Take Note Cardiff: We Are All Danes Now

Today almost all the European newspapers are reporting on the Danish cartoon case. What most papers do not mention is that the whole affair escalated after a group of radical Danish Muslims and imams visited the Arab countries early in January with the deliberate intent to provoke a consumer boycott of Denmark. These people wanted to punish the Danish government for its refusal to introduce press censorship. They even added three false cartoons, possibly of their own making, to the twelve drawings of Muhammad that the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published last September. (See the original cartoons here, halfway down the page.)

The result of their actions has not only been the current Muslim boycott of Danish products, which some sources say may lead to 11,000 Danes losing their jobs, but also death threats to Scandinavians in general. As Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in mid-January about the Danish radicals touring the Arab 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.” It was not just antipathy they were inciting, it was downright hatred. If ever there was a hate crime, this is it.

No-one will blame Denmark if it throws these fanatics out of their country. However, it is unlikely that this will happen because the Danes are way too good. If they were truly racists, as the radicals claim, the Danish authorities would  make sure that the people who lose their jobs in Denmark because of the boycott are all Muslim immigrants. This will not happen because the Danes are a civilised people, who do not punish entire groups for the possible offense some of their members may have caused. Sadly, a similar civilized attitude is apparently not to be expected from the hordes burning Danish flags in the Middle East and from those threathening to kill people for the mere fact that they are Danes. What kind of “religion” is it anyway that encourages people to behave in such way?

Let it be known to the fanatics that today all Westerners are Danes. All across the Western world papers have begun to show the Danish cartoons [but not, apparently, the BBC]. Weblogs proudly carry the Danish flag. Petitions are presented in support of Jyllands-Posten. “Buy Danish” campaigns have been launched. Will the twelve cartoons mark the beginning of the clash of civilizations? Will this be the turning point where Westerners tell immigrants that “guests” are expected to accept the rules of the house where they have come to live?

Many in the West clearly do not accept the Muslim verdict that even Westerners are subjected to the rule that one may not depict Muhammad. The French newspaper France-Soir, which republished the cartoons today, wrote on its front page: “Oui, on a le droit de caricaturer Dieu” (Yes, we have the right to caricature God). Though religious people may object, so long as they are not forced to contribute (e.g. through their taxes) to the making or publishing of such images (as was the case recently in Belgium), or to watch, they cannot persecute others for mocking whatever they like, as some do, for instance, by placing a crucifix in a glass of urine. Has Jyllands-Posten forced any Danish Muslim to buy its paper?

Fortunately, there are Muslims who are beginning to oppose the intolerance of the radicals. Mona Eltahawy is one of them, the Danish Muslims who courageously oppose their own radical imams are, too, as well as some Muslims who mailed us during the past few days. Many of these live in Arab countries. Yesterday one of them wrote:

I am a muslim from Lebanon. I've been following the news of the offensive release of the photos of our Prophet Mohammad by your newspaper... but what I am most concerned at is the aftermath: burning Danish flags, boycotting Danish products, asking Danes to leave, and putting the blame on them and  demanding an apology. I would like to send this message to you and the Danish people: I am a muslim, and I tell you that I totally DISAGREE with how the Muslims are reacting to this!!

Yes, I DISAGREE. The muslims are offended, true...but is this the right way to react? Not at all. As a muslim, yes, I am deeply offended by those pictures. they have insulted my religion and I totally disagree with their context. However, I would not react by burning flags or demanding an apology.

I would react by publishing pictures, articles and other material that would show how Islam is a religion of peace, harmony and forgiveness. A religion of science and human value. Just like there were cartoons representing my Prophet as a terrorist, I would make similar cartoons representing him in his real image, sending those cartoons to Denmark :)

I would react, by understanding the real root causes of WHY Prophet Muhammad is viewed in that way by some people in those societies, and I try to see if I can do something to treat those causes. Last but not least, and most importantly. I would react by standing FIRM AND STRONG against the MUSLIMS that are exploiting my OWN religion for political interests: Ousama Bin Laden, his ideology, his actions and their supporters. […]

But what to think of this e-mail which The Brussels Journal received today from the following IP address 212.219.231.1 belonging to the “Cardiff County Council”?

