Bad Manners

Kofi the Clown finally discovers something unpleasant in the Muslim world.

U.N. Secretary of State Kofi Annan, visiting Iran Saturday, raised concerns with officials over an exhibition of cartoons about the Holocaust that opened in response to Muslim outrage over the Prophet Muhammad caricatures.

Annan brought up the exhibit in talks with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, said Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi.

Annan told Mottaki "we should avoid anything that incites hatred" according to Fawzi. The U.N. chief said he had not seen the Holocaust cartoons. "From what he heard, he would find them pretty distasteful, as he did the Danish cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad, which he strongly condemned at the time," Fawzi said.

"While (Annan) respects freedom of expression, he believes it should be used responsibly with due respect for people's feelings," he added.