Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja says that Denmark should have reacted more quickly to the uproar surrounding cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Speaking on a morning television programme on YLE TV-1, Tuomioja said that the Danish government could apologise for the fact that religious feelings were offended without endangering freedom of expression.
"Perhaps the matter should have been taken more seriously when the ambassadors of eleven Islamic countries asked to meet with the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister did not want to see them", the Finnish Foreign Minister said.
Imam Khodr Chehab of the Islamic Society of Finland said on Wednesday that Finnish Muslims have joined in a boycott of Danish products in response to the publication of the cartoons.
"The boycott is on. All of Finland’s Muslims, or at least most of them are boycotting Danish goods", he said
Chehab says that the Danish government should apologise over the cartoons. "Now is the time to be courageous and dare to admit wrongdoing. They should apologise, and promise not to do something like that again."
