Tehran demonstrators hurl firebombs at Danish embassy

TEHRAN – Demonstrators angered over a satirical video of the Islamic prophet Mohammed hurled firebombs and rocks at the Danish embassy in Tehran on Tuesday night.

Anti-riot police kept people from reaching the compound’s wall, but demonstrators managed to throw three Molotov cocktails over it into the garden. There were no clashes or arrests, and the extent of any damage was not immediately known.The demonstrators were demanding the closure of the mission.They dispersed, but said they would return on Wednesday afternoon.Earlier Tuesday, a majority of Iran’s MPs called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to cut economic ties with Denmark over the airing of the video.”Since disrespecting the prophet of Islam is not tolerable under any conditions, we call for cutting economic relations with Denmark,” said a petition read out in a live radio broadcast from parliament.The letter, signed by 232 MPs in the 290 seat hardline-controlled house, also asked the president to “freeze political relations if Denmark continues such policies.”Denmark’s TV2 channel last month broadcast excerpts from a video made by members of the extreme-right Danish People’s Party showing Mohammed as a beer-drinking camel and a drunken terrorist attacking Copenhagen.The images were shown on TV2 only fleetingly, with a youth playing the part of Mohammed visible only from the back, as well as a drawing.Iran on Monday summoned the Danish ambassador to condemn the video.Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has already denounced the footage as the “unacceptable behaviour of a small group of young people.”The video has again stirred up anger against Denmark first unleashed after publication of last year caricatures of Mohammed by a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, followed by others around Europe, which caused days of violent protests worldwide.Meanwhile, a leading group of theologians at the seminary in Iran’s clerical epicentre of Qom condemned the “Danish television channel’s insult to the holy presence of the prophet of Islam,” state television reported.Nampa-AFPThere were no clashes or arrests, and the extent of any damage was not immediately known.The demonstrators were demanding the closure of the mission.They dispersed, but said they would return on Wednesday afternoon.Earlier Tuesday, a majority of Iran’s MPs called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to cut economic ties with Denmark over the airing of the video.”Since disrespecting the prophet of Islam is not tolerable under any conditions, we call for cutting economic relations with Denmark,” said a petition read out in a live radio broadcast from parliament.The letter, signed by 232 MPs in the 290 seat hardline-controlled house, also asked the president to “freeze political relations if Denmark continues such policies.”Denmark’s TV2 channel last month broadcast excerpts from a video made by members of the extreme-right Danish People’s Party showing Mohammed as a beer-drinking camel and a drunken terrorist attacking Copenhagen.The images were shown on TV2 only fleetingly, with a youth playing the part of Mohammed visible only from the back, as well as a drawing.Iran on Monday summoned the Danish ambassador to condemn the video.Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has already denounced the footage as the “unacceptable behaviour of a small group of young people.”The video has again stirred up anger against Denmark first unleashed after publication of last year caricatures of Mohammed by a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, followed by others around Europe, which caused days of violent protests worldwide.Meanwhile, a leading group of theologians at the seminary in Iran’s clerical epicentre of Qom condemned the “Danish television channel’s insult to the holy presence of the prophet of Islam,” state television reported.Nampa-AFP