Lebanese PM: Pope Backs Protests

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI expressed support Thursday for peaceful demonstrations in the Muslim world over the Prophet Muhammad caricatures published in Europe, the Lebanese prime minister said after a private meeting at the Vatican.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is Muslim, said he and the pope discussed the drawings as well as Lebanon's intention to bring to justice those who instigated violent protests.

"He expressed that freedom in no way should really trespass on the freedom of others," Siniora told reporters after the 20-minute private meeting in the pope's library.

Siniora said he told the pope that Muslims should have the right to express their anger about the caricatures peacefully.

"And the pope was very supportive of the peaceful expression of opinion in the Arab world, the Muslim world, because he condemns himself, as well, the efforts that are being made by others to trespass on the freedom and the convictions of other people," Siniora said.

The drawings, which have offended many Muslims, were first published in a Danish newspaper in September and then reprinted in European and American newspapers. One depicted the prophet with a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse.

Islam widely holds that representations of Muhammad are banned for fear they could lead to idolatry. At least 19 people have been killed in protests over the past several weeks, most of them in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The most violent protests in Lebanon were on Feb. 6, when thousands of angry demonstrators torched the building housing the Danish mission in the capital Beirut and rampaged through the main Christian neighborhood of the city, throwing stones at a Maronite Church. One protester, apparently overcome by smoke in the burning building, jumped from a window and died.

Siniora said the Lebanese government found violent demonstrations unacceptable and that authorities were "pursuing this matter to the fullest, and those who really committed these crimes are going to be brought to justice."

The Vatican has previously said the cartoons represented an "unacceptable provocation," and the right to freedom of expression "cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers."

At least 60 percent of Lebanon's estimated 3.5 million people are Muslim, and most of the remainder are Christian. The Maronite Catholic Church, which numbers about 900,000, is the largest Christian group and is highly influential in the country's politics.

Lebanon's president must be a member of the Maronite church, while the prime minister, Siniora, is a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker is a Shiite - a division that reflects the country's sectarian makeup.

In a brief statement after the meeting, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope and Siniora discussed the general situation in the Middle East and in Lebanon, and both men underlined "the need to work to educate people in reconciliation and peace, in the respect of human rights and in particular religious rights."

He said particular attention was given to the situation of Christians in Lebanon "and the contribution that they hope to give in the progress of the country."