WESTERN governments appealed for calm yesterday before Friday prayers as the storm over the publication and broadcast of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad escalated.

Masked Palestinian gunmen fired shots into the air and closed the EU office in Gaza, saying it would stay shut until Western governments apologised for their media printing images including a cartoon of a bearded Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

The BBC was drawn into the row after broadcasting the images on its main evening bulletins. The move drew accusations from Muslim leaders that the corporation was inciting racial hatred.

Channel 4 News and The Spectator magazine website also showed the images, originally published in Denmark, dragging Britain into an increasingly ugly confrontation between Islam and the West.

Western diplomats from Denmark and Norway began pulling out of their missions in Gaza as gunmen searched hotels for Europeans from countries where newspapers had printed the pictures, declaring them legitimate targets.

The editor of a Jordanian newspaper that suggested Muslim anger was unreasonable, was sacked by his publisher. Al-Shihan had run the cartoons, arguing: “What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage taker slashing the throat of his victim?” Across the region, including Baghdad and Basra, Muslim leaders called for protests after Friday prayers. Protests are also expected to spread to European capitals after a dozen more publications in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain carried the cartoons.

Senior BBC executives said last night that they would not be “bullied or censored” into dropping the images, which were only shown as glimpses to illustrate the story. There are no immediate plans to increase security at BBC offices, though this will be kept under review. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was not changing its advice over travel to Islamic countries.

Downing Street tried to distance itself from the row by saying it was wrong for Tony Blair to tell the media what to do. Asked if he agreed with Peter Mandelson, the EU Trade Commissioner, who urged newspapers to think twice before publishing the cartoons, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “This is entirely a matter for the media organisations to decide what they ought to do within the law.” The BBC decided to show the images after the managing editor of the French newspaper France Soir was sacked for printing all 12 drawings in Wednesday’s edition. Bulletins on domestic TV and on BBC World carried the cartoons, which a spokesman said were broadcast “responsibly” and “in full context” and “to give audiences an understanding of the strong feelings evoked by the story”. It is understood that neither Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, nor the governors were consulted over broadcasting the cartoons.

Last night both the Muslim Association and the militant Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Britain condemned the BBC’s behaviour and pleaded with it to drop the broadcasts.

A spokesman for the Muslim Association said: “The BBC is inciting racial hatred and not conducting a serious debate on freedom of speech. This threatens to become another Salman Rushdie affair.”

A senior figure in Hizb-ut Tahrir said: “It’s become open season by media to insult Islam. There was no need for the BBC to reproduce them, but we would urge protesters to be peaceful but vocal”.

The main BBC news bulletins filmed a page from the French newspaper that carried the images of Muhammad including one of him urging suicide bombers to cut down attacks as he was running out of virgins in paradise.

Newsnight on BBC2 did not show the cartoons last night, using obscured shots of the newspapers carrying the images instead. An artist drew sections of the cartoons, but did not include the depictions of Muhammad. ITN went ahead with plans to show the image on its 10.30 bulletin.

The Spectator briefly carried them on its website but acting editor, Stuart Reid, pulled them a few hours later after consulting Andrew Neil, the chief executive, saying they were “unnecessarily provocative”.

In diplomatic protests, Syria and Saudi Arabia have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark, and Libya has closed its embassy in Copenhagen.

Following the threats by Gaza gunmen, Hamas, which won last week’s Palestinian elections, moved quickly to reassure Westerners that it would not target them.

Visiting the Holy Family Church, Dr Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas’s senior leader in Gaza, promised protection to Christians. He told Father Manuel Musallam that he was prepared to station gunmen to protect the building, telling him: “You are our brothers.”

However, the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, said that the decision to publish the cartoons could encourage terrorists. The Afghan President Hamid Karzai also condemned their publication.

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