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Muslim protestors gather at Danish consulate

Friday, February 17, 2006

(New York -WABC, February 17, 2006) (WABC) -- The global protests over published cartoons depicting the profit Mohammed come to New York City today. At this hour a peaceful demonstration is getting underway outside the Danish consulate.

It was a Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons igniting the outrage.

Eyewitness News reporter Stacey Sager is live on the East Side with the story.

Organizers here were hoping to have as many as 2,000 people at this protest but it's tough to say of that will really happen because of this morning's rainy weather.

Some of the protesters were assembling at noon with signs. The protest was organized by the Islamic Leadership Council, an alliance of more than 100 mosques and the organizers have assured us that the protests will be peaceful, unlike what we have been seeing in other parts of the world this week.

In southern Pakistan today protesters were throwing rocks and wielding sticks. They took to the street and blocked a main highway. Dozens were detained and 125 arrested for violating a ban on these rallies, the crackdown following violent protests all week in which five people died and western businesses were vandalized and burned.

This morning former President Clinton met with Pakistan's prime minister and pleaded for the violence to stop.

Bill Clinton: "Nobody else should die over this and you shouldn't blame a whole country and a whole continent for what I believe was a mistake probably more of ignorance even than callousness."

The unrest was sparked by the publication of a cartoon showing the profit Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban with an ignited fuse.

It is a cartoon that many Islamists condemn as blasphemous.

We're told that there will be speakers at this protest at the Danish consulate later this afternoon, then they'll have a prayer service. Also, representatives from this group are telling us they've been cleared to meet with the Danish consulate general at 2:00 p.m.

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