Cartoon protest in Oslo....

The local newspaper printed one of the Muhammed cartoons and last week there was a short taxi strike and now this....

Around 2,000 people protested in Oslo on Friday over the printing of a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad as a pig by a Norwegian newspaper.

Tabloid Dagbladet printed a photo of the cartoon on Feb. 3 to illustrate a front-page story describing how the Facebook page of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) linked to pages featuring caricatures of the Prophet. The links were posted by participants to the Facebook group and removed by PST.

Holding placards with slogans such as "Show respect to all religions" and "Stop insults against Muslims", demonstrators passed peacefully through central Oslo.

"I am here because what Dagbladet has done is very offensive to us," said Kashif Aurangzev, a 34-year-old taxi driver.

"This is a big attack on Muslims, it goes against our religion," said Kamran Naveeb, a 25-year-old student.

Police said around 2,000 people attended the heavily guarded demonstration, which was boycotted by Norway's main Muslim organization for fears it could turn violent.

Dagbladet printed a picture of one of the cartoons, representing the Prophet as a pig writing the Koran.

"It was an illustration to our news story," said Lars Helle, Dagbladet's acting editor-in-chief. "Our critics can of course criticize us for publishing the cartoon. It's their right according to free speech.

"They have the right to protest, but it was not a provocation, it was not meant as a provocation, it was meant as an illustration to a news story," he told Reuters.