Government to act on Danish appeal over controversy once document is received
February 13, 2006
The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will wait for a formal request from Denmark for help to quell Muslim anger worldwide over the controversial caricatures ridiculing Prophet Muhammad before acting on its appeal. 

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said a formal request has yet to be forwarded to Wisma Putra. 

“If there is a formal request, it will certainly be forwarded to me as soon as possible,” he told reporters after launching the Sentul Park Koi Centre here yesterday.  

“It has not reached me yet at this point of time.  

“I don't have any comment,” he said. 

He was commenting on the statement by Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar that he had received a call from his Danish counterpart on Friday asking for Malaysia's cooperation to explain and contain the situation.  

Abdullah said he wanted to know the content of the document that would be forwarded by Denmark to Wisma Putra. 

In a related development, he said the Internal Security Ministry has contacted the Penang-based Guangming daily over its publication of a photo from the AFP news agency in its night edition on Feb 3, which showed a reader with a Western newspaper that carried one of the offensive caricatures. 

“I will leave it to the ministry to decide on the matter,” said the Prime Minister. 

It was reported that Guangming had immediately repossessed copies from the streets soon after the Feb 3 edition was published but a small number of copies sold were not recovered. 

On the Iranian request for an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to discuss the controversy, Abdullah said: “Let Syed Hamid recommend the matter to me and we will think of the action to be taken.” 

Syed Hamid, who had also received a call from the Iranian foreign minister on Friday, had asked Iran to get in touch with the OIC secretariat about organising the meeting. 

Malaysia currently holds the chair of the OIC. 

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/2/13/nation/13376774&sec=nation