WARNING: YOU HAVE 20 DAYS FROM TODAY TO DELETE ARTICLE
JIHAD AGAINST DANISH NEWSPAPER
link: node/382
I WILL HACK YOUR WEBSITE IF YOU DONT!

BYE WISH YOU DIE!!!!!!

Not all is rotten in the state of Britain, however. Today, the House of Commons defeated a bill proposed by Tony Blair’s government to prohibit the right to ridicule religion. As a spokesman for the Barnabas Fund said: “We praise God and rejoice in this surprise result.” Tony Blair is definitely no Anders Fogh Rasmussen – which The Brussels Journal says is yet another reason why Mr Rasmussen should be given a freedom award.

Cartoon---mohammed.gif

More on the Cartoon Case (see links at end of article)

armyscout: ?

Constructive and mature discussion without profanity will be really appreciated. Thanks.

Cardiff Council is investigating

A message that I have received.

Thank you for notifying us of the issue regarding the Brussels Journal. Cardiff Council is investigating the incident. The Council does not associate itself in any way with the statement made. Initial results from the investigation indicate that the source address used belongs to a public terminal. Please be aware, as the largest local authority in Wales, the Council provides wide and free access to Public Internet terminals in libraries and other venues, although these will appear in the name of Cardiff Council.

Sincerely

Crispin O'Connell
Chief ICT Officer

I don't get it!

Hello.
You say, "Fortunately, there are Muslims who are beginning to oppose the intolerance of the radicals."

See this is what I don't get. Were those cartoons tolerant? No, clearly they were INTOLERANT and the people publishing very much knew that they would cause great offense.

Why can't you look at the reaction by many Muslims as just freedom of speech as well? What is wrong with chosing to boycott? That's a form of expression in itself, espeically if you are doing it over social issues and poltiics. What's wrong with burning flags? That's free speach as well.

cya

Can you get it now.

I am a christian and have seen much much much more caricatures about Jesus and other Christian figures. To me, they are just normal and never enrage me. Why are the Muslims enraged by those cartoons, most of which are just purely for fun?

The difference between the pulishing of cartoons and the Muslim reaction is: The Muslim countries and peoples demand apology and future sensorship, which are irrational. They require the Christendom and other non-Islam culture to follow THEIR Islamic rules. The Muslims can demonstrate, boycott personally, burn and trample danish flags, but they can not force us to be obliged to their WAY OF LIVING in their own land and culture.

Besides, the displaying of those cartoons are freedom of expression and cause no direct harm to the ones that despise them. Why don't the Muslim retaliate by mocking our historical, religious and political figures? We are very tolerant to accept this. But intentional national boycott will violate international trade rule, and the eviction and attacks of Danes and Scandinavians, and their properties, are a serious violation of other's personal freedom and security. Such reaction are NO LONGER freedom of expression.

Now can you see the difference?

