COPENHAGEN, December 20, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A cohort of high-ranking Danish diplomats on Tuesday, December 20, joined the heated debate about the controversial anti-Prophet cartoons published by the country's mass-circulation daily, criticizing Premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen's handling of the crisis.

Twenty-two former ambassadors, including many who have served in Muslim countries, chastised Rasmussen for snubbing a meeting request by eleven Muslim ambassadors accredited to Copenhagen, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"It would have been to democratic Denmark's credit if the prime minister had accepted the meeting request" they wrote in a column published in the Politiken, the country's second biggest daily.

In October, The ambassadors of eleven Arab and Muslim countries, including Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Indonesia, wrote a letter to Rasmussen requesting a meeting to discuss twelve provocative cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) published by the Jyllands-Posten.

In a written reply, the premier snubbed the request, telling the diplomats they can take the paper to court.

The mass-circulation daily published in September twelve drawings supposed to be of the prophet, including one showing him with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.

The cartoons, considered blasphemous under Islam, sparked an uproar among Muslims in Denmark and across the globe.

The diplomats also took issue with attempts to justify the controversial drawings on the ground of freedom of expression.

"It is not in line with Danish attitudes to use (our) freedom to intentionally insult a minority's religious faith," they maintained.

Flemming Rose, the head of the culture section at Jyllands-Posten who authorized the cartoons publication, has repeatedly defended his decision.

He said it fell within the absolute freedom of expression provided for in the Danish constitution.

Playing the same tune, Premier Rasmussen said the freedom of expression "is the very foundation of the Danish democracy ... (and) the Danish government has no means of influencing the press".

Reiterating respect for freedom of expression, Al-Azhar, the highest seat of religious learning in the Sunni world, vowed to raise the issue of the provocative caricatures with the UN and international human rights organizations.