Thai Muslims Protest Danish Cartoon

Bangkok, Thailand - About 800 Thai Muslims protested outside Denmark's embassy Wednesday against Danish newspapers' reprinting of a cartoon perceived as insulting to Islam.

Members of an organization called the Muslim Group of Peace demonstrated peacefully outside the Bangkok embassy for about two hours and called on all Thai Muslims to boycott Danish products.

The group condemned the "villainous behavior" of the newspapers and criticized Denmark's government for failing to stop the cartoon's publication, according to a written statement.

Last month, Denmark's leading newspapers reprinted one of the cartoons after Danish police said they had uncovered a plot to kill the cartoonist, whose drawing was among 12 cartoons that ignited deadly riots across the Muslim world in 2006.

The February reprint, depicting Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban, triggered another wave of demonstrations in Islamic countries. The Danish papers, meanwhile, said the reprint was meant to promote freedom of speech.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even a favorable one, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

During the Bangkok demonstration, an official emerged from the embassy but the protesters refused to give him a megaphone to address the crowd.

Muslims are a minority in Buddhist-dominated Thailand, which faces a bloody Islamic insurgency in its southernmost provinces.