This is all really odd

Came here from welt.die after 'having read about this for the first time today. As an ethnic Indian who's lived in parts of Western Europe and US for many years now, I must say I'm not that surprised by all this. Firstly, to all those people who think that 'the cartoons werent offensive' - I'm a former Christian, now an atheist and I felt vaguely offended myself. Never even in any mainstream Indian newspaper would anything of this sort have been published, about any religion or ethnicity- not because it was illegal, obviously, or even because it would lead to the paper getting burned on the streets (that happens in India anyway on the slightest pretext, and its very good for circulation), but because the editors would have recognised that at least three of them are just nasty for the sake of being nasty.
That being said, of course the government should have restated that there is nothing illegal about what was done; and it is to the Danish government's credit that they did so. What is to its discredit, and what has been remarked upon by whomever I have shown this to, is that the Danish PM didnt come out and say 'these are in bad taste'. He probably didnt think so, did he? And neither do most of you. That's kind of disgusting, and also symptomatic of the rampant cultural insecurity of parts of Western Europe.
I look forward to seeing if this happens in the US. I doubt even the Washington Times or the WSJ, the most rightwing papers I can think of, would run them. I am not surprised that it didnt happen in the UK, even though the Independent is a close ally of France-Soir and Die Welt; not just because of the thankfully dead religious defamation bill, but because the British and Americans - and here I speak from experience - are just more welcoming and tolerant and *polite* than Western Europe.
To the person who said, 'why dont you insult some of our cultural icons' I say: well, thats the problem, isnt it? ITs no surprise this comes from places scared of losing cultural independence and what remains of their dismantled cultural heritage. Which is again why a mainstream US paper wouldnt feel the need to stoop that low. So, I'd insult some Danish cultural icons, if I could think of any.
What the hell..
Hans Christian Andersen dyed his hair.
'Italian for Beginners' was REALLY bad.

See my point?

So Here we stand

So here it is. The ragheads throwing their toys, the wasps acting indignant, the Itis looking for someone to beat up, the krauts keeping quiet (getting their marching boots on mind you) and the jewboys saying : I told you so.

Fact of the matter is that all these threats from the Arab world I find a tadd annoying, the same way you have to wipe a baby's ass. I am a westerner, I love western culture, ideaology and way of being. I took 8000 years of blood, prosecution, wars, art amanzing culture to get here but this is as good as it gets for the time being. Spiritualty has become a component in the make-up of the western person, not the dominating driver. We have come to realise that the human being is a complex beautiful creature full of multiple facets of which none need to dominate the other, the components of human psyche are checks and measures against each other. We can laugh at ourselves because we are silly.

Now, I have to admit that I have only one muslim mate, a cool dude with a razor sharp witt. But apart from that I pretty much in the dark regarding the religion besides the fact that women in general get treated shit and they cannot eat pork and that some beardy fuckers plant bombs and kill innocent people (sheep in effect) because firstly their religious credo demands it and secondly because they are so busy fighting that they actually forget that they live in middle eastern countries made up of people that live in abject poverty, but spreading their message actually takes credence over being nice and helping their own folk to get a leg up in life.

So to all the Muslim blokes and chicks living in the western world, welcome to MY world you are more than welcome to enjoy the fruits of my people, the ideology of ages and the success of taking responsibility and not shifting it onto God. IF you disagree with this way of being REMEMBER you are free in our world you CAN disagree and if thats not enough you can LEAVE. YOU have the power here, not God, not the governments, not the whimpering politicians but YOU. There are quite a few Muslim countries where you can live out your life and ideals without feeling persecuted. But LEAVE westerners be. Just because there has been humility for the last 10 to 15 years to try and keep the average Joe Mullah happy does not mean westerners will indefinitly take the abuse, the threats and the boycots...

I do not support war but I really am starting to get the feeling that this is all that certain Muslims want..... remember we are not keeping you here, you can leave.

Islam/Western world

Listen, Mate, we didn't start fucking with you, until you started fucking with us first.

Look at your western history. While most europeans were fucking sheep, the Islamic world was at its best. Our street light lit Andalusia, our way of navigation allowed you worthless pieces of shit to traverse the globe, your nobles sent their kids to Islamic countries to be educated.

Now, unfortunately, things have flipped/flopped and we're down troddened. I have read alot of bullshit that was written by so called experts, who 1)has never read the koran 2) don't know anything about the various cultures in the Muslim world and 3) have never been to a muslim country.

Thing would be better if the west just left us the fuck alone. I, for one, hope that the west does develop alternative fuel sources, so you guys can leave us in peace or pieces.

As Salaamu Aliechem

France Soir sacks chief editor Jacques Lefranc :-(

Another strike against free speech. France Soir surrenders to muslim pressure.

