Danish imams urge calm as cartoon protests mount

By Kim McLaughlin

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish Muslim preachers sought to soothe Muslim anger on Friday after newspapers reprinted a drawing of the Prophet Mohammad which caused outrage in Islamic countries two years ago.

Danish papers republished one of the drawings of Mohammad on Wednesday in protest against what they said was a plot to murder the cartoonist who drew it.

Mostafa Chendid, an imam at the Islamic Faith Community, said Danish media had confused freedom of expression with the freedom to insult others.

But he called for all Muslims to "cool down" and "turn "the other cheek," rather than pursue a violence, saying this would harm Islam the same way the cartoons had.

"We are trying to dampen the anger," he said at Friday prayers at a mosque in northern Copenhagen.

Chendid's group was at the centre of the first controversy after the cartoons were first published in 2005, helping organise a delegation to the Middle East to present a dossier of alleged Danish insults against Islam.

Several hundred Muslims gathered in central Copenhagen on Friday to protest the publication of the cartoon, shouting "God is great," as they marched.

Thousands of supporters of the Islamist group Hamas protested in the Gaza Strip against the reprinting.