The Mohammed cartoon strips:Islam shows its darkest face

Benedict XVI condemns the Mohammad caricatures and asks that the exercise of religious freedom be allowed everywhere in conditions of reciprocity.

The National Commission for Justice and Peace calls the Muhammad cartoons published by a Danish paper a provocation but says that intolerance is part of Pakistan's language of politics, mass media and school textbooks, hence the need to develop a culture of peace. More protests occur in Karachi today.

The boy was killed in Peshawar. There was another death in Lahore, where students are pressing ahead with violent rallies. In the North West Frontier Province, all educational institutions have been shut down for a week.

In a document made public today, the Movement for Inter-Religious Dialogue, Silsilah, "deplores events like the publication of vignettes which desecrate Mohammed, the continued violence in Iraq and killings of Jolo"; these "threaten the search for peace and dialogue".

Hamas offers mediation; from Malaysia, the call for Islam and the West to accept each other as equals; similar appeals from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh; hundreds of thousands participate in Hezbollah protest with no incidents to report.

The director of  missio sui iuris in Afghanistan comments on the war of the cartoon strips: the west must free itself of its' subordination to Islam, it must learn to respect religious beliefs and deepen its self awareness. Fr.  Santoro, example of how these initiatives undermine the humble work of the Church in Islamic nations.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gather in front of the Danish embassy in Jakarta; protests also in other cities.  The Indonesian president joins in criticism, but invites the population to accept Denmark's apology.

More than 20 thousand protestors belonging to a new "National Movement for the Defence of the Prophet Mohammed", set alight the building, smashing shop windows and throwing stones to a church. The example of Syria.

The enormous wave of polemics, of governmental and popular initiatives against the publication of cartoon strips is provoking the rejection of Islam, which still finds itself ill at ease in modernity. Islamic governments are using the controversy to distract local public opinion from internal problems.

The French, Danes and Norwegians are "targets", warn some Palestinian militant groups Dismissed the director of  France Soir who published them, but there are still numerous European papers who are carrying them.  Hezbollah leaders evoke the Khomeini fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

Humorous cartoons published by a Danish newspaper are provoking widespread street protests, the closure of embassies and the boycott of supermarkets.  The Arab League and Organisations from the Islamic Conference announced their intention to seek a UN resolution which bans attacks on religious faiths.