Updated: Sat Feb. 04 2006 7:00:00 PM

CTV.ca News Staff

Muslim-owned stores in Toronto are removing Danish products from shelves in response to outrage over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that appeared in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten.

Outrage erupted into protests in many Muslim countries over the cartoons which depict the prophet as a terrorist or another with him wearing a turban shaped as bomb.

Signs have appeared in a Toronto grocery store that say, "We no longer carry any products from Denmark." The store's manager told The Toronto Star removing Danish products is about showing solidarity with other Muslims, even if it hurts business.

Customers said they support the grocery store's decision to boycott Danish products.

"They (Muslims) don't find any other way to show their anger," a shopper told CTV's Desmond Brown Saturday. "So this is a natural way."

The boycott of cookies, cheese and fried onions from Denmark may not result in a large economic blow for the Scandinavian country. However it is being seen as a symbolic expression by Canadian Muslims.

"We will do so using peaceful, very Canadian means like economic boycotts, like writing letters to the editors," Naheem Siddiqi of the Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association said Saturday.

While parts of the world have experienced violent protests in response to the cartoons, reaction in Toronto has been limited to product boycotts and stern condemnations.

The Islamic Supreme Council of Canada has called on Denmark to apologize to all Muslims while the Canadian Arab Federation called the cartoons hateful propaganda.

"We definitely do not believe in the violence we have seen in some parts of the world," Siddiqi said.

Violence erupted in Syria as demonstrators torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday.

Chanting "God is Great," protesters stormed the embassy, set the Danish flag on fire, and replaced it with another flag that read: "No God but Allah, Muhammad is his prophet."

Jyllands-Posten apologized on Friday for publishing the cartoons, however the editorial has done little to quell outrage and protests.

The newspaper said if they had known Danish lives would be put at risk, the drawings would never have been published.

With files from CTV's Desmond Brown and The Canadian Press.