Berlin — Two German newspapers reproduced controversial drawings Wednesday depicting the prophet Mohammed, with one of them arguing that the “right to blasphemy” is anchored in democratic freedoms.
The drawings were among several published in a Danish paper in September that sparked rage and boycotts of Danish products in Islamic countries.
The caricatures offended many Muslims both because of their critical content and because Islam forbids representations of Mohammed out of concern they could lead to idolatry.
But Germany's Die Welt newspaper put one of the drawings showing the Mohammed's turban transformed into a bomb on its front page on Wednesday. It said the picture was “harmless” and expressed regret that the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten had apologized for causing offence.
“Democracy is the institutionalized form of freedom of expression,” the newspaper said in front-page commentary. “There is no right to protection from satire in the West; there is a right to blasphemy.”
The Berliner Zeitung also printed two of the caricatures as part of its coverage of the controversy.
In France, the France-Soir newspaper also published the drawings Wednesday, saying that religious dogma has no place in a secular society.
