Timeline of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy

This is a timeline of the 2006 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.

Main Sources:

2005

• 30 September - The drawings are printed in Jyllands-Posten.
• 9 October - The Islamic Society in Denmark demands that Jyllands-Posten apologise to all Muslims and withdraw the drawings.
• 14 October:
  • 3500 people stage a peaceful demonstration outside JP's Copenhagen office.
  • Two of the cartoonists are advised to go into hiding after receiving death threats.
• 19 October - Eleven ambassadors request a meeting with the Prime Minister of Denmark, and want him to distance himself from the drawings in Jyllands-Posten as well as various other allegedly derogatory comments about Islam in the Danish media. The Prime Minister refused to meet the ambassadors, on the grounds that he cannot infringe on the freedom of the press.
• 28 October - The police are notified by a number of muslim organisations, claiming that the intention of the publication of the cartoons has been to "mock and deride" the muslim faith, something the Danish penal code prohibits (§ 140).
• November-December - A delegation of Imams from the Islamic Society in Denmark travel to the Middle East in order to bring attention to the drawings.
• In November another Danish newspaper, WeekendAvisen, published another 10 satirical pictures of Muhammed.
• 3 November - The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung publishes one of the cartoons
• 24 November - The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance request the Permanent Danish Mission to the UN to deliver their observations of the case
• 7 December:
  • Labour strikes begin in Pakistan in response to the drawings.
  • Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concern over the cartoons and said that United Nations is investigating racism of Danish cartoonists.
• 9 December - A Pakistani political party, Jamaat-e-Islami apparently offers a roughly $10,000 reward to anyone who kills one of the cartoonists.
• 19 December:
  • Twenty-two former Danish ambassadors criticise the Danish Prime Minister for not meeting with the 11 ambassadors in October.
  • The Council of Europe criticises the Danish government for invoking the “freedom of the press” in its refusal to take action against the “insulting” cartoons.

• 29 December - The Arab League criticises the Danish government for not acting in the matter.

January 2006

• 1 January - The Danish Prime Minister makes his yearly New Year's speech, emphasising that both religion and Freedom of Speech are respected in Denmark.
• 10 January - The Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet publishes the drawings.
• 22 January - The Brussels Journal publishes the pictures
• 23 January - The Danish Government delivers its offical Response to the UN Special Rapporteurs' request of 24 November 2005.
• 26 January:
  • The Saudi Arabian people begin boycotting Danish products.
  • Saudi Arabia recalls its Ambassador.
  • The Norwegian government apologises that Magazinet published the drawings, but reiterates the government has no power over the free press.
• 28 January:
  • Danish ambassador in Saudi Arabia is interviewed by American AP-TV, where he criticises Jyllands-Posten's lack of judgement and knowledge of Islam, even though the Danish government has not spoken on the matter.
  • OIC (Organisation of the Islamic Conference) states that the Danish government should immediately have condemned the drawings.
• 29 January:
  • Libya closes its embassy in Denmark.
  • The Danish government announces that Denmark's ambassador to Saudi Arabia only expressed his own opinion in the January 28th interview with AP-TV. The government support party, Dansk Folkeparti, demands he be reprimanded.
  • The Danish ambassador in Jordan is summoned for a hearing.
  • The president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai calls the printing of the images a mistake, and hopes that this will lead to the media being more responsible and respectful in the future.
  • The Flag of Denmark is burned in Nablus and Hebron in Palestine.
  • Yemen's parliament condemns the images.
  • OIC heads to the UN with a resolution that forbids attacks on religious beliefs.
  • Bahrain condemns the images.
  • Syria also condemns the images.
  • A new denial-of-service attack on Jyllands-Posten's homepage. The first happened on January 27.
  • Ekstra Bladet reveals that a Danish Muslim association spreading the story in the Middle East, has claimed that it represents 200,000 Danish Muslims. Its actual membership number is around 15,000.
  • Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement gives Danes, Norwegians and Swedes 48 hours to leave the Gaza Strip.
  • Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades gives Danes and Swedes 72 hours to leave the area.
• 30 January:
  • Jyllands-Posten sends out an apology in both Danish and Arabic. Apologising, not for the printing of the drawings, but for hurting the feelings of Islamic society (Look below for English translation of the apology).
  • Armed Palestinians from the Fatah take over an EU office as a protest against the drawings.
  • The Prime Minister of Denmark says that he personally distances himself from the drawings, but reiterates that the government cannot intervene in what the media writes.
  • The Egyptian parliament encourages consumers to boycott Danish products
  • The European Union backs Denmark, saying that any retaliatory boycott of Danish goods would violate world trade rules.
  • The Danish Red Cross says that it will evacuate some workers in Yemen and the Gaza strip after receiving threats.
  • Jyllands-Posten sends out a second open letter, this time both in Arabic, Danish and English, trying to clear up several misunderstandings, and once again apologising for hurting the feelings of the Islamic society.
  • Armed gunmen from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades storm the European Union's office in Gaza and threaten to kidnap the workers unless they recieve an official apology for the cartoons from the EU.
• 31 January:
  • Following a live televised interview on Al-Jazeera, it is reported that the "apology for any offence caused" made at the opening of the interview by Flemming Rose, Jyllands-Posten's cultural editor, was not translated into Arabic.
  • The Danish Muslim Association is satisfied with yesterday's apologies from Jyllands-Posten and the Prime Minister, and say they now will help improve the situation. They claim to be deeply sorry and surprised the case got this far.
  • A bomb threat against Jyllands-Posten leads to evacuation of two offices in Aarhus and Copenhagen.
  • Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades denies that the threat against Scandinavians is real.
  • The foreign ministers of seventeen Islamic nations renew demands for the Danish government to punish the authors of the cartoons and to "ensure that it doesn't happen again."
  • The Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen holds a press conference in both Danish and English in which he repeats that he urges Danes not to take any action that could worsen the situation. He urges Muslims in Denmark to take actions that can improve the situation. He also repeats that freedom of expression is a vital part of the Danish society and that the Danish government is not in a position to have any influence on what the press is printing. He states that he wants to come back to a situation of dialogue, based on the friendship that has existed for a long time between Denmark and the Muslim world. The prime minister is asked by the TV broadcaster Al Jazeera to appear in a program, but has not yet decided whether he will accept.
  • Bahrain's parliament demands an apology from Denmark's head of state, Queen Margrethe II, as well as from the government. If the demands are not met, they will urge an official boycott of Danish goods and the cutting off of oil exports of 159,000 barrels per day, in association with other GCC members. Ironically Denmark is a net exporter of oil, so increased oil prices would result in a increased revenue for the Danish government.
  • Hamas leader Adnan Asfour demands that Denmark punish the 12 artists and Jyllands-Posten.
  • Former US President Bill Clinton states that he fears anti-Semitism will be replaced with anti-Islamic prejudice and condemns “these totally outrageous cartoons against Islam”.
  • Russian president Vladimir Putin indicates in a speech in the Kremlin that the Danish political authorities are using the theme of freedom of expression to protect those who have insulted the Muslims.
  • The Icelandic newspaper DV publishes six of the twelve drawings.
  • The German newspaper die tageszeitung publishes two of the cartoons.

