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Egypt bans 4 Western newspapers, including Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt, the Observer and the Wall Street Journal.

Any newspaper or magazine which publishes anything offensive to the prophet…and reprints the offensive caricatures of the prophet or anything offensive to the three heavenly religions will be banned [Information Minister Anas al-Fiqi]

Neither the WSJ nor the Observer printed the cartoon. (UPDATE: Feb 21 – the WSJ actually showed a picture of the front pages of the Danish papers which contained the drawing)

The government also summoned the Danish ambassador for a telling off:

The insistence of the Danish media to insult Islam again is unfortunate since the incident of publishing the cartoons has undoubtedly confirmed that such shameful acts only lead to more tension. [Foreign ministry statement]

Students protested in Cairo, and a couple of youth internationals football matches were cancelled.

Yemen has suspended friendship with Denmark’s parliament, and in Jordan the lower house condemned the reprints and urged the Danish government to stop it happening:

The House of Representatives has been surprised over the reprinting of the blasphemous pictures by Danish newspapers and considers the step an irresponsible behaviour indicative of extreme recklessness and absence of values.

Not the absence of values, you dunces. The presence of different, arguably much better, values.

(Hat tip: The Comics Reporter)

UPDATE: (21 Feb) The ever-vigilant Comics Reporter informs us that Pakistan has carpeted the Danish charge d’affaires, issuing this statement:

The additional secretary underlined that the publication of the cartoons was counter to the efforts of countries and people who wished to build bridges amongst civilizations. Since hurting sentiments of other religions was not responsible behavior, the Danish Government, as a responsible government, was obliged to stop the publication of the cartoons.

There have also been demonstrations in Jakarta.

Also, rather distressingly, Kurt Westergaard has been asked to leave the hotel he and his wife were staying at. The management cited fears for the safety of other guests.