Fact File on Reaction to Danish Caricatures
It is being alleged in some quarters that the controversy over the Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad is somehow artificial or whipped up months later by the Saudis. This is not true. The controversy began in Denmark itself among the 180,000 Danish Muslims. It was taken up by the ambassadors of Muslim states in Copenhagen. Then the Egyptian foreign minister began making a big deal of it, as did Islamist parties in Turkey and Pakistan. The crisis has unfolded along precisely the sort of networks one would have expected, and become intertwined with all the post-colonial crises of the region, from the foreign military occupation of Iraq to the new instability in Syria and Lebanon.
Below is a press record on the controversy, drawn from the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a translation service of the CIA that is later released under various commercial auspices, including BBC World Monitoring and World News Connection.
The Caricatures were published on 30 September in Copenhagen.
They provoked a protest of 5,000 Muslims there soon thereafter.
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"FBIS Analysis Oct 05: Danish Media Back Publication of Cartoons of Mohammad
For assistance with multimedia elements, contact FBIS at 1-800-205-8615 Correction: correcting formatting
Denmark -- FBIS Analysis
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
. . . The media reported on 16 September that a Danish author was unable to find an illustrator for her book on the Prophet Muhammad, since Islam forbids pictorial representations of the prophet and illustrators were afraid of a Muslim backlash.
The conservative daily then asked 40 cartoonists to provide such pictures and it subsequently published all 12 cartoons received in response, some of which depicted the prophet in an unflattering manner. Various Muslim organizations and clerics condemned the daily for this and on 20 October several embassies of Arab and other Muslim states protested to Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen. Meanwhile, an Islamic group called "Holy Brigades in Northern Europe" threatened both and Denmark in general with terrorist retaliation. Both the editor and cultural editor of the newspaper explained their reasons for publishing the cartoons and refused to accept that they had done anything inappropriate.
-- cited editor Carsten Juste saying the publication was a "journalistic project" about self-censorship. Expressing surprise at the Muslim reaction, he denied intending to offend anyone's religious beliefs. The English-language independent daily cited Juste as saying satire and caricature were accepted in Denmark and there should be no "barriers" against such expression. Danish Radio's website quoted him as saying he "could never dream of retracting the pictures" (15, 12, 10 October).
-- cited Jyllands-Posten cultural editor as describing the publication as a reaction to artists and writers censoring their work out of fear of "radical Islamists." She said religious beliefs could not demand special treatment in a secular society (6 October). Other Danish newspapers backed right to publish, but some suggested the cartoons were provocative. One editorial pointed to the possible danger created and urged calm on all sides.
-- Backing the publication of the cartoons, an editorial in the center-right daily described the fear of criticizing Islam as "really destructive" to society, warning "freedom of speech dies from self-censorship." Another editorial called freedom of speech the "fundamental core of Danish democracy" (4, 22 October). . .
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Danish Prime Minister Backs Press's Right To Caricature Prophet Muhammad
"Danish PM Touts Freedom of Expression in Muhammad Cartoons Row" -- AFP headline
AFP (North European Service)
Friday, October 21, 2005 T18:26:26Z
COPENHAGEN, Oct 21 (AFP) -- Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Friday ( 21 October) told Muslim diplomats in the country he would not intervene in a row over newspaper caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, citing freedom of expression.
Ambassadors from Arab countries and Pakistan, Iran, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Indonesia wrote a letter to Rasmussen earlier this week, saying they were offended by the 12 cartoons published in Denmark's largest circulation daily on September 30 and demanding an apology from the paper.
Images of the prophet are considered blasphemous under Islam.
Rasmussen said in a written reply, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, that he would not intervene in the affairs but said the diplomats were free to undertake legal proceedings.
"The freedom of expression is the very foundation of the Danish democracy . . . (and) the Danish government has no means of influencing the press," he said.
"However, Danish legislation prohibits acts or expressions of a blasphemous or discriminatory nature. The offended party may bring such acts or expressions to court, and it is for the courts to decide in individual cases," he wrote.
