Saudi ambassador spreads blame over cartoon dispute

The Saudi ambassador to the United States blamed both sides yesterday for inflaming the dispute over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, and urged them to calm the furor by using ''reason to overcome passion."

''These cartoons are totally unacceptable," Prince Turki al-Faisal told editors and reporters from the Globe. ''The reaction to the cartoons was also unacceptable. The violence and the burning of buildings and even the taking of life could never be a way to resolve this issue."

Separately, Turki urged nations to engage the Palestinian group Hamas rather than ostracize the militant Islamic movement as it prepares to take control of the Palestinian legislature on Saturday after winning a majority of seats in the January election.

The depictions of Mohammed first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and were reprinted by other Western newspapers. The cartoons, one of which shows Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, have prompted deadly violence across the Muslim world, most recently in Pakistan. Many Muslims consider any likeness of the prophet to be blasphemous.

Turki, who began his US posting in December and had previously served as director of the Saudi foreign intelligence service, said some Muslims in countries such as Lebanon and Syria had taken advantage of the controversy to ''stir up the rabble." But he also criticized Western newspapers that have reprinted the cartoons.

''I cannot reconcile how depicting the Prophet Mohammed in such a manner could have anything to do with freedom of speech," he said, referring to newspapers' explanations for why they printed the cartoons.

He urged Muslims to follow the example of Mohammed himself, who forgave persecutors who had stoned and beaten him.

Turki said Saudi Arabia is working with the Danish government and with officials from the European Union and the Arab League to ease the roiling controversy. One idea under discussion, he said, includes seeking legal recourse for those who feel their faith has been insulted by using existing Danish or the European Union's human rights laws. This would be open to people of all religions.

He denied a suggestion of a double standard in Arab governments that assail the cartoons while failing to criticize their own news media for routinely printing anti-Semitic material.

While he criticized ''all such characterizations as unacceptable," he asserted that the depictions of Mohammed raised the stakes to a higher level.

''You will not find in any Arab press depictions of Jesus, Moses, or Abraham or any of the other prophets in anti-Semitic or anti-Christian mode," he said.

He also displayed several cartoons from Western media that depicted Muslims in a stereotypical light. Several showed smiling, fat Saudis in traditional dress amid their oil largesse.

He acknowledged that the controversy pointed up the divide between Muslims and non-Muslims.

''The cultural differences between us perhaps are not yet on the same level plane that you and we can sit rationally and discuss whether this picture or this word or this emotive action would or would not arouse the vehement reactions that have been done," he said.

On Hamas, Turki said the world community should respect the outcome of the Jan. 25 election even though it favored a group that the United States and Europe consider a terrorist organization. And he said Saudi Arabia would continue to support the Palestinian government financially regardless of whether the United States, Europe, and Israel cease contributing to a government that includes Hamas, as they have threatened to do.

''We believe that the Palestinian people should not be punished for the fact that they chose as their representatives a party that has a different outlook on politics and the geopolitical state in Palestine," he said.

He said the Saudi government is urging any Palestinian government to honor previous agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel that would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel and for the recognition of Israel.

On other topics, Turki:

Said Saudi authorities are making strides against Al Qaeda inside the kingdom and had foiled 54 terrorist incidents in the past year.

Expressed concern over the ''Pandora's box" of ethnic and religious differences among Iraqis as their new government tries to get on its feet. ''Sectarian allegiances have become the rule, rather than the exception," he said.