In an international situation marked by a growing confrontation between the Arab and Moslem world and the West over a number of contentious political issues and by a tense atmosphere fuelled by mutual feelings of fear, distrust and accusations, the new crisis which has erupted following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by some Danish and Norwegian newspapers and then by other Western media has exacerbated the situation.

 These cartoons provoked and continue to provoke in many Arab and Moslem countries massive demonstrations fuelled by deep feelings of anger and indignation at the attack on Muslim beliefs.  On the other hand, these angry reactions contribute to promoting feelings of fear and suspicion of Islam and Muslims in Western countries.  The situation is all the more dangerous because such reactions are presented as part of a clash between Islamic values which oppose the idea of personification of the Prophet and the value of freedom of _expression, which permits this personification, thus widening the gap between two sets of values and civilizations.

 Unfortunately this event is the latest in a series which threatens to continue to undermine mutual confidence and understanding, the price of which might be paid by many innocent people.

 Arab and Scandinavian intellectuals, sharing the same values of human rights , democracy mutual respect and cooperation between nations ,  believing that civilisations must live side by side and enrich each other, seek every opportunity to promote peace and human development.  We express our:

 - Condemnation of any attempt to aggress the beliefs of any people or any religion. Therefore we consider that religious as well as ethnic and other minorities must be protected from hate speech , intimidation and prejudice.

 - Rejection of any connection between Islam and terrorism, phenomena which have been, unfortunately, a part of history but have not been linked specifically to a religion, a nation or an era.

 - Refusal to blame a country, people or civilisation for an isolated action already condemned by the authorities of the country(s) where the action occurred.

 - Attachment to freedom of opinion, one of the most important pillars of a democracy and a basic right enshrined in the Universal  Declaration of human Rights (Article19). This basic right has to enhance  not contradict  the right to dignity (Article 1), and the right to freedom of belief and religion ( Article18) and the right to live in peace (Preamble).  No right or liberty is absolute; it is limited by other people’s rights and freedoms.

 -   We call on the media, politicians and citizens in the West and in the Arab and Muslim world  to heed the danger of increasing the stakes by oversimplification, mixing issues and generalization. The situation is extremely delicate and requires that everyone be extremely responsible, to prevent widening this gap, so we can bridge it in order to preserve peace, international cooperation, friendship between peoples and fruitful cooperation between civilisations..

9/2/2006

 Martine Aubry (France)

Mohamed al-Talibi (Tunisie)

Haytham Manna (Syrie)

Moncef Marzouki (Tunisie)

Abdelaziz Nouaydi (Maroc)

Mohamed Bechari (France)

Abdulhadi Khalaf (Bahrain)

Abbas Aroua (Algérie)

Adline Hazane (France)

Kamel Elabidi (Tunisie)

Violette Daguerre (Liban)

Abdullah Al Riyami (Oman)

Robert Menard (France)

Likaa Abo Ajeb (Syrie)

Rachid Mesli (Algérie)

Ammar Qurabi (Syrie)

Abel Salam Belaji (Maroc)

Jawad Ghanem (UK)

Abdallah Hermatalah (Mauritanie)

Abdelhamid Abdessadok (Canada)

Nowar Atfeh (Syrie)

Mariam Osman Sherifay (Suède)

Susanna Lundberg (Suède)

Haytham Maleh (Syrie)

Tasso Stafilidis (Suède)

Ayman Sorour (Egypte)

El Mostafa Soleih (Maroc)

Aberrahim Sabir (Maroc)

Hussam Abdallah (Egypte)

Salman Tamimi (Iceland)

Lina Larsen  (Norway)

Mostafa Siric (Bosnia)

Adly Abuhajar  (Sweden)

Bakhtiar Amin (Danmark)

Naser al-Ghazali (Suède)

Lakhdar Paddani (France)

Ramiz Zakaj  (Albania)

Taysir Alony (Spain)

Anas Schakfa (Austria)

Mohammed Almastiri (France)

Fethi Belhaj (France)

Abdel Wahid Bedersson

Mohamed Hamza  (Suède)

Aied Fayoumi  (Suède)

Samir Da’bas  (Suède)

Asma Saleh  (Suède)

Hanan Ali  (Suède)

Abir Azami  (Danmark) 

Wisam Jalabi  (Suède)

Gustaf Björck, (Sweden)

Ingrid Kvestad (Sweden)

Basel Shalhoub (Suisse)

Rawia Morra   (France)   

Luciano Astudillo  (Suède)

ِCarin Wedar (Suède)

Noureddine Chatti (Suède)

Daniel Maier (UK)

Torsten Jurell (Suède)

Fatimi Idrissi (Suède)

Johan Toresson (Suède)

Ingmar Lindberg (Suède)

Hedi Keshrida (Suède)

Arne Orun ( Norvège)

Ahmad Salloum (France)

Trude Falch (Norvège)

Lars Lonnbach( Suède)

Per Thorsdalen ( Suède)

Ake sander (Suède)

Ingerid Straume (Norvège)

Are Saastad (Norvège)

Ole Henning Sommerfelt   (Norvège)

Tim Brenne    (Norvège)

Ulla Kastrup  (Suède)

Daniel Voguet (France)

Ulla Kastrup  ( Suède)

Abdulrahman Mario (Malte)

Daw Miskine (France)

Abdelmajid Wakil (Portugal)                                         

Tomasz Miskiewicz (Poland)

Anouar Koutchoukali (Pays Bas)           

Naha Gabriel (Suède)

Miquel Gabriel (Suède)

Merian Ahmad (Suède)

Lif Gelan (Suède)

Uthman Twalebeh (Suède)

Ammar Sabri (Suède)

Lina Wisam (Suède)

Mats Johanson (Suède)

Hamida Tahiri (Suède)

Mohamad Kadoura(Suède)

Fatima Yasin (Suède)

Utared Haidar (UK)

Falah Salha (Hongrie)

Ahmet Akgunduz (Holland)

Jean Nasta (Germany)

Moubarak Mutawa (Arabie Saoudite)

Brahim Taouti (Danmark)     

Mohamed Salam (UK)

Hogan Larson (Suède)

Ann Sophie Rold (Suède)

Maamoun Homsi (Syrie)

Veronica Melander (Suède)

Hamed Rifai (Arabie Saoudite)

Abdel Rahman Dahman Saadi (Algèrie)

Abdulnabi Alekry )  Bahrain(