SUDANESE President Omar al-Bashir declared yesterday that he would bar Danes from Sudan and told tens of thousands of people at a government-backed rally that the Muslim world should boycott Denmark because of a reprinted cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.
"We urge all Muslims around the world to boycott Danish commodities, goods, companies, institutions, organisations and personalities," Mr Bashir told the crowd outside the Republic Palace in Khartoum.
Mr Bashir vowed that "not a single Danish foo
t will from now on desecrate the land of Sudan".
It was not clear whether Mr Bashir would act on his rhetoric and expel over two-dozen Danes who work in Sudan, mostly in aid organisations and as peacekeepers in southern Sudan and Darfur. Danish diplomats in Khartoum said they were not told of a new trade boycott and that Sudanese authorities had not notified them about expelling the Danes.
Seventeen Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoon showing Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban this month in a gesture of solidarity after police in the Scandinavian country said they uncovered a plot to kill the cartoon's artist.
Sudan was one of the nations where large protests were held against Denmark in 2006 when the cartoon and 11 others depicting Muhammad and Islam were first published. In riots that followed around the Muslim world, dozens of people were killed and several Danish embassies were attacked, while Danish goods were boycotted.
But unlike the 2006 violence, Khartoum's rally yesterday passed peacefully. The rally failed to reach the one million participants called for by the organisers, the Popular Front for the Defence of Faith and Religion, which backs Mr Bashir's ruling National Congress party.
Protests against this month's reprinting elsewhere have also been low-key, mostly restricted to diplomatic condemnations. But in Pakistan, hundreds set fire to Danish flags and demanded the Danish ambassador's expulsion. Palestinians protested in the Gaza Strip, ruled by the militant Islamic Hamas, calling the reprint a heresy.
In Denmark, youths set hundreds of small fires for nearly two weeks in immigrant neighbourhoods. The cause for the unrest was unclear but some said it was a protest against police harassment. Other observers confirmed the reprinting of the cartoon aggravated the situation.
The Khartoum protest came a day after Sudan enforced a ban called by Mr Bashir on imports of Danish goods.
The central square was closed to traffic from early morning as hundreds of buses and lorries brought in protesters, who included women and students, from far-flung areas around the capital to downtown Khartoum. Nearby roads were also blocked and traffic slowed elsewhere in the city.
Danish exports to Sudan are minimal, consisting mainly of dairy products. In 2006, they amounted to $23 million, a drop of 26 per cent over the previous year. But Sudan is one of the largest recipients of Danish aid.
Danish humanitarian groups that operate there include the Danish Refugee Council and the Danish Red Cross, which runs large projects in Darfur.
'PRINT THEM EUROPE-WIDE'GERMANY'S interior minister yesterday expressed respect for Danish newspapers' decision to reprint the cartoon and argued that all European newspapers should follow suit.
Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted by the weekly Die Zeit as saying: "Actually, all European newspapers should now print these caricatures, with the explanation, 'We also find them lousy, but the exercise of press freedom is no reason to practise violence'."
The full article contains 572 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
