Voices of moderation amid caricature protests

Asia News covers: Hamas offers mediation; from Malaysia, the call for Islam and the West to accept each other as equals; similar appeals from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh; hundreds of thousands participate in Hezbollah protest with no incidents to report. ...

(AsiaNews reports:

Protests against caricatures depicting Mohammad continue in the Islamic world, and spread to countries in which none had been previously occurred, but there has also been an increase in voices which, from within Islam, are calling for moderation and peaceful demonstrations. Thus, if from Gaza the Islamic Jihad is threatening "the sacrifice of blood" in case similar episodes reoccur, Khaled Meshaal, leader of Hamas, said that his organization "is prepared to play a role in calming the situation between the Islamic world and Western countries on condition that these countries commit themselves to putting an end to attacks against the feelings of Muslims." This statement arrives a day after Meshaal himself had warned Western press to not "play with fire" by publishing such caricatures.