Danish cos. anxious about cartoon row
COPENHAGEN, Denmark --Danish business leaders said Tuesday they hoped a video showing a political youth group mocking the Prophet Muhammad would not spark another boycott of Danish goods in the Middle East.
Several Danish companies, such as dairy group Arla Foods, suffered huge losses earlier this year when consumers and retailers in the Middle East boycotted their products because of the Muhammad cartoons published in a Danish newspaper.
Some feared another boycott could be triggered by a video posted on the Internet and aired in parts on Danish TV, showing the youth group of an anti-immigration party ridiculing the prophet in a cartoon contest.
Some 232 Iranian lawmakers Tuesday called on the government to sever economic relations with Denmark. Top cleric Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi called on all Muslim states to break ties with Denmark.
"Muslim states should not remain silent over this horrific insult by Denmark and all should cut ties with this country," he was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Anders Ladefoged of the Confederation of Danish Industries said two Danish companies in Saudi Arabia had been asked by customers and agents to remove their products because of the latest controversy. He would not name the companies.
However, he added that "right now it doesn't seem that there is momentum for another boycott."
Arla Foods, Europe's second-biggest dairy company, said it had not noticed any drop in business in the Middle East.
"Everything looks quiet," Arla Foods spokesman Louis Illum Honore said. "We're hoping for the best."
Although Arla's sales in the Middle East and North Africa have recovered some after the boycott imposed during the cartoon crisis in February, its sales in the regions are currently only 35 percent of pre-boycott levels, the company said.
The video was condemned by Muslim leaders in Egypt, Indonesia and Jordan and was removed Monday from Web sites. The Danish government also denounced the video and sought to ease tensions by inviting Muslim ambassadors to discuss the matter on Monday.
The video was shot during a summer camp of the youth wing of the Danish People's Party, outspoken critics of immigration, especially from Muslim countries. One member was presenting a cartoon showing a camel with the head of Muhammad and beer cans for humps. A second drawing showed a bearded man wearing a turban with a plus sign and a bomb that equaled a nuclear mushroom cloud.
The episode comes in the aftermath of the outcry in Muslim countries over the printing in September 2005 of 12 cartoons portraying Muhammad in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Four months later, they were reprinted in a range of Western media, triggering massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia.