Last week, as many as 5,000 Muslims demonstrated in Copenhagen against the newspaper and the drawings, which depicted Muhammad in different settings. In one of the drawings, he appeared with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.
The editors of have stood by their cartoons and rejected the demand for an apology.
"We live in a democracy where satire and caricature are generally accepted, and religion should not set limits on that," chief editor Carsten Juste said on Thursday.
Islam is the second religion in Denmark after the Evangelical-Lutheran state church, with some 180,000 members or three percent of the population.
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The issue became quickly internationalized, with the embassies of Muslim countries demanding a retraction. by mid-October. PM Fogh-Rasmussen continues to refuse to entertain the complaints. Indeed, he went on the offensive, threatening Danish Muslims with heightened penalites for harassing persons who wrote on religion.
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Danish Prime Minister To Seek Harsher Penalties for Threats to Freedom of Speech
Excerpt from report by Line Prasz: "Harsher Penalties Will Protect Freedom of Speech"
Politiken (Internet Version-WWW)
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 T18:36:27Z
There should be harsher penalties for those who threaten and harass people who exercise their legal rights to make statements about topics such as religion. That is what Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Liberal Party) said in the wake of the trouble over the drawings of the prophet Muhammad.
The government wants to institute harsher penalties for crimes and threats against people who exercise their legal rights to make statements about topics such as religion.
That is what Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a press conference.
"We want to protect freedom of speech in Denmark. We have seen examples of how people have been assaulted and threatened if they expressed themselves, and that is unacceptable," said Fogh Rasmussen.
The specific details of the bill are still uncertain.
Newspaper illustrators threatened with their lives
The bill comes in the wake of the case involving a group of newspaper illustrators who were threatened with their lives after they drew pictures of the prophet Muhammad in.
"It is unacceptable that legal statements can lead to violence and threats," said the prime minister.
Since the drawings were made public on 30 September, 's name has appeared on at least two web sites that glorify violence, which also have pictures of terrorist targets in Denmark with a message stating that "you will soon regret all of this." . . .
(Description of Source: Copenhagen Politiken (Internet Version-WWW) in Danish -- nationwide centrist daily)
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Then the Danish Muslims tried to invoke Danish law, as Rasmussen initially suggested they do if they thought they had a case.
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Danish Muslim Groups Make Complaint to Police Over Mohamed Cartoons
Ritzau Bureau report: "Jyllands-Posten Reported for Racial Discrimination"
Politiken (Internet Version-WWW)
Tuesday, November 1, 2005 T00:57:57Z
Journal Code: 771 Language: ENGLISH Record Type: FULLTEXT
Document Type: FBIS Translated Text
Word Count: 159
Eleven Muslim organizations in Denmark have reported [Jyllands-Posten] to the police for blasphemy and racial discrimination.
The complaint was made to the police in Odense on Thursday ( 27 October) after the paper published 12 cartoons of the prophet Mohamed on 30 September. According to Islam, pictorial representations of Mohamed are not permitted.
Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, the 23-year-old spokesperson for the organizations that made the complaint, told Ritzau Bureau that the complaint to the police is based on the context in which the drawings were published.
"We have based our action on the article that the drawings were published alongside, and the intention of the article. We believe that it was the newspaper's intention to mock and ridicule," Asmaa Abdol-Hamid says.
She refers to the fact that the newspaper's arts editor wrote that Muslims in Denmark must be prepared for insult, mockery, and ridicule.
