( dpa ) - A Norwegian opposition politician called for a campaign to "buy Danish" as part of efforts to support freedom of speech and counter the effects of a consumer boycott in the Middle East, a news report said Tuesday.
"Danish goods are currently systematically boycotted by the main department stores in a number of countries in the Middle East since Danish newspapers printed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed," Christian Tybring-Gjedde, member of parliament for the Progress Party, told the Verdens Gang tabloid.
Tybring-Gjedde recently visited a food store in Oslo and found Danish beer, sausages, cheese and frozen meat on sale.
"By buying more Danish products we will naturally not compensate for the big losses Danish companies suffer, but it would be a good gesture and clearly indicate our strong support for a fundamental human right, namely freedom of speech," Tybring-Gjedde said.
Danish security police last month said they had averted an alleged plot to murder newspaper cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.
Westergaard's depiction of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban was one of 12 published in newspapers that sparked violent protests in 2006 by Muslims worldwide and triggered a boycott of Danish goods.
Leading Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoons in February after the plot against Westergaard was disclosed, sparking renewed protests.