Muslims assault U.S. Embassy in Indonesia

updated 5:38 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2006

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy on Sunday, smashing the windows of a guard post but failing to push through the gates. Several people were injured.

Pakistani security forces, meanwhile, sealed off the capital of Islamabad to block a planned mass demonstration and fired tear gas and gunshots to chase off protesters. In Turkey, tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States.

Protests over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been republished in other European publications and elsewhere, have swept across the Muslim world, growing into mass outlets for rage against the West in general, and Israel and the United States in particular.

Saudi papers print apology; Abdullah calls for calm
Saudi newspapers on Sunday ran full-page apologies by the Danish newspaper that first ran the cartoons.

But Jyllands-Posten’s Web site said the newspaper wasn’t involved in the ads. It said businesses placed the ad on their own initiative, using an apology issued by the newspaper late last month. It did not identify the companies or say if they were Danish.

Boycotts of Danish products throughout the Muslim world have taken a heavy toll on Denmark’s exporters, especially those selling Denmark’s famed dairy products.

The advertisements ran in three of Saudi Arabia’s main newspapers — Al-Jazeera, Al-Riyadh and Al-Youm — as well as the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat, which is distributed around the Arab world.

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah tried to calm the protests Sunday, condemning what he called “the clash of civilizations” and calling on Muslims to spread the idea of peaceful coexistence.

“I call ... for the next stage in relations between countries to be a stage of real dialogue where each side respects the other side, respects its sanctities, beliefs and identity,” Abdullah said, speaking at a cultural festival.

Christians are targets
Pakistani Muslims protesting in the southern city of Sukkur ransacked and burned a church Sunday after hearing accusations that a Christian man had burned pages of the Quran, Islam’s holy book.

That incident came a day after Muslims protesting in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri attacked Christians and burned 15 churches in a three-hour rampage that killed at least 15 people. Some 30 other people have died during protests over the cartoons that erupted about three weeks ago.

In Jakarta, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. mission in the center of the city, behind a banner reading “We are ready to attack the enemies of the Prophet.”

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