[JURIST] Sudanese President Omar El Bashir [BBC profile] Wednesday addressed a massive rally in Khartoum protesting the reprinting of a cartoon depiction of the Muslim prophet Muhammad [JURIST report] by Jyllands-Poste [media website] earlier this month, saying that he would ban all Danish citizens from entering the country and calling on Muslims to boycott Danish products. It was unclear if Sudan would expel Danes already inside the country. The Danish government did not respond to Bashir's statement, but Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller [official profile] said earlier that the Sudanese government has in the past used anti-western sentiments as a way to rally public support. AP has more.

Jyllands-Poste and 16 other Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoon [Le Monde slideshow] earlier this month one day after Danish police arrested three people [JURIST report] suspected in a plot to murder Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard for his characterization of Muhammad. Westergaard was one of 12 cartoonists who created the Muhammad cartoons [JURIST news archive] first published in 2005, which sparked widespread protests across the Islamic world.