BBC’s correspondent of religious affairs, Frances Harrison has another politically correct report on the Cartoon controversy. As per usual, the context – free speech/Muslim intolerance – is missing from the piece. It all becomes another report of how Europeans have difficulty accepting the OTHER.

This is how the article starts, with a quote from an Imam:

“We will keep on working for integration, to build bridges. If you don’t know who is Muhammad I am telling you please read about Muhammad,” said the imam.

Imam, I wouldn’t worry about that, in a few years reading about Muhammad will be mandatory in Danish schools.
 

Here are some other pieces from the report worth commenting on:

Danish Muslims have bought land for a purpose-built modern mosque, but they say their application somehow always gets stuck in the planning stage. It is one more grievance.

Stop making every issue a religious intolerance issue. That’s European bureaucracy deal with it.

 

“We were all punished by the printing of those pictures,” says the imam in his sermon.

Imam, there is no murder plot against you. You are safe. You just get some bad PR because you refuse to recognize other people’s freedom of speech and expression, that’s all.

 

“A lot of people are afraid of Islam today in Denmark and when they are afraid of Islam it means they are afraid of me too,” says Sofian, who was born in Denmark but feels he no longer has a future there.
 
“When the same thing happens again it's tiring and we despair,” says Kamran.

Again, you despair because you are unable and unwilling to understand the norms and culture of the country you were born into.

 

“I am hurt, as I was the first time,” says Feisal, who works in marketing and was also born in Denmark. He believes the problem is not Danish society but the media.
 
“The Danish press should have learned from their previous mistakes and the only thing the Muslims are asking for is respect, nothing else”.

Feisal, what are the boundaries of respect? Do they supersede basic human rights? When your parents or you moved to Denmark were you aware that basic human rights are respected in this country? Isn’t you that you have to respect the laws and cultural norms of Denmark first?

 

“Feisal says he cannot understand why the media keeps focusing on the idea that Muslims are trying to take their freedom of speech away from them.”

Because you are trying to take their freedom away from them.

 

“It’s the media who started it this time, so I feel a lot of it is their fault,” agrees Kamran, who also thinks there has been some positive dialogue with ordinary Danish people.”

No the people who started it again, were your co-religionists who put in place another murder plot.

 

“I will never feel one hundred percent accepted here in Danish society,” says Imran Hussein, who has tried hard at integration, getting involved in local politics.
 
He says the cartoons were just part of a bigger picture.
 
“It’s just getting worse and worse because the daily spoken language about immigrants and the portrayals of Muslims specifically are getting worse worldwide, so of course that's had an effect in Denmark as well,” explains Imran.

I have an idea of how to improve the portrayal of Muslims: Stop blowing people up. Respect their fundamental human rights, learn to live peacefully with those you disagree.

 

“Before it was my clothing was not correct, the food I ate wasn’t good enough, the way I expressed myself wasn’t good enough – now my Prophet is not good enough. The next would be I am not good enough,” he says.

Radical Islamist parties have been quick to channel this sense of alienation.

This is the usual BBC reporting. The problem it’s not Muslims’ unwillingness to accept the culture of the country they live in, but it’s the other way around. The whole thing about clothing and food is a smoke screen. We all know that’s not the issue. It’s not halal that makes the Danish uncomfortable. It’s finding yourself with a knife on your chest for disrespecting Islam.

 

Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets of Copenhagen shouting “God is Great!” and “Freedom of Speech is a plague!” Some Danes looked rather surprised.

I don’t need to comment here.

 

Outside the cafe, under the guidance of Hizb ut Tahrir, Danish Muslims were chanting “Khilafat” – supporting the party's demand for the creation of a caliphate to unite Muslims worldwide.

No need for me to comment here either.

 

So far Muslims in Denmark have been talking about discrimination and the need for more respect. But the more they feel nobody is listening to their anger the more susceptible they will be to the message of radical political Islam.

So because the authorities have not abolished freedom of speech/expression the Muslims feel drawn to radical Islam. I wonder, when BBC reporters die, do they get the 70 virgins?