see you in the funny papers
Bush Shifts on Muslim Protests
Violence Is Criticized, Not the Cartoons
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 9, 2006; Page A01
The Bush administration yesterday condemned the violent response to European cartoons mocking Islam and accused Iran and Syria of exploiting the international controversy to incite unrest and protests in the Middle East.
"I have no doubt that Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and have used this for their own purposes," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters yesterday. "The world ought to call them on it."
Fury in the Muslim World
Anger grows in the Middle East after European publications reprint cartoon caricatures of Muslim prophet Muhammed.
A few hours earlier, at a White House ceremony with Jordan's King Abdullah, President Bush rejected the violence but not the cartoons that incited bloody protests from Afghanistan to Denmark, where the drawings first appeared. "We reject violence as a way to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press," Bush said.