[JURIST] Leaders of the Ulama Council, Afghanistan's top Islamic authority, appealed Wednesday for an end to violent protests against the publication of Muhammad caricatures [JURIST news archive] in European newspapers, but the call came too late to stop hundreds rioting outside a US forward operations base in the southern Afghan city of Qalat. Four protestors were killed when police were forced to fire into the crowd. The deaths came a day after several other Afghan protestors died while attempting to storm a ISAF Norwegian military camp [JURIST report; ISAF press release] in the north of the country. Senior cleric Mohammed Usman said "Islam says it's all right to demonstrate but not to resort to violence. This must stop…We condemn the cartoons but this does not justify violence. These rioters are defaming the name of Islam." The call follows similar appeals for calm [JURIST report] made Tuesday by Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and other leaders.

President Bush, meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah Wednesday at the White House, also appealed for restraint:

I call upon the governments around the world to stop the violence, to be respectful, to protect property, to protect the lives of innocent diplomats who are serving their countries overseas.

At the same time, however, he suggested that publishing the cartoons might have been a mistake:

We believe in a free press, and also recognize that with freedom comes responsibilities. With freedom comes the responsibility to be thoughtful about others

King Abdullah expressly condemned the publication of the cartoons but insisted that protests against them should be peaceful:

When we see protests — when we see destruction, when we see violence, especially if it ends up taking the lives of innocent people, is completely unacceptable. Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, is a religion of peace, tolerance, moderation.

And we have to continue to ask ourselves, what type of world do we want for our children? I too often hear the word used as, tolerance. And tolerance is such an awful word. If we are going to strive to move forward in the future, the word that we should be talking about is acceptance. We need to accept our common humanity and our common values. And I hope that lessons can be learned from this dreadful issue, that we can move forward as humanity, and truly try to strive together, as friends and as neighbors, to bring a better world to all.

Read the full text of the White House remarks. Reuters has more.