Ahmadinejad claims 'Zionists' behind Swedish cartoon (The Local - Sweden)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that "Zionists" were behind a cartoon in Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, which depicted the head of the Prophet Mohammed on a dog's body. The drawing sparked an official protest by Tehran to Stockholm.
"They do not want the Swedish government to be a friend of other nations. I strongly believe they are behind it (the cartoon). They thrive on conflict and war," he said.
The claim came during a tirade against Israel, in which Ahmadineja accused Zionists of sowing conflict, publishing offensive cartoons and "lying about being Jewish."
"Zionists are people without any religion," Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly predicted that Israel is doomed to disappear, told a news conference in Tehran.
"They are lying about being Jewish because religion means brotherhood, friendship and respecting other divine religions," he said.
"They are an organised minority who have infiltrated the world. They are not even a 10,000-strong organisation," he said.
"Anywhere they are found there is war. Anywhere where there is war they are behind it," Ahmadinejad added.
Echoing his previous predictions about Israel's future, the president said:
"If the world is calm, people, Europeans, Germans even, will uproot them."
Iran's foreign ministry on Monday summoned a Swedish diplomat to protest against the cartoon in Nerikes Allehanda, an Örebro-based regional newspaper .
The leader writer behind the editorial accompanied by the cartoon in question on Tuesday defended his piece.
"The right to caricature a religion and the right to practice a religion are connected," Lars Ströman told The Local. Meanwhile, he has received support from the Swedish Association of Newspaper Publishers, which said it was important to defend the publication of controversial work.
Iran's government denies charges of anti-Semitism, pointing to the peaceful existence in Iran of a 20,000-strong Jewish community, the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.
SEE ALSO: Swedish Newspaper: No Apologies (LGF)
The Swedish newspaper that published artist Lars Vilks’ sketches of Mohammed is refusing to apologize to the world’s 39.7 gazillion seething Muslims.
A leading Swedish newspaper on Saturday said the country would not apologize for the recent publication of a Prophet Mohammed cartoon which has inflamed devout Muslims around the world.
Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial Sweden “has a duty from now on to defend its principles and present an open dialogue.” It said offended Muslims would not receive the apologies they are asking for.
Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published a cartoon on August 18 depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog to illustrate an editorial on self-censorship and freedom of expression and religion.
The Kabul Times, a religious Afghani newspaper, published Saturday an article by religious leaders expressing their indignation at this “provocation”, according to Swedish press agency TT.
The publication of the cartoon has prompted angry reactions from Iran and Pakistan, which have both summoned Swedish diplomats to protest. The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference has also condemned the publication and urged the Swedish government to punish the artist and the publisher and demand an apology.
But Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist in question, said he had no intention to apologise. “You must be allowed to criticise religion, but I am not opposed to Islam,” he told Danish agency Ritzau. He had, in the past, also drawn a “Jewish sow”, Vilks said.
He also said he had received death threats.
Svenska Dagbladet, another broadsheet, said Sweden was now in a situation “which could escalate and slip away from Swedish control”.
