QUESTION: To what extent has Islamic extremism already limited freedom of expression in the Western World?
In case that, despite the tremendous bruhaha over the Danish cartoon issue since fall 2005, you still missed the crux of the matter, here follows a short overview. Last summer, a Danish writer complained that he could find no one to illustrate his book on Muhammad (MHBC). The Danish daily Jyllands-Posten thereupon held a contest for twelve illustrators to draw the prophet. Now, as you probably know, depictions of Muhammad are forbidden in Islam. JP’s editor, Carsten Juste, explained this contest as an attempt to determine to what extent Islamic extremism has already limited freedom of expression in Denmark (and for that matter, Europe). On September 30, the twelve cartoons were published. You can see them here if you scroll down. The story has gotten such an awful lot of coverage that I will simply limit myself to the reactions, where possible with links, from the Muslim World and their western apologists. So here goes:1° A 17-year old "youth" of "non-Danish origin" was arrested in Arhus for death threats by telephone against the cartoonists immediately upon publication.
2° On the insistence of the Danish Intelligence Service PET (Politiets Efterretningstjeneste) two of the twelve cartoonists had to go undercover. Jyllands-Posten itself came under constant surveillance from security agents after bomb threats.
3° On October 14 in Copenhagen a demonstration was held by 3,500 Muslims to protest the publication.
4° Muslim organizations in Denmark demanded apologies from Jyllands-Posten.
5° A Danish imam, Raed Hlayhel, upon being explained that freedom of expression is one of the basic tenets in a democracy, stated: "This type of democracy is worthless for Muslims. Muslims will never accept this kind of humiliation. The article has insulted every Muslim in the world."
6° Eleven ambassadors from Muslim countries, a.o. Iran, Indonesia, Bosnia, Egypt, Pakistan and several arab countries, wrote Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen a formal complaint brandishing the cartoons’ publication a "provocation" and demanding apologies from the newspaper.
7°
On the website of the "Glorious Brigades in Northern Europe", an extremist Islamic organization, a demo showed bombs exploding over pictures of Jyllands-Posten and blood flowing over the Denmark’s flag. "The Mujahedeen have numerous targets in Denmark – very soon you all will regret this." the website said.8° Sixteen Muslim organizations asked judicial experts whether the publication of the drawings could be classified under Danish law as blasphemy.
9° The eleven ambassadors took the matter to international Muslim organizations such as the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
10° The Turkish ambassador asked Rasmussen to call Jyllands-Posten to account for "abusing Islam in the name of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression."
11° At te beginning of December, the Danish Foreign Ministry warned its citizens not to travel to Pakistan.
12° The Pakistani religious party Jamaat-e-Islami and its youth branch offered a bounty of 50,000 Danish crowns (6,725 euros) for anyone who would murder the Danish illustators who drew the Mohammed cartoons, plus demanded that all Danish diplomats be expelled from Pakistan. The Danish embassy in Islamabad received hundreds of angry protest letters.
13° In a scandalous gesture of dhimmitude Louise Arbour, UN Commissioner for Human Rights, sent a memo to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) saying: "I understand your concerns and would like to emphasize that I regret any statement or act that could express a lack of respect for the religion of others."
14°
On December 8, 2005, shops and and companies in most parts of the Kashmir Valley were closed to protest JP’s publication of the caricatures, three months earlier. This strike was called upon by the separatist Hurriyat Conference Group led by Syed Ali Geelani, but the Kashmir Bar Association and other groups also supported the shutdown.15° "Most Muslims feel deeply affronted", said Abdur Rasheed, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Kashmir Observer. The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) said in a statement that the Danish editors "by resorting to such acts have given enough evidence that they are against Islam."
16° In mid-December, the UN’s Muslim members gathered this week in Mecca for a meeting of the 56 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and unanimously condemned the publication of the cartoons.
17° Instead of standing by the courageous Danish government's decision that the complainers should take their case to the court, the Council of Europe (CoE), an organisation of 46 European countries, criticised the Danish government for invoking the "freedom of the press" in its refusal to take action against "insulting" cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The CoE Committee of Ministers discussed the case during a meeting in Strassburg last week. In a statement the Committee said that "a seam of intolerance" is noted in certain Danish media – a reference to the Danish cartoon case.
