Beirut, Lebanon - Angry demonstrators set the Danish consulate in Beirut ablaze on Sunday and the violent turn in protests over publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammad drew condemnation from European capitals and moderate Muslims.
Syrians set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies on Saturday in Damascus. They damaged the Swedish embassy and tried to storm the French mission but were held off by riot police.
The pandemonium took a sectarian turn as demonstrators cut an angry path through a predominantly Christian neighborhood attacking a prominent Maronite Catholic church.
It was the first time in days of protests around the world that Muslims, who consider the caricatures blasphemous, took their anger out on another community. For Lebanese, the rioting was an unsettling echo of a 15-year civil war fought along religious lines.
In Beirut, where religious tensions have fueled generations of political violence, rioting dragged on for hours in the Christian neighborhood of Achrifiyeh, leaving at least 30 people injured and one dead.
Denmark is the focus for Islamic ire as images that Muslims find offensive, including one of the Prophet with a turban resembling a bomb, first appeared in a Danish daily in what has become a face-off between press freedom and religious respect.
As peaceful protests turned to ransacking Danish diplomatic offices and burning them in Syria and Lebanon, world leaders as well as prominent moderate Muslims appealed for calm and said such violence damaged the image of Islam worldwide.
"This has nothing to do with Islam at all," Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told Future television. "Destabilizing security and vandalism give a wrong image of Islam. Prophet Mohammad cannot be defended this way."
In the row, newspapers have insisted on their right to print the cartoons, citing freedom of speech but for many Muslims, depicting the Prophet Mohammad causes offence.
Protests about the cartoons raged across the Muslim world at the weekend from Lahore to Gaza.
On Sunday's violence in Beirut, Mohammad Rashid Qabani, Lebanon's top Sunni Muslim cleric, said no matter how strongly Muslims felt about the cartoons they must exercise restraint.
"We don't want the expression of our condemnation (of the cartoons) to be used by some to portray a distorted image of Islam," he said. "Today is a big test for us. Let our expression of condemnation be according to the values of Islam."
But with running battles being fought between hundreds of protesters and security forces in Beirut, militants in Iraq called for attacks on Danish troops, the seizing and killing of Danish hostages and the boycotting of Danish goods.
Oil giant Iran, which is already reviewing its trade ties with countries whose papers have published the cartoons, said on Saturday it had recalled its ambassador from Denmark, saying "freedoms should be accompanied by responsibility."
As well as in Denmark, cartoons of the Prophet have now been reprinted in Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway and Poland.
European leaders expressed deep concern at the upsurge in violence and the tensions the dispute could cause in societies.
The Vatican deplored the violence but said certain forms of criticism represented an "unacceptable provocation."
"The right to freedom of thought and expression ... cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers," the Vatican said in its first statement on the controversy.
The Vatican said the institutions of a country should not be held responsible for the actions of a newspaper, but said governments "could and should intervene according to (their) national legislation"
In Munich, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she understood Muslims' hurt, but she denounced violent reactions.
"I can understand that religious feelings of Muslims have been injured and violated," Merkel said at an international security conference. "But I also have to make clear that I feel it is unacceptable to see this as legitimizing the use of violence."
In Malaysia, prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the publication of the cartoons showed a "blatant disregard for Islamic sensitivities" but urged citizens to stay calm.
"Let the perpetrators of the insult see the gravity of their own mistakes which only they themselves can and should correct," he said.
In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denounced the cartoons as insensitive.
Angry demonstrators rallied in Denmark and Britain on Saturday, signaling a ratcheting up of tensions among European Muslims.
Although many of Denmark's 200,000 Muslims were deeply offended by the cartoons, mass demonstrations have not broken out.
But in Copenhagen, young Muslims clashed briefly with police after they were stopped from boarding a train to go to a demonstration north of the Danish capital. Some of the roughly 300 demonstrators threw rocks and bottles at police but no one was injured, officials said.
In London, several hundred demonstrators gathered under heavy police security outside Denmark's embassy, shouting slogans to protest the publication of the drawings.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul of Muslim but secular Turkey, a European Union candidate country, called for mutual respect between Muslims and non-Muslims.
In Denmark, a network of moderate Muslims condemned the attack on the Danish embassy in Damascus and urged restraint.
"This is no longer about the cartoons, the situation is out of control," said group spokesman Syrian-born Naser Khader.
In Britain, a senior opposition politician called for the police to deal with militant protesters after a demonstration in London which featured placards saying "Europe you will pay, your 9/11 will come" and "Butcher those who mock Islam."
"Clearly some of these placards are incitement to violence and, indeed, incitement to murder, an extremely serious offence which the police must deal with and deal with quickly," David Davis, the Conservative Party home affairs spokesman, said.
"Whatever your views on these cartoons, we have a tradition of freedom of speech in this country which has to be protected. Certainly there can be no tolerance of incitement to murder."
As street protests spread and violence erupted, the diplomatic rows over the cartoons escalated.
Pakistan summoned diplomats from several European countries to protest at the "derogatory and blasphemous" cartoons.
"We reject the false pretext of freedom of press for publishing these caricatures since freedom of expression does not mean absence of any values, ethics or laws," a Foreign Ministry statement said.
But EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini told La Repubblica it was not for the European Union to apologize.
"No, it's not Europe's duty, nor do I think it is the duty of (Danish) Prime Minister Rasmussen. We don't have the power to apologize in the name of the press. That would be violating the basis of freedom of the press," he said.