Updated

Jordanian lawmakers urged the government on Thursday to sever ties with Denmark to protest the reprinting of a cartoon deemed insulting to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

A petition signed by 38 of Jordan's 110 lawmakers also pressed the government to dismiss the Danish ambassador in Amman, acting parliament speaker Mamdouh al-Abbadi said.

"Due to Denmark's insistence in harming Prophet Muhammad's image, our religious and moral duty requires us to sever ties immediately with Denmark and dismiss its ambassador," read the petition obtained by The Associated Press.

Islamists as well as pro-government lawmakers signed the petition. Officials from Jordan's pro-Western government were not immediately available for comment on the lawmakers' move Thursday.

Leading Danish newspapers reprinted in February what was arguably the most controversial of 12 cartoons of Prophet Muhammad that had enraged many Muslims in early 2006 and sparked deadly riots.

The February reprint, depicting Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban, triggered another wave of demonstrations in some Muslim countries. The Danish papers, meanwhile, said the reprint was meant to promote freedom of speech after Danish police revealed a plot to kill the creator of the caricature.

A Jordanian group known as "Rassoul Allah Yajmana," which translates as "The messenger of God unites us" was also plastering some 500,000 posters in the kingdom on Thursday to call Jordanians to boycott Danish products.

The group includes Islamist, moderate and independent figures. It was formed last month to campaign against whoever insults Islam's Prophet.

The group says it plans to file lawsuits in Amman against 17 Danish newspapers for harming the image of the Prophet, which is an offense under Jordanian law