Translated parts from Jyllands-Posten (http://www.jp.dk/udland/artikel:aid=3532634/)

The owner of France Soir Raymond Lakah declares that he has removed Jacques Lefranc as the chief editor. He states "We express our apology to the muslim community and to all the person that were chocked by the publication of the cartoons."

Eat your own cheese

Your governments will apologize. you now why? because you worship nothing but money.
Money is the only holy thing for you.
Can you see the deference between you and me?
I believe in god and you believe in money.
Tschus

have you ever tried living

have you ever tried living in the Middle East ? I can tell you for a fact that in some countries, Islam is not the biggest religion. The biggest religion is money & greed. Islam is merely a mean to keep the poor masses under control

well the owner of france

well the owner of france soir is muslim and antidemocratic he is against free expresion

If this is really about

If this is really about freedom of speech, why doesn't Brussels Journal campaign for the release of David Irving and Ernst Zundel, both jailed in Austria and Germany for expressing dissident views about the Holocaust?

Would you be so supportive if this Danish newspaper published cartoons mocking the "holy" figures of the Holocaust like Anne Frank, et al?

We are all Danes

We are all Danes now!

Denmark has made my week so happy and now the rest of Europe joins with them on the basic human right of freedom of speech and expression.

Thank you Paul and the BrusselsJournal for your constant updates and reporting on this extremely important issue. Western civilization, with all its warts and pockmarks is worth saving and should not bow down in dhimmitude to an inferior way of life.

And yes, I hope this is the line in the sand drawn for all our guests.

We are all Danes

What the hell does Heloise mean by an inferior way of life?

He or she needs to consider the gifts that the Islamic world has given the human experience.

Chess (Haron Al-Rashid give a board to Charlemange) Al-Jebra, streetlights, tooth-brush, the mall and many other contributions that are too many to list.

It should be noted that alot of what is going on in the middle east today was created by meddlesome europeans during the aftermath of world war I. Despotic, corrupt, backward thinking regimes have been encourage and supported, by the west, to encourage the theft of fossil fuels.

Got it wrong

Der Spigel got it wrong in more ways than one.

"One group of Danish Muslims, led by a young imam named Ahmed Akkari, grew so frustrated by the inability of Muslims to get their message across in Denmark that they compiled a dossier of racist and culturally insensitive images circulating in the country and took them on an road show in the Arab World to raise awareness of the discrimination they faced.'

The only reason imam named Ahmed Akkari went on a road show was to purposely incite the Muslim world.

"There is currently a climate (in Denmark) that is contributing to an increase in racism,"

Muslims are not a race. It is a religion made up of many different races.

"To Muslim leaders in Denmark like Akkari and fellow imam Abu Laban, the images provided evidence of an Islamophobia that they believe permeates Danish society."

There is that word again..."Islamophobia". A phobia is a irrational fear. This is a made up word intended to dismiss unpleasant discussion about the Islamic faith. A person who is irrational cannot have anything of value to say now can he?

When Muslims are blowing up people, beheading people and threatening people around the world I would say it is entirely RATIONAL to be fearful.

A more realistic word(s) would be anti-Muslim.

The whole article is dhimmified.

What is dhimmi?

"Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, "protected people," are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur'an's command that they "feel themselves subdued" (Sura 9:29). This denial of equality of rights and dignity remains part of the Sharia, and, as such, are part of the law that global jihadists are laboring to impose everywhere, ultimately on the entire human race.

The dhimmi attitude of chastened subservience has entered into Western academic study of Islam, and from there into journalism, textbooks, and the popular discourse. One must not point out the depredations of jihad and dhimmitude; to do so would offend the multiculturalist ethos that prevails everywhere today."

From: http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/

Educate yourself.

A short comment from a Dane

A short comment from a Dane to the article in Der Spiegel.
I think the most frustrating thing for Abu Laban and Ahmed Akkari is that they as Imams do not have any authority in the Danish society as such.
Today is has been revealed that Abu Laban when interviewed by Danish TV claims he wants the boycott to end but when interviewed by Arab TV praises the boycott…

Thanks for all your support.

