Cartoon row: Taliban says West against Islam

A set of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad show that the West is against Islam, the ousted Taliban has said.

A set of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad show that the West is against Islam, the ousted Taliban said on Saturday as Afghan religious leaders added to worldwide condemnation of the images.

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A statement purportedly from the Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency since they were removed from power in late 2001, said the cartoons published in several European newspapers showed "the enmity of the West to Islam."

"Muslim countries should know that the Western countries are against us and our religion and our great Prophet," said the statement read to AFP over the telephone by Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi.

Dozens of religious leaders and tribal chiefs met Saturday at a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar, once a Taliban stronghold, to express their disapproval of the cartoons.

"We strongly condemn this act," they said in a statement that called on European leaders to punish those involved.

President Hamid Karzai has also strongly condemned the cartoons, calling them an insult.

But on Friday, as people in several capitals protested over the images, he called on Muslims to have "courage to forgive and not make it an issue of dispute between religions or cultures."

"But that doesn't mean that insulting cartoons about Islam must continue to appear. They must definitely, definitely stop," he said.