Beirut (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The first protests are surfacing in the Islamic world about a video broadcast on Danish television showing a drawing of Muhammad as a camel with beer bottles as a hump. However, it seems more attention is being paid not to instigate violent acts, with calls for "rational reactions" and with an emphasis on the Danish authorities' condemnation of the act perpetrated by an extreme-right youth group.

The "offence" was recorded by Denmark's TV2 channel, which broadcast footage of a summer camp of the youth wing of the extreme-right Danish People's Party (DPP). The video showed, among other things, the young people in a drawing competition: one girl was illustrating and explaining the "blasphemous" image.

After a "demand for explanations" made yesterday by the Organisation of Islamic conferences, the first reaction came from Danish Islamic Community, which charged perpetrators of the act with "irresponsibility". But Qassem Said, the community's spokesman, was quoted by Islamonline – which did not define the image as "blasphemous" – as saying he did not want an "explosive" issue made out of this.

Yildiz Akdogan, spokeswoman for Democratic Muslims, said the events were "too stupid and too absurd to provoke demonstrations or other actions from Muslims". The article underlined the fact that the DPP is anti-integration and even a member of the group condemned the drawing.

Without describing the drawing, Saudi's Arab News reported protests formulated by Jordan and Iran and also featured the "strong condemnation" from the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The head of the Copenhagen government said in a written statement that the group "in no way represents the Danish people's or young Danes' view of Muslims."

Amman's Religious Affairs Minister, Abdel Fattah Salah, said: "Muslims must be rational in their reaction to these offences." The Jordanian representative said there should be a reaction on "international political and diplomatic fronts", adding that the "best answer to such offences is to be more attached to our religion." The Iranian Embassy in Copenhagen protested about what happened and said: "It is deplorable that the extremist elements in the Danish society have attempted to sabotage Denmark's relations with the Islamic countries."

It was from Indonesia that the harshest verbal condemnation came, even if from the spokesman of a fundamentalist group called the Indonesian Mujahdeen Council. After recalling that Islam decrees the death penalty for those who insult the prophet Muhammad, he said: "The Danish authorities should think seriously if they want to defend, in the name of human rights, one or two of its citizens who clearly insulted the prophet and sacrifice their ties with the Muslim world."