Copenhagen - Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller
Thursday said he had no plans to intervene on behalf of a Danish
opposition politician who alleges he was misquoted about Muslims by
an Egyptian daily.
'Villy Sovndal has been misquoted, so it is up to him to issue a
disclaimer,' Moller told Danish public broadcaster DR.
Sovndal, leader of the opposition Socialist People's Party that
made strong gains in elections last year, has recently defended
freedom of expression and in a blog criticized members of the radical
Hizb-ut-Tahrir movement in the wake of an alleged plot to kill a
Danish cartoonist.
Sovndahl said the group should leave Denmark for Saudi Arabia or
Iraq if they wanted to introduce a Muslim state.
However, his remarks were reported as applying for all Muslims in
Denmark according to the Monday edition of al-Gomhuria, the Jyllands-
Posten newspaper said citing a Danish embassy translation.
'Everyone knows that I only referred to Hizb-ut-Tahrir,' Sovndal
said.
Moller said that being misquoted 'happens to all of us,' adding
that 'we live in a small world where everything one does has
consequences. So both as an artist and a politician one has to be
aware that what one says can be misunderstood.'
Sovndal's stance on freedom of expression has earlier been
welcomed by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and recent opinion
polls have suggested that the Socialist People's Party has replaced
the Social Democrats as the main opposition party.
Sovndal was one of several politicians who reacted when security
police last month said they had averted an alleged plot to murder
newspaper cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.
Westergaard's depiction of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his
turban was one of 12 published in newspapers that sparked violent
protests in 2006 by Muslims around in the world, and triggered a
boycott of Danish goods.
Leading Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoons after the plot
against Westergaard was disclosed, sparking new protests.
In a related development, a court was Thursday due to rule on an
appeal from Westergaard to prevent an anti-Muslim group, Stop the
Islamization of Denmark, from using the cartoon on placards in
connection with a planned protest Saturday.
Westergaard has said he did not want to be 'politically hijacked.'
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