New York's Muslim leaders denounced violent uprisings over the Prophet Muhammed cartoons yesterday, even as protests in Libya turned deadly and bounties were offered in Pakistan.

A Muslim leadership council, the Majlis Ash Shura of New York, organized a noontime rally on the steps of the Danish Consulate in midtown, calling for respect and religious tolerance.

The protest, which organizers estimated at 2,000 people but police sources pegged closer to 800, brought out a multi-cultural mix of men, women and schoolchildren.

"We have to be wise enough as Muslims to not get provoked," Iman Siraj Wahhaj, an organizer, said. "However, just because you have the right to say something doesn't mean it's right to say it."

At 2:30 p.m., four organizers met with Danish Consul General, Torben Gettermann. "We expressed our sympathies and condemned the violence abroad, especially attacks on Danish embassies," Dr. Shaik Ubaid said of the meeting.

"We had a very good exchange of ideas. We want to continue the dialogue that we started today," Getterman said, adding that high-level Danish officials had recently met with Muslim leaders in Washington D.C., Denmark, Austria and Saudi Arabia.