Dubai, UAE - Muslims have decried as hypocrites Western dailies which have cited free speech as the reason for printing disrespectful cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, saying the same newspapers take pains to avoid lampooning Jews.
The caricatures, first published in a Danish daily in September and then reprinted across Europe, have unleashed fury among Muslims who view any portrayal of their Prophet as blasphemous, let alone one showing him as a terrorist.
What is really insulting, some Muslim clerics and politicians say, is that Europeans do not think twice about denigrating Islam but view ridicule of Judaism as anti-Semitic.
"What about freedom of expression when anti-Semitism is involved? Then it is not freedom of expression. Then it is a crime," said Arab League chief Amr Moussa.
"But when Islam is insulted, certain powers ... raise the issue of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression should be one yardstick, not two or three," he said, adding that the Danish cartoons showed European disdain for Arabs and Muslims.
One cartoon shows the Prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
"The double standards are as clear as the sun," said Abdul Latif Arabiyat, a senior member of Jordan's main Islamist party.
"They (Europeans) don't dare lampoon the Holocaust or their own sacred religious symbols but sanction attacks on our sacred values. They only hold implacable enmity towards Islam."
Prominent Saudi cleric Sheikh Abdel Aziz al-Qassim said the concept of absolute freedom existed nowhere in the world.
"Freedom does not give anyone the right to insult prophets or religion," he said. "Freedom comes with responsibility and that means respect for Islam."
VIOLENCE DENOUNCED
Many Muslims consider the caricatures as the latest volley in what they see as a Western campaign against their faith, citing France's headscarf ban and Western dismay at last month's election victory of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
"We should not believe a single word of what European newspaper editors say about the sanctity of free speech," wrote columnist Faisal Jaloul in Gulf Arab daily al-Khaleej.
"Suffice to say that the ... printing of the cartoons stems from a determination to offend and the belief that Arabs and Muslims are weak and their sanctities irrelevant."
Since the uproar over the cartoons erupted last month, angry Muslim protesters have ransacked Danish, Swedish and Norwegian diplomatic missions and burned countless Danish flags.
However, many Muslims have protested peacefully, with some expressing their anger through a boycott of Danish goods.
Moderate Muslims have expressed fears radicals are hijacking the protests, as well as the debate over the boundary between media freedom and religious repectt.
Several Muslim clerics, including those in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, have condemned the attacks.
Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, deplored the cartoons publication as "a horrific act" but he also criticised militant groups for distorting the image of Islam, "a religion of justice, love and brotherhood".
Some of the worst violence has taken place in Iran and Syria, which are at loggerheads with the West.
Some Muslims applauded when Iran's top-selling newspaper launched a competition this week to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust. But others said they feared their protest campaign was being hijacked to score political points.
"If we want to be respected, we must respect others," said Fadi Shalah, a Lebanese businessman. "And burning embassies in the name of our Prophet is the ultimate insult."