(Description of Source: Copenhagen Politiken (Internet Version-WWW) in Danish -- nationwide centrist daily)
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We have this from Turkey on Nov. 5:
"In a 650-word article entitled "Everything Fine so far But ..." on page 17, Zaman columnist Ahmet Turan Alkan comments on Denmark's reaction to criticisms from some 11 countries including Turkey of a Danish daily's publication of "inappropriate" cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad. Alkan argues that while Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen is right "on paper" in citing freedom of the press as justification for Jyllands-Posten's publication of the said cartoons because the freedom of religious conviction as described in the EU acquis includes the liberty to practice "sarcasm" as well as the liberty to exercise religious faith, "the problem is not how Rasmussen and those who are of the same opinion as Rasmussen are acting but how we should act in the face of this situation. Such disagreements, which appear to be negligible now, will bring Turkey to a dramatic crossroads at one point in a negotiation process that is projected to last 10-12 years." (Istanbul Zaman (Ankara Edition) in Turkish -- moderate pro-Islamic daily supportive of Nurcu Sect leader Fethullah Gulen -- Root URL: http://www.zaman.com/ http://www.zaman.com)"
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Then other nations besides Pakistan, Iran, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Indonesia got involved, including Egypt. Egypt's government was cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood in the lead-up to the Egyptian elections, so this was a freebie for the secular Mubarak regime. They could pose as defenders of Islam abroad with no domestic cost.
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Egyptian Foreign Minister Says Danish Paper's Cartoons of Prophet 'Disgraceful'
MENA
Monday, November 14, 2005 T18:39:38Z
Journal Code: 659 Language: ENGLISH Record Type: FULLTEXT
Document Type: FBIS Transcribed Text
Word Count: 203
CAIRO, Nov 14 (MENA) - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit rejected anti-Islam approaches in Denmark, branding them as a scandal.
The foreign minister said that Egypt had confronted this disgraceful act and will continue to confront such insults.
Abul-Gheit said he was keen, during the Future Forum foreign ministerial conference in Bahrain Sunday, on stressing the importance of dialogue among civilisations to avoid what had taken place in Denmark.
Twelve cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad in different settings appeared in Denmark's largest circulation daily Jyllands-Posten on September 30.
The images have drawn criticism across the Muslim minority in Denmark, with religious leaders insisting they are an insult to the prophet and calling for an official apology.
On October 20, Muslim diplomats in Denmark protested against the newspaper caricatures in a letter to Danish Premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Egypt is leading a diplomatic movement to prevent repeating such a scandal, said Abul-Gheit, reiterating the importance of dialogue.
Egypt ambassador to Denmark Mona Omar, as well as Arab and Muslim ambassadors, had protested over the drawings, but the Danish government rejected the protest and considered them as part of freedom of expression.
(Description of Source: Cairo MENA in English -- government news agency)
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By mid-November it hit Iraq. Al-Najaf al-Balagh, a Shiite newspaper, demanded that the Danish newspaper apologize.
"A 270-word front-page report says that Islamic organizations in Denmark have condemned a Danish newspaper for vilifying the Prophet Muhammad and urged the newspaper to apologize."
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Egypt's foreign minister kept the story going in November. This is important because Egypt is a big press center and very influential.
Then it was alleged that a member of the fundamentalist Jama'at-i Islami in Pakistan got into the action, offering a reward to whoever assassinated one of the cartoonists. The Jama'at, which is generally not this radical, denied the report, saying that it believed in a democratic society and so would never do such a thing.
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AFP: Denmark Envoy Warns of Pakistani Threat Over Mohammed Cartoons
" Denmark Warns of Pakistani Threat Over Mohammed Cartoons" - AFP headline
AFP
Friday, December 2, 2005 T14:01:45Z
Journal Code: 1001 Language: ENGLISH Record Type: FULLTEXT
Document Type: FBIS Transcribed Text
Word Count: 396
ISLAMABAD, Dec 2 (AFP) - Denmark said Friday it had issued a warning to travellers to Pakistan after fundamentalists reportedly offered a reward for the deaths of cartoonists who drew the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.
Copenhagen altered its travel advisory for the Muslim country after an official from Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami religious party allegedly offered the 500,000-rupee (8,333-dollar) bounty, said Denmark's ambassador to Islamabad, Bent Wigotski.
