A cartoon that first appeared in a Danish newspaper has outraged Muslims and sparked widespread demonstrations and violence, with some of the worst occurring in the Gaza Strip Thursday.

The caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad first ran in a Danish newspaper in September, and were republished in papers in France, Norway and Germany this week, causing tension that quickly spread around the Muslim world.

One of the cartoons depicts the Prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a burning fuse. In another, an Islamic star and crescent moon are superimposed over his face.

Islam strictly forbids any depiction of the revered father of the religion, and many Muslims have reacted with violent outrage at the irreverent cartoon.

In the Gaza Strip, armed Palestinian gunmen surrounded European Union offices Thursday, demanding an apology after the comics were published.

Western journalists, diplomats and aid workers began filing out of Gaza under threats they could be kidnapped if the offending countries don't say sorry soon.

The militants also threatened to shut down media offices from the countries in question, particularly Agence France Presse.

"Any citizens of these countries, who are present in Gaza, will put themselves in danger," a Fatah-affiliated gunman said as he stood outside the EU Commission's office flanked by two masked men holding rifles.

If the European governments don't apologize by Thursday evening, "any visitor of these countries will be targeted," he said.

In the city of Nablus in the West Bank, gunmen entered at least four hotels attempting to kidnap foreigners. They said owners should not allow citizens from Europe to stay there.

There were also reports that private apartments were being searched for Europeans.

In the town of Ram, just outside Jerusalem, Norway closed its diplomatic office after receiving threats related to the cartoons.

"There were threats from two Palestinian groups, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, against Danish, French and Norwegian diplomats," Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Rune Bjaastad said.

The ministry was still debating whether to evacuate its 24 staff members and their families.

Jan Pirouz Poulsen, the deputy chief of Danish offices in the Palestinian territories, said the 26 Danes currently there have been urged to leave "until the situation improves."

Raif Holmboe, the head of Denmark's office in the West Bank town of Ramallah, said the office would be closed again on Friday. He was unsure when it would reopen. He said shots had been fired at the office earlier in the week, but it had been empty at the time and no one was injured.

Residents in many areas of the Middle East have boycotted Danish goods, and protests and bomb threats have plagued Danish-run facilities.

Canadian Muslim reaction

Some Muslims, however, disapprove of the violence and claim it tarnishes the name of Islam.

"The Prophet Muhammad faced many worse insults than what this cartoonist could offer, and the tradition of Islam and the example of the Prophet Muhammad was to look the other way and not react," Tarek Fatah, a director of the Muslim Canadian Congress told CTV Newsnet.

Fatah said Saudia Arabia and Syria, which have both pulled their ambassadors from Denmark in protest, have acted self-righteously, rather than righteously.

"It's self-righteous and it's deceiving as well, because they've been sitting over there doing nothing about the rights of Muslims in their own countries," Fatah said. "These are dictatorships that couldn't care less about how the Muslim community is treated. So for them to stand up and speak about Islam and the Muslim community in Europe is sheer hypocrisy."

A fierce debate has also broken out about the nature of editorial cartoons and the limits of free speech within democratic countries.

Fatah defends freedom of speech, but suggested the cartoons cross the line into unacceptable. He equated them with anti-Semitic depictions of Jews that were common in Europe prior to the Second World War.

In this case, Muslims are being targeted, he said.

"For this newspaper to say they are expressing freedom of expression, I don't buy it because they would dare not make caricatures depicting other communities," Fatah said.

The Toronto author of a new book called Their Jihad Is Not My Jihad, said the cartoons, one of which shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse, served no political or social purpose.

"All that it's doing is inciting hatred,'' Raheel Raza, told CP.

Editor fired

While defenders of free speech say the papers have a right to print the editorial cartoons, other say they should have been avoided out of respect for Islam.

The managing editor of the French paper that printed the drawings, France Soir, was fired Wednesday, and his appointed replacement quit shortly after being given the position. He had reprinted the cartoons in a show of solidarity with the Danish publication.

Meanwhile, a group of Pakistanis protested outside its offices, shouting "death to France."

The cartoons were not reprinted or transmitted by the Associated Press, the world's largest news agency. Santiago Lyon, the New York-based director of photography for AP, said the agency has a policy not to use material that is known to be offensive.

The agency has carried detailed articles describing the cartoons and the reaction to them, however.