18° Egypt cut off its talks on human rights with Denmark while the Egyptian Grand-Imam Muhammad Said Tantawy condemned the Danish government. Tantawy is the religious leader of Egypt, appointed by the Egyptian president, and chancellor of the prestigious al-Azhar University, one of the Sunni Muslims’ most important centers of learning. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised his Danish colleague during bilateral talks last month.
19° Following in the footsteps of the UN's Louise Arbour and the CoE, Franco Frattini, the Vice-President of the European Commission, called the publication of the twelve cartoons "thoughtless and inappropriate" in a time when animosity towards Islam is on the rise. According to Frattini, the EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom, and Security, the cartoons foment hostility against Islam and foreigners: "Honestly, these kinds of drawings can add to the growing Islamophobia in Europe. I fully respect the freedom of speech, but, excuse me, one should avoid making any statement like this, which only arouses and incites to the growing radicalisation."
According to Robert Spencer the EU reaction shows that the EU recommends dhimmitude: "Instead of praising Rasmussen for his defense of Western values of free speech, the EU is demanding that he stand down and adopt their policy of appeasement."
20° An influential Islamic organisation, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), has called upon its 51 member states to boycott Denmark unless the Danish government "presents an official apology for the drawings that have offended the world’s Muslims."
The ISESCO's Director General stated a.o.: "On the basis of the said objectives, I request you, dear PM, to protest in the manner you deem appropriate against this newspaper as well as against every other information means in your country that damages the image of Islam and Muslims, following in that the policy of tolerance that rejects the contempt of religions and the profanation of religious sanctities in which believe a billion and a third people on this earth."
21° On December 29, Foreign ministers from the 22 Arabic League nations criticised the Danish government on Thursday for its actions following daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten's decision to publish twelve drawings of the prophet Mohammed. The foreign ministers also decided that the league's secretary-general, Amr Moussa, and secretary-general for the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, would take up the issue with the Danish government.
22°
Towards the end of December some imams, Muslim intellectuals and representatives of Muslim organizations in Denmark visited a number of Muslim countries to "explain" the matter to local political and religious leaders and media. Their "explanations" were biased and inaccurate. The Danish-Egyptian Dialog Center in Cairo says that after meeting with the Muslim representatives from Denmark the Egyptian press claimed that Danish newspapers were waging a campaign against Islam, that Copenhagen planned to introduce a state censored version of the Koran, that a Danish film was underway "to show how horrible Islam is", and that the matter involved 120 cartoons – not 12. Muslims know a thing or two about lying and cheating.23° Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen subsequently was shocked at the way in which some Muslims misrepresented Denmark in the Islamic world. "I am speechless that those people, whom we have given the right to live in Denmark and where they freely have chosen to stay, are now touring Arab countries and inciting antipathy towards Denmark and the Danish people." Rasmussen told journalists.
24° After the rejection of their complaint by the public prosecutor, Danish Muslim organisations announced that they would take Jyllands-Posten to the European Court of Human Rights over the controversial publication.
25° On January 10, 2006 the 12 cartoons were published in the Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet "in support of the freedom of expression." "We are ourselves a nation that has been exposed to increasing Muslim violence against freedom of expression" said Vebjørn K. Selbekk, the editor of Magazinet, and referred to the 1993 murder attempt on Willam Nygaard, the Norwegian publisher of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. Consequently, Selbekk said, Norway has a special responsibility to confront this problem, adding that Norwegian illustrators were tending towards the same self-censorship as their colleagues in Denmark, not daring to depict Muhammad for fear of a violent Muslim reaction.
Magazinet immediately started receiving threats via e-mail from around the world. Among them, sent anonymously through a popular e-mail service in the Middle East, was mailed to Selbekk, simply stating: “You’re a dead man!” Other Magazinet staff members also received threats. According to Selbekk, it looked as if the newspaper’s e-mail addresses were being distributed in an organized manner. One of the e-mails contained a couple of pictures showing a burnt body, sent through an e-mail address in France.
