[JURIST] Turkey has urged European countries to reexamine their religious defamation laws and ensure that they protect Muslims in the wake of the Muhammad cartoons controversy [JURIST news archive]. At a weekend conference of EU foreign ministers in Austria, Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul [official website] echoed Muslim claims that European laws reflect a double standard insofar as they protect Christianity and prosecute anti-semitism but leave Muslims vulnerable, noting in a speech [official text]:

there are legal restraints against such defamation. However, these restraints sometimes only apply to the established religions of the concerned countries. I would like to call on you here to start a process of re-examination of your legislations to ensure that these restraints apply to all religions equally, including to Islam.