Querol appeals for sobriety amid Muslim cartoon fury

Metro police chief Director Vidal Querol appealed for sobriety yesterday and ordered additional security on foreign embassies in the wake of massive protests staged by Muslims worldwide over the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

Querol directed Chief Superintendent Wilfredo Garcia, director of the Southern Police District (SPD), to double security at foreign embassies, especially the Danish and Norwegian embassies, to prevent Muslims from staging attacks on these establishments.

Malacañang, however, said it does not believe protest actions over the cartoons would escalate into violence as Filipinos generally treat their Muslim brothers with "fairness and respect."

"First of all, here in the Philippines, we treat our Muslim brothers with fairness and we wouldn’t wish to exacerbate any outrage on that caricature but you can be sure that our Muslim brothers understand that the national leadership and the entire Filipino nation, our people, are with our Muslim brothers as part of the Filipino community," Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters in Mindanao.

Ermita added that Filpino Muslims are generally peaceful and they "will not think of anything adverse against the government."

Garcia said an additional police mobile team has been deployed to augment officers already protecting Makati office buildings housing embassies.

"I’m assuring our diplomatic community that the Metro police force is extending them utmost security," said Querol.

At least 98 percent of the foreign embassies are located in the area of responsibility of the SPD.

Querol also appealed to Filipino Muslims not to resort to any form of violence in the wake of agitations by their fellow Muslims in other countries.

Muslims from all over the world staged protest actions during the past days in protest of the cartoons’ publication in a Danish newspaper, resulting in one death.

Hundreds of students in Cotabato City also joined Tuesday’s demonstration by massing in the streets calling for the boycott of Danish products and shouting slogans against the Danish government.

Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas Jr., intelligence chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said they have no report that Muslims in Metro Manila would join the protest marches.

Rojas said they are closely monitoring the Muslim community in Metro Manila so they can act accordingly.

Querol said his five police districts have implemented contingency measures to prevent the Cotabato City protest action from spilling over to Metro Manila.

Filipino Muslim leaders yesterday joined the world in condemning the cartoons but cautioned against the use of violence.

"We join our forces of condemnation with our Muslim brothers and sisters in every corner of the globe who have strongly protested the insulting publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad," said the Muslim leaders in a resolution passed at the end of the three-day "Ulama For Islam and Democracy" at the Ortigas Center in Pasig City.

However, the leaders said violence should not be used as a way of protesting the insult to their faith.

"The teaching of Shariah condemns all forms of unjust and unreasonable use of violence, for Islam is the religion of peace and the Prophet condemns all such forms of violence, especially those done in his name," the leaders said. — With Paolo Romero, Cecille Suerte Felipe, AFP