26° By the end of the year, the Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet got hold of a 43-page report that Danish Muslim leaders and imams, on a tour of the Islamic world, handled out to their contacts to "explain" how offensive the cartoons are. The report contained 15 pictures instead of 12. The first of the three additional pictures, which are of dismal quality, showed Muhammad as a pedophile demon, the second showed him with a pigsnout and the third depicted a praying Muslim being raped by a dog. Apparently, the 12 original pictures were not deemed bad enough to convince other Muslims that Muslims in Denmark are the victims of a campaign of religious hatred.
Akhmad Akkari, spokesman of the 21 Danish Muslim organizations which organized the tour, explained that the three drawings had been added (!) to "give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims." Akkari claimed he did not know the origin of the three pictures, and said that they had been sent anonymously to Danish Muslims. However, when Ekstra Bladet asked if it could talk to these Muslims, Akkari refused to reveal their identity.
27° The Islamic World Association condemned the Norwegian papers that published the cartoons, and asked the Norwegian government to intervene.
28°
An international organization of Muslim intellectuals has threatened to mobilize "millions of Muslims all over the World" to boycott Danish and Norwegian products unless the Danish and Norwegian government condemn the publication of the cartoons, which is called an "attack on the Muslims of the World and on the Prophet." In the meantime, in Saudi Arabia people receive e-mails and sms messages urging them to boycott Danish products "until Denmark offers an official apology." The Organization of the Islamic Conference protested last week’s publication of the cartoons in the Norwegian paper Magazinet. The Iranian Embassy in Oslo said "that freedom of expression cannot justify publishing the cartoons." 29° It is typical for leftwingers to side with dictators and oppressors, so it came as no surprise that Norway's extreme left-wing government apologized to Muslims worldwide for the publication of twelve Muhammad cartoons in the Norwegian newspaper Magazinet. Oslo sent out instructions to all Norwegian embassies on how to respond to queries about the cartoons. Unlike the Danish government, the Norwegian government is apparently not concerned about safeguarding the right to freedom of expression.
30° Saudi Arabia called its ambassador to Copenhagen home for "consultation in light of the Danish government's lack of attention to insulting the Prophet Muhammad by its newspapers." In Saudi Arabia there are now calls to boycott Danish products in Friday prayers and on Saudi television and in newspapers, and some Danish companies are already losing customers. A number of stores are labeling Danish products with yellow markers to indicate they come from Denmark.
31° KUWAIT CITY - (AP) -- Kuwait's state-supported supermarkets on Saturday announced a boycott of Danish products, and the Foreign Ministry called in a regional Danish ambassador to protest caricatures in a Danish newspaper that have been deemed insulting to Islam's prophet.
32° In Bahrein MPs are calling for a boycott on Danish and Norwegian products over offensive caricatures depicting Prophet Mohammed, published in their countries. The Al Asala and Al Menbar Islamic Blocs have urged supporters to gather after Friday prayers for demonstrations all over the country, in condemnation of the caricatures. Representatives from all parliamentary blocs also signed an urgent request for an extraordinary session to discuss the issue, after meeting at the National Assembly Complex in Gudaibiya. Al Wefaq National Islamic Society, Bahrain's biggest political group, has issued a strong statement demanding that the Danish government apologise.
33° In Baghdad, Iraq, between 500 and 1,000 protestors took to the streets to demonstrate against the Danish cartoons. Never mind dat Danish peacekeepers are doing their part in securing a part of Iraq's south.
34° TRIPOLI - Libya said on Sunday it had decided to shut down its embassy in Denmark to protest against the Danish government’s silence about newspaper cartoons offensive to Islam. The Libyan Foreign Ministry added in a statement carried by the state news agency Jana that Tripoli will also take unspecified "economic measures" against Denmark.
35°
The UAE yesterday condemned the publication in a newspaper in Denmark of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), which have sparked a wave of denunciations and boycott of Danish products across the Muslim world. The publication of the offensive cartoons could spark "a dreadful clash of civilisations," said the UAE Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Awqaf, Mohammad Nakhira Al Daheri.ANSWER: Very simple.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES. STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES.
MFBB
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