"We changed our travel advisory on November 17. It mentions the fact that cartoons were printed by a Danish newspaper in September and many Muslims consider them blasphemous and against Islam," Wigotski told AFP.
"We mentioned that the cartoons have been mentioned in Pakistani papers and they have generated death threats against the cartoonists," the envoy added. . . .
The Danish ambassador said the change in the travel advisory was based on a report published in Pakistan's influential Urdu language newspaper Nawa-i-waqt on November 15.
The report said that a member of Jamaat-e-Islami's youth wing named Shahid Pervez Gilani told a rally in Islamabad on November 14 that "anyone who kills the cartoonists will be given a reward of 500,000 rupees (8,333 dollars)."
The party's secretary general Syed Munawar Hassan also addressed the rally, urging Pakistan to "lodge a protest with Denmark and expel its ambassador from the country over the publication of the insulting cartoon".
A spokesman for Jamaat-e-Islami denied offering any reward for the deaths of the cartoonists.
"This is absolutely foolish and baseless news. We do not believe in violence and we never had any such policy because we are a democratic party," spokesman Shahid Shamsi told AFP.
"However, we are strongly against drawing sketches of our Holy Prophet," Shamsi said.
Images of the prophet Mohammed are considered blasphemous under Islam.
Ambassadors of Muslim countries to Denmark protested against the cartoons in October in a letter to the Danish prime minister.
A previously unknown Islamic group called Glory Brigades in Northern Europe also threatened to carry out attacks in the Scandinavian country over the affair, media reported at the time.
(Description of Source: Hong Kong AFP in English -- Hong Kong service of the independent French press agency Agence France-Presse)
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Anyway, the allegation that this thing was fanned by Saudi Arabia does not seem to be substantiated by the FBIS record, which shows Egypt's secular foreign minister to have been among the main fanners of the flame. Minor members of youth wings of Islamist parties in places like Pakistan then got into the action. Nor is it true that things were quiet after the immediate publication of the cartoons. Nor is it true that the Danish prime minister or the Jyllands-Posten expressed any sympathy for the hurt feelings of Muslims early on. Indeed, they lectured them on being uncivilized for objecting.
posted by Juan Cole @ 2/06/2006 06:01:00 AM
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16 Comments:
Thank you for your thoroughness on this.
The thing is, how come it took four months before people started burning down embassies?
When Newsweek printed an article about how American guards at Guantanamo Bay were urinating on the Qur'an, that article prompted worldwide protests immediately. The crowds in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Indonesia did not need four months to be angry enough to take to the streets. They did not need months of sermons by their religious leaders to be properly offended. The reaction was natural and immediate. This is in complete contrast to the Danish cartoons, not counting the peaceful protest in Denmark itself. Pakistan has a number of opposition fundamentalist parties (including the MNA) who hold protests regularly, including against women running in the marathon races in Pakistan. Their outrage, like the Danish Muslims themselves, was natural and more or less spontaneous, complete with hand-lettered signs. The reaction outside of Denmark? Lots of expensively-printed signs being held by people who don't own offset printers. Lots of faked cartoons that were much more offensive than those actually published. Lots of powerful people looking to take advantage of a situation to distract from their own problems.
Juan, you haven't contradicted the rumors about the Saudis. All you've done is a) add the Syrian and Egyptian governments to the list of powerful groups wanting to seize on the cartoons to distract from their own problems, and b) emphasize that this would not have got as big or as dangerous as it did without heavy, well-organized prodding at key stages.
To state that this is totally organic is not only untrue, it is unfair to Muslims because now non-Muslims will think that all of the faithful are psychotic nutjobs who freak out at little or no provocation -- and who therefore should be extirpated.
And while it is true that there was SOME reaction when the cartoons first were published, nobody in September was burning down embassies over them -- or distributing faked new "cartoons" that were falsely touted as being among the original cartoons.
Thanks for providing a more enlightened take on this issue, and for detailing the long ramp up to the present crisis.
