Police to investigate Internet publication of Muhammad caricatures
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The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is looking into the possibility that Finnish web sites that republished the controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which have caused anger among Muslims, may have committed a crime.
According to NBI Deputy Chief Tero Kurenmaa, there is reason to suspect that those who published the pictures may have fallen foul of the law banning the "violation of sanctity of religion".
Suomen Sisu, a right-wing organisation characterising itself as a "cooperative association of nationalist-minded Finns", says that it is keeping the caricatures on its website. The organisation's chairman Teemu Lahtinen argues that the question is one of principle.
Finnish law criminalises publicly slandering or desecrating something that a religious community considers sacred. The Prophet Muhammad is a sacred figure for Muslims, and his visual depiction is considered taboo in Islam.
The controversial cartoons originally appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Kurenmaa emphasises that the task of the NBI is only to establish the facts in a case: who published the pictures, and if this was done with the purpose of causing offence.
"It will be up to a court to decide if the publication of the pictures falls within the range of freedom of expression, or if the criteria of violating the sanctity of religion are fulfilled", he notes.
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) has expressed his regret that the caricatures have been published on a Finnish site.
Commenting from Torino, where he is attending the Winter Olympic Games, Vanhanen said "I wish to apologise on my own behalf and on behalf of the Finnish government that the religious sentiments of Muslims have been offended in this way also in Finland."
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 15.2.2006 - TODAY |
 Police to investigate Internet publication of Muhammad caricatures
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