Muslims in Dublin cartoons protest march

About 500 Muslims marched past the Danish embassy in Dublin yesterday in a passionate demonstration of anger at the caricatures of Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper last year, and republished in recent weeks by other European newspapers.

The march organisers said they also wanted to thank the Irish media for largely not publishing the cartoons which have given rise to protests across the Middle East and parts of Europe. The Irish Star is the only Irish newspaper to have published the caricatures.

The marchers - predominantly men - moved as a tightly packed group from outside a Pakistani-owned food store near the South Circular Road mosque to St Stephen's Green. Most of the men carried placards, with such messages as "Muhammad is the Messenger of Peace", "Oriental and Islam caricatures are unacceptable", "Islam means peace and respect for all religions". At the front of the march a large banner said, "Thank U Irish newspapers for not repeating the insult to Islam".

Instructed by gardaí not to stop outside the Danish embassy on St Stephen's Green, they kept moving on to the main entrance to the park at the top of Grafton Street. Some five gardaí stood on the embassy steps while the marchers filed past.

Throughout the march the demonstrators were strident in loud prayers and phrases of devotion to Muhammad. Among the phrases was "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet".

The march was sometimes unwieldy due to its tightly packed formation and the speed at which it moved. The marchers sat on the ground once they arrived at the entrance to St Stephen's Green.

Sheikh Dr Shaheed Satardien of Interfaith Roundtable, which organised the march, addressed the crowd, saying that though Muslims were "hurt and deeply offended by the cartoons, we utterly condemn the violence which followed them across the world".

"We are people of peace and seek to bridge the gap between Islam and the West. Therefore we thank the Irish media for not republishing these offensive cartoons and thereby damaging community relations."

Sheikh Allama Zille Umar Qadri of the Islamic cultural group, Minhaj-ul-Quran Ireland, spoke in Arabic before thanking his "dear fellow citizens for showing the Irish media we Muslims believe in peace".

"Our religion means peace. I condemn the publication of these cartoons. It is not freedom of speech to disrespect the holy prophet, as to disrespect him is to disrespect the 1.3 billion Muslims. Muslims are not terrorists."

Twice during his address individuals in the crowd broke into ardent expressions of devotion to Muhammad, with which the rest of the crowd immediately joined, forcing Sheikh Umar Qadri to wait for them to finish.

He said the message to European leaders was not that European media come under the authority of Islamic law. "It is actually that Islamophobic caricatures are unacceptable, irresponsible and will lead to a more polarised world."

He led the crowd in observing a minute's silence "as a protest against those cartoons". He then asked the crowd to go home peacefully.