It seems pretty clear now, had there been an immediate and strong response forthcoming from the Danish government, not to censor but to clearly state it’s disapproval of the editorials; as well as a response from the public against hate speech, then this whole thing may have been avoided. Denmark's internal politics of anti-Islamic sentiment explains the public and governmental non-condemnation of the editorials.
I can't imagine why the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Islamic former colonial nations might take issue with anti-Islamic editorial cartooning in the West. I mean, they must be crazy to fear genocide and prejudice against their faith. Right?
Now the story is "Newsweek printed an article about how American guards...were urinating on the Qur'an"?
At the time it was "American guards threw the Qur'an in the toilet".
And I seem to recall there was some shadiness around how those riots started...
Bottom line: people are not rioting solely because they have taken offense to an affront to their religion. Everybody has to be viewed with American military action in the region kept in mind. When the right to sovereignty is trampled upon, that is the cause of mob violence. Whatever article or cartoon happens to be in the media at the time is only the trigger.
Professor Cole,
I must agree with what Phoenix Woman has said. I have no doubt that many Muslims are sincerely insulted by the cartoons. I myself found them to be needlessly provocative at best and racist at worst. However, the reaction to the cartoons has clearly not been spontaneous.
Whether it's the Saudis or the Egyptians or the Syrians, there is no question that many Muslim governments have an interest in fanning the controversy. Moreover, we also should not ignore the role of Salafist extremists ideologically opposed to 'Europeanisation' of their own communities and looking to drive a wedge between the Muslim world and everybody else.
Unfortunately, the biggest winners of the whole mess has been the Islamophobes. They must be delighted by the images of radical Muslims burning flags and setting fire to embassies.
At 3:48 PM, Phoenix Woman said... The thing is, how come it took four months before people started burning down embassies?
Timing is completely explained in Juan Cole's comment, there is not much to add.
Juan, you haven't contradicted the rumors about the Saudis.
Here it, goes generic methodologfical fallacy. What happens is that there is absolutely no need to prove that rumors about ghost appearances are not true, that in the moment T there were no ghosts in point X!
All one needs to do is to point out that certain ghost observation does not fit general requirements of experiment planning.
From this prospective, Juan Cole's analysis is perfectly OK.
Yes it is a shame...
But, in a dictatorship like syria, These very same ppl will take to the streets to attack opposition figures... it's not about Denmark, and I doubt it's about Islam!!
Danish embassy CAN and WILL be rebuilt again, but the damage to the Syrian image outside and to Syrians, that'll take years to heal... that's the worst part of this.. for me as a Syrian.
Again, it is a shame...
if u're intersted u can check my blog for responses from the Syrian Blogsphere to such events... I find it my duty to help erase the trauma of this...
good day
In general, the review is correctly describing the history of this sad case. However one important piece of information is missing:
Two months after the publication of the drawings a delegation of “danish” imams travelled around in the Middle East seeking support. On this trip they brought both the original drawings and some rather unpleasant fakes. They claimed that the paper was government-owned and expressing the views of the government. They also claimed that the Quaran had been burned in the streets of Copenhagen. This misinformation has since been spread widely to the muslim countries.
I’m not in doubt this travel have helped to stir up the mess - until then the debate was all in all relatively subdued (apart from the expectable threats from some radical muslim groups).
BTW I resent the description of the internal policy of Denmark as being of anti-Islamic sentiment. And it doesn’t explain the public and governmental non-condemnation of the editorials.
The danes have a long history of a very independent press (much more that for instant the US) – trying to change this would probably be political suicide. And the initial reaction of the PM should be seen in the light that the publication was followed by some rather unusual rude claims from 13 embassadors of muslim countries to punish the newspaper.
In contrast with what one might assume from reading most of the press coverage on this issue, it's simply not true that most "Western" countries set no limits on satirical treatment of religious doctrines and sacred figures. In many places in Europe (UK, Eire, Netherlands, Italy, Greece...) blasphemy - in one form or another - is still on the books as a crime.
