“They are in fact violating this freedom. They use the media to implement their scheme, and we will use the same means to counter them.”

Seventeen Danish newspapers reprinted on Wednesday, February 13, a drawing of a man described as Prophet Muhammad with a ticking bomb in his turban.

The move came following the arrest of two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin for allegedly plotting to kill the cartoonist who drew the caricature.

The Jordanian media outlets, including newspapers and websites, will run a series of articles and editorials from Wednesday against “attempts to distort Islam’s image.”

Many of the articles are expected to press for the expulsion of the Danish ambassador as well as boycott of Danish products.

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, has called for activating the boycott of Danish products.

Muslims worldwide boycotted Danish products after the mass-circulation Jyllands-Posten commissioned and published controversial cartoons of the prophet in 2005.

Denmark’s leading dairy company Arla Foods, one of the hardest hit, issued at the time a strong condemnation of the cartoon and appealed to Arabs and Muslims to end their boycott of its products.

Criminalize

The Jordanian campaign, “The Messenger of God Unites Us,” will call for legislations banning such actions.

“The campaign will also demand laws that criminalize and ban blaspheming Islam and the prophet,” Sheikh said.

Following the 2005 cartoon crisis the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab League sought a UN resolution, backed by possible sanctions, to protect religions against blasphemy.

Muslim, Christian and Jewish clerics pressed in 2006 for United Nations action to ban blasphemy and offenses to religious symbols.

Protests against the Scandinavian country have raged across the Muslim world since Danish dailies reprinted the controversial drawing.

Demonstrators took to the streets in Pakistan, Indonesia, Sudan, Egypt, and the Gaza Strip to condemn the move.

The Pakistani government has ordered local Internet service providers to block access to the popular Youtube website for posting the cartoons.

Sudan has threatened to expel Danish organizations, snub officials and boycott products in protest at the republishing of the cartoon.

The country is also setting up a committee to defend Prophet Muhammad against smear campaigns.

The body, called Sudan Forum for Defending the Prophet, features government officials and civil society representatives.

Following the 2005 crisis, Muslims in Denmark and worldwide took many initiatives to remove widely circulated stereotypes about Islam in the West.

Danish Muslims established the European Committee for Honoring the Prophet, a grouping of 27 Danish Muslim organizations, to raise awareness about the merits and characteristics of the Prophet.