokesman said. He “reiterated the principled position of the OIC and that of the OIC member states that terrorism has no connection with Islam or with any other religion. The linkage drawn by the Danish court between Islam with terror to legalize the printing of the offensive cartoons... could create a precedent for (the) exacerbation of Islamophobia.”