(see: http://www.caslon.com.au/blasphemyprofile5.htm )
Another aspect that is under-reported - as it goes against the prevailing "clash of civilizations" mode - is that on 3rd February, Iran officially asked the POPE to intervene.
"Iran's Ambassador to Vatican Mohammad-Javad Faridzadeh has called on Pope Benedict XVI to comment on the blasphemous moves in sections of the western press targeting Islam.
Certain sections of the European press, including those from Denmark and France, have in the past days printed cartoons deemed offensive of Islamic sanctities.
In a letter, faxed to IRNA Rome bureau, Faridzadeh recalled the statement of the pope on his election as the world's Catholic church leader that Muslims do not feel threatened by spiritual Christian bodies.
He called on the pope to stress the spiritual aspects of western culture and make it clear to all that the real danger threatening today's world is not only weapons of mass destruction but rapid expansion of nihilism"
(IRNA)
And - by coincidence or otherwise - on the following day, the Vatican came out with the following official statement:
"1. The right to freedom of thought and expression, asserted in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, cannot imply the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers. This principle is obviously valid with reference to every religion.
2. Human coexistence requires a climate of mutual respect, to foster peace amongst men and Nations. Moreover, some forms of exaggerated criticism or derision of others indicate a lack of human sensitivity and can in some cases constitute an unacceptable provocation. History teaches us that it is not by such means that the wounds existing in the lives of peoples can be healed.
3. It must be said at once, however, that responsibility for offensive behaviour committed by an individual or a press organ cannot be charged to the public institutions of the country concerned, whose Authorities can and must, if necessary, intervene in accordance with the principles of their national legislation. Violent acts of protest are, accordingly, equally deplorable. Reacting to an insult cannot mean acting contrarily to the spirit of every true religion. And material or verbal intolerance, wherever it may come from, as action or as reaction, always constitutes a serious threat to peace."
Just for once, I find I agree 100% with the Vatican!
It took four months because most Muslims around the world hadn't heard about this before then. It was just a few weeks ago that this became well-known in the Middle East, and text messages started flying, calling for a boycott of Danish products. This boycott had already become successful, and there were peaceful demonstrations, before there was any violence reported.
It did not take 4 months. The Danish imam was circulating these cartoons for months and nobody was getting upset. Finally a few weeks ago the Imam inserted some bogus cartoons that were really bad, really insulting not just mildy offensive. That is what sparked the sudden violence. See:
http://plancksconstant.blogspot.com/2006/02/anti-jewish-cartoons-and-faked.html
It appears that the Danish PM was certainly undiplomatic and insensitive in his handling of the original protest by Muslims (perhaps, it could be argued, this is because of racism, which is what the Islamic press and others are claiming at this point).
Of course, the PM was entirely correct in directing his petitioners, from the very beginning of the controversy, to avail themselves of the courts.
The "Danish" Muslims, on the other hand, were wrong in not availing themselves of the courts and instead of this they took the cartoons on a "road show" to Middle Eastern governments. It appears they also inserted some bogus cartoons for greater effect.
These Middle Eastern states then compounded the problem. They foolishly decided to take the matter up with the Danes through international diplomatic channels thus ensuring escalation and the present state of affairs.
Odd thing that an egyptian newspaper actually published half the drawings already on the 17th of October - The reactions in the public at the time? - A big yawn...
All contributions show an angle, all valid.
I rather come back to the begining: was there a point in the cartoons?
We are more often respectfull and understanding to Muslims (or other minorities) than not, even if not agreeing with daily practices that are shocking, whenever they confront the most elementar human rights. For far too long we have been faced with outbreaks of stupidity from radical muslims, on the media, and we are becoming too complacent with these, as if they made any sense. Things like life threats to whoever dears to express a contradictory opinion (remember Salmon Rushdy?), like being referred to as «infidels» as a common place, etc.
