http://www.jp.dk/english_news/artikel:aid=3468452/ Arabic League criticises governmentArabic foreign ministers express their dissatisfied with the government's reaction to the fallout over Jyllands-Posten's Mohammed cartoons Foreign ministers from the 22 Arabic League nations criticised the Danish government on Thursday for its actions following daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten's decision to publish twelve drawings of the prophet Mohammed.
The foreign ministers also decided that the league's secretary-general, Amr Moussa, and secretary-general for the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, would take up the issue with the Danish government.
After Jyllands-Posten printed the drawings of Mohammed this September, raising the ire of the Muslim community in Denmark, ambassadors from 11 Muslim nations protested to the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, asking him to meet with them to discuss the tone of the debate over Islam in Denmark.
Rasmussen refused to meet with the ambassadors, calling it a matter of freedom of speech, which he had no influence over.
Rasmussen instead told the ambassadors that if they felt Jyllands-Posten had broken Danish laws, they could bring the matter up before the courts.
In their declaration on Thursday, the foreign ministers expressed their 'surprise and indignation over the Danish government's reaction, which was disappointing, despite the political, economic, and cultural bonds with the Muslim world'.
At the same time, the league also criticised 'European human rights organisations for not having distanced themselves from the situation'.
Other Muslim organisations have previously criticised the Danish government in the matter, but the declaration from the Arabic League is seen as the most serious response so far.
Although it takes the matter seriously, the criticism will not cause the government to change its position, according to Troels Lund, foreign affairs spokesman for the prime minister's Liberal Party.
'Now it is important to stand our ground and say that we have a separation of powers in Denmark and something called freedom of expression,' Lund said
