MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - The "cartoon scandal" triggered by the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper that ignited a wave of anger in Muslim countries requires the close attention of the world community, a senior Russian parliamentarian said Tuesday.
"The outrage that the Danish newspaper brought about is gaining such momentum that the world community must focus on the events," said Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Federation Council (parliament's upper chamber) foreign affairs committee.
Depictions of the Mohammed are explicitly prohibited in Islam. The cartoons, originally published in a Danish newspaper and subsequently reprinted in several other countries, provoked protests throughout the Muslim world, which led to the Danish Embassy in Lebanon being ransacked on Monday.
Margelov said none of the sides could afford to remain observers to the crisis and that Jews appeared to be the scapegoats in the conflict.
"Some Islamic circles decided to test Europe's tolerance, and the Arab European League posted on its Web site [Saturday] vulgar cartoons of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who fell victim to Nazism, sharing a bed with Adolf Hitler," the official said.
The senator added that Iran's largest newspaper, Hamshahri, was planning to announce a contest for the best caricature on the Holocaust.
Margelov said he had come up with a proposal to make a report on anti-Semitism in Europe at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) last year, but most PACE members turned it down.
"The caricature [on Anne Frank] convinced me to expand my April PACE report because, unfortunately, manifestations of neo-Nazism are not only happening in Europe," Margelov said.