February 2006

• 1 February:
  • The French newspaper France Soir publishes the cartoons, adding one of their own. Chief editor Jacques Lefranc is fired later the same day by Raymond Lakah, the Egyptian owner. The French Government dissociates itself from the initiative.
  • The German newspaper Die Welt publishes some of the cartoons, as do the German newspapers Tagesspiegel and Berliner Zeitung.
  • Italian La Stampa publishes the pictures.
  • Spanish El Periodico publishes the pictures.
  • The Dutch papers Volkskrant, NRC Handelsblad and Elsevier publish the pictures.
  • The Danish embassy in Syria is evacuated because of a hoax bomb threat.
  • Syria recalls its ambassador from Denmark.
  • Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch political party Group Wilders and holder of Group Wilder's seat in the Dutch parliament, puts the drawings on his personal web site. [2].
  • The Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs criticises the Danish government for its slow actions on the matter.
  • The Russian Orthodox Church and the Mufti Council condemned the European newspapers that republished the cartoons.
  • Chechen warlord, politician, and terrorist leader Shamil Basayev condemns the drawings.
  • Jyllands-Posten's headquarters as well as its office in Copenhagen is again evacuated after a bomb threat.
  • An influential Muslim organization in Malaysia, the Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia, calls on the Malaysian government to protest the cartoons with the Danish government.
  • A spokesman from the Indonesian Foreign Ministry condemns the caricatures, saying that freedom of expression should not be used as a pretext to insult a religion.
  • An SMS suggesting that the Qur'an should be burned at noon on Rådhuspladsen at the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark, is circulated around mobile numbers in Denmark. The burning does not occur. However, a similar SMS is distributed stating that the Quran will be burned Saturday 4th February.
• 2 February:
  • German newspaper Die Zeit publishes one of the cartoons on page 5.
  • The Danish prime minister appears on the TV station Al-Arabiya. The recording was made 1 February.
  • The Jordanian newspaper al-Shihan prints the drawings. The newspaper's manager is fired.
  • The Belgian newspaper Le Soir publishes two of the drawings.
  • The French newspaper Le Monde publishes a drawing of Muhammad's face formed only from words. The words read "I may not draw the Prophet."
  • The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark advises Danish citizens to leave Gaza.
  • Mullah Krekar, alleged leader of Ansar al-Islam and living in Norway, calls the drawings a "declaration of war" and says that "We muslims are ready for this".
  • The BBC shows the pictures on its news programmes
  • Armed gunmen from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades storm the European Union's office in Gaza for the second time this week and kidnapped a German national. He was later released unharmed.
  • The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS displays some of the images in its segment on the issue

• 3 February:
  • At the Danish embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia an angry mob demands access to the embassy, and upset lamps and furniture in the lobby in the process. The ambassador talks to the leaders of the demonstration, and the group disperses.
  • The Belgian newspaper De Standaard publisches the cartoons