![\"Denmark](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2006\/02\/denmark.jpg\" "\\"Denmark")
The Associated Presse – Denmark has temporarily withdrawn its ambassadors from Syria, Iran and Indonesia because their safety was at risk in the wake of a Danish newspaper’s publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.<\/p>\n
Danish embassy buildings in all three countries had been targeted by angry mobs protesting the publication of the caricatures in September. European and American newspapers subsequently reprinted the drawings.<\/p>\n
The Foreign Ministry said it withdrew all Danish staff from its embassy in Tehran, Iran, because of "serious and concrete threats" against the ambassador.<\/p>\n
Threats also were directed at the embassy personnel in Indonesia, the ministry said, without giving details. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country.<\/p>\n
The Finnish Embassy would take over Denmark’s consular services in Tehran, while the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta would handle the same duties in Indonesia, the Foreign Ministry said.<\/p>\n
Earlier Saturday, the ministry announced it had temporarily pulled back its ambassador and other Danish staff from Syria because they were not getting enough protection from authorities.<\/p>\n
The building housing the embassy in Damascus was burned last week by protesters.<\/p>\n
"The de-escalation of the protection of the ambassador and his staff to an inadequate level is the reason for the departure," the ministry said in a statement. It said the German Embassy in Damascus would handle Denmark’s consular services for now.<\/p>\n
Sweden, whose embassy is in the same building in the Syrian capital, said it did not have any immediate plans to withdraw staff, said Jan Janonius, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm.<\/p>\n
Denmark temporarily closed its diplomatic mission in Lebanon earlier this week after similar protests there.<\/p>\n
The small Scandinavian country is shell-shocked by the wave of anti-Danish protests, some of them violent, that have spread like wildfire across the Muslim world.<\/p>\n
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which first published the cartoons, apologized for offending Muslims but stood by its decision to print the drawings, citing freedom of speech.<\/p>\n
Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.<\/p>\n
The newspaper’s culture editor, Flemming Rose, who was in charge of the drawings, went on indefinite leave Thursday but many Muslims said that would do little to quell the uproar.<\/p>\n
The paper has denied that Rose was ordered to go leave because he suggested reprinting Holocaust drawings solicited by an Iranian newspaper, setting off a dispute earlier this week with Jyllands-Posten’s editor-in-chief.<\/p>\n
"He was not forced out," said the paper’s spokesman, Tage Clausen. "He’s on vacation, that’s all."<\/p>\n
Clausen said Rose had been under "tremendous pressure" as the controversy escalated with attacks on Danish embassies and anti-Danish protests throughout the Muslim world.<\/p>\n
Abdul Wahid Pedersen, a Danish imam, said Rose’s departure would have little effect, and might even escalate the situation by giving the impression the newspaper was more worried about offending Jews than Muslims. <\/p>\n
"We warmly welcome that he is sent on holiday," Pedersen said. "But that it happens a day after the matter with the Jewish caricatures gives it a different taste somehow." <\/p>\n
Many Danes suspect a group of Danish Islamic leaders helped stir rage in the Muslim world with visits to the Mideast and inflammatory comments to Arabic media. <\/p>\n
The Muslim leaders deny responsibility for fueling the flames and repeatedly have denounced the violence. <\/p>\n
The anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, which supports the government in Parliament, on Friday urged the government to withdraw the citizenship of three of the group’s leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Associated Presse – Denmark has temporarily withdrawn its ambassadors from Syria, Iran and Indonesia because their safety was at risk in the wake of a Danish newspaper’s publication of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-regime"},"yoast_head":"\n