Abu Laban

I just wonder if Abu Laban is a Danish citizent and if not why is he still living in Denmark?

Trampling the flag.

I keep reading references about burning flags but nothing about trampling the danish flag.

I would like to remind everyone that for arabs and muslims, the act of trampling something is insulting that something to the highest degree.

I do not know of a higher insult in their repertoire, unless one considers beheading someone a form of insult!

cartoons

Dear people of Europe,

Its time to get a spine.You do not need to repent for this silly cartoon. Lets not be racist holding Europeans to high standards than Arabs. Holding them to low level dog and monkey standards of behavior. Black Christians are enslaved and raped by arab Muslims in the Sudan. In the arab media especially in Saudi Arabia it is forbiden to convert to Christianity and anti-Jewish cartoons and stories are the norm. How dare you pompous Europeans think that you can hold yourself to a higher standard then the Arabs. Also the weak Danes cry about building a Mosque for Moslems why don't you weak fellows demand a church in Saudi Arabia. Also why do you except immigants from Moslem counntrie? Moslem countries never except immigrants. Maybe they have more brains atleast they have children which ensures that their culture will carry on in the future. If Europeans do not want to have families you just need to surrender to the superior Moslem culture now and quit worrying about silly cartoons. P.S. You lost your Christian heritage that is the root of your problems
Dan T

responding to Dan T

Dan, you are obviously an asshole, at best or a racists at most.

Western people ring their hands, asking the mundane question: "why do they hate us?"Well, its not because of our freedoms. Its because the West never misses an opportunity to denigrate the Islamic way of life.

You need to get your shit striaght. There are churches and synagogues in many Islamic countries. Why single out Saudi Arabia? In many countries, where Muslims are the majority, muslims, jews and christians live in abstract harmony. As a matter of fact, it is a muslim family that has held the key to the gates of the Holy sepulcher church in Al-Quds

Know thy neighbor

I only heard about this whole "cartoon story" today, thanks to this great web-site.
As an Israeli, living next to Muslim Arabs in this small country of ours, this is probably the most predicted outcome of publishing such caricatures.
If this comes surprising to Europeans, it can only be an evidence for the lack of knowledge and true insight regarding Islamic faith.
For me, there's no difference between Muslims living in Palestine, Denmark, Malaysia, Britain, Yemen or elsewhere, since Islam as a religion is less "religious", i.e. mostly faith-oriented like the modern forms of Judaism and Christianity, but rather a "portable hate baggage" for everything that has to do even remotely with western notions and values such as freedom, democracy, social progress, individuality, equality, etc.
Violent codes and terms are interwoven within Islamic teachings and even the Canonized sacred "Quran". This violence is towards Muslim infidels, women in general, and mainly towards what is called "Dar-El-Harb" - the non-Muslim world.
further more, the main narrative is telling the story of a future universal war against "Dar-El-Harb" that after it a world dominion of Islam rises, and during which all Muslims are obliged to kill every human being who won't willingly convert into Islam.
Naturally, for the Muslim mind this goes way beyond caricatures, this is "Islam in action" - organized hatred and violent acts against the "western infidels", these "pigs" that will eventually find, with Allah's guidance and blessings, their death by Muslim-hands as promised in the holly Quran.
Mind you, the above might not be considered as slander or racist remarks, but simply the most basic observation on traditional Muslim teachings.
Of course, every Muslim is bound by Allah to strongly deny and contradict all of the above (the Quran gives permission and even recommends lying freely to any non-Muslim for all causes).

this is the 3rd world

this is the 3rd world war........already started......islam vs free world

Europe will fall to Islam .......unless....

Unless they stop Immigation of Muslims, and increase immigration of Christians.

Europe must return to her Christian roots........produce more babies..........

Europe must throw out their Muslims who are disloyal to their country of adoption