In Western countries, all sorts of abuses to minorities are punnished. The judicial systems generally work. Skinheads and other extremist groops are not accepted. Not being idilic, there is a significant gap between the two approaches. Simplistic? Certainly.
There was a point to be made: cartoons, even if offensive, are far less damaging than the lack of free speech in most of Muslim-majority countries.
In fact, I believe that the most interesting and positive outcome will be the internal discussion within the Muslim community. It does force the issue of free speech on them. It throws the issue on their faces!
Do they question the most basic traditions of Islam? Throwing small stones at a large stone - regardless of the simbolism - that result regularly in casualties? Printing a caricature of the Profet is blasphemous? Why? Who said that? Can people laugh at themselves in Islam? I tend to think that a good man (such as Maome) would tend to smile at the cartoons as they show some irony worth thinking about...
Entering a Christian temple is a sin for a Muslim? Get real! Is that not offensive to a Christian?!
Should we contemporize with iliteracy and ignorance? Or should we push them to think? Paternalistic? Couldn't care less!
Being called an «infidel» with the negative sense it carries, it is far more than only paternalistic...
It is by time they get on their feet on the ground and start using the brains Alá gave them!
As Tobber said, the cartoons were published in Egypt in October, and the people or government didn't give it a second thought. It's big news now because it's a convenient escape from all the other problems confronting the Muslim world (in Egypt, there's the ferry disaster that the government should be held accountable for).
The commissioning of the cartoons was not a competition. It was an open call to about 40 artists, and all 12 who submitted work were published (with no winners declared).
What upsets me is that the Danish imams included more inflammatory cartoons of dubious origin (like the pig face facsimile that came from an AP photo of a pig-squealing competition) and included them in the dossier to make things look really bad for Denmark.
The worst thing is that the radical muslims painted really bad caricatures of themselves (as flag-burning and embassy-burning fanatics), and did more damage to the tenets of the faith and to Mohammed than all the "silly paintings" combined.
Personally, I think that Mohammed's status cannot be diminished by any cartoon and his honored place in history as well as in contemporary society is already assured.
What I'd like to see now is how good Muslims of the world are able to handle the situation. If it's the radicals who will speak for them, then the next round of artists who are asked to depict their version of Muslims (never mind Mohammed) would be hard-pressed to draw anything flattering. And the xenophobes all around will claim victory. Too bad for the rest of us.
(More thoughts on this in my blog.)
Well... as a Dane I can only say that in this country we have a long tradition for satiric drawings. And these include all kinds of things: our Queen, the Prime Minister, God, Jesus, Jews and so on. Nothing is sacred in this respect, and not Mohammad og Allah either.
The drawings are not even that harmfull. The "worst" one of them shows a man with a bomb in his headcloth - a reminder that not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims.
Also no one in the world understands the reason for printing the drawings. It was caused by some cartoonists refusal to draw some Muslim scenes to be used in a book about Mohammad for fear of the consequences. This caused the paper to "investigate" how widespread this act of "self censorship" was. 40 cartoonists were invited to make a drawing of Mohammad, only 12 accepted.
For many years the Muslimes in Denmark have repeatedly demanded special treatment thus causing a lot of nuisance in many sectors of the society. At the same time we have a crimerate of approx. 20% for the Muslim population as compared to approx. 4.5% for the whole population as a whole. About 50% of the Muslims are jobless - most of them don't even seem to seek jobs, but are satisfied with the welfare check. And daily Danish women have to accept being called names like "whores" by Muslims.
Of couse such behaviour causes some distress among the Danes - how would the Americans act should a part of the population show that kind of behaviour?
All in all there's a feeling in Denmark that the Muslims have greatly harmed themselves by raising hell in this matter. In any case no apology will be offered - and today our highest ranking prosecutor ruled that there is no cause to take legal action against the cartoonists or the paper. The freedom of speech stands above religious feelings.
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