Politiken newspaper’s agreement with Muslim organisations has been welcomed in the Arabic world, which now expects other papers to follow suit

The 57 members of the Organization of Islamic States (OIC) have welcomed Politiken newspaper’s apology for offending Muslims by printing the Mohammed cartoons and will now push for other Danish newspapers to follow suit, reports Berlingske Tidende newspaper.

Politiken's settlement with eight Muslim organisations – which the paper claimed was to avoid any future litigation – has been hailed throughout the Muslim world but strongly criticised within most Danish circles. The organisations claim to represent around 95,000 of their members who are directly descended from the prophet Mohammed.

‘Politiken's apology is seen by Muslims as a step towards recovery from the wounds and the abuse they were subjected to through publication of the cartoons,’ according to a spokesperson for the OIC’s monitoring centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which tracks Islamaphobia around the world.

‘The step taken by Politiken newspaper should have been taken immediately after the initial publication of offensive cartoons in 2005 as a demonstration of the Danish community’s respect for tolerance and for the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims who feel humiliated, offended and deeply hurt because of the publication of the drawings,’ added the OIC.

Now the organisation is urging the other Danish newspapers to follow suit with Politiken. Muhammed Aly Ahmed Talha, vice-president of Mohammed-descendant organisation Elaph Ahlo Al-Bait, said that should the newspapers fail to apologise, then a ‘large legal team of British, French, Russian and Saudi Arabian lawyers will step into the matter – even if it takes 100 years to get the newspapers to acquiesce.’

The OIC asserted it is a strong supporter of free speech, but that it must be used so it does not lead to ‘provocations that cause social unrest and disturb the harmony between faiths’.

Several leading Islamic experts in the Western world have cast doubt on the organisation’s claims that all their members are descended from Mohammed.

‘There’s good grounds to doubt the claim,’ said Professor Valerie Hoffman of the University of Illinois. ‘But in the Arabic world it’s common to accept it at face value.'