The Brussels Journal has reported on the developments in the Danish cartoon case since it started in October 2005. We are one of the few non-Danish European observers to do so. Last Sunday, instead of linking to a website with the twelve Danish Muhammad cartoons we decided to add them to our article about the case. In a sense we were republishing the cartoons, but as we are only a non-commercial website with some 5,000 visitors a day, have no paper edition and did not make a great fuss about publishing them we only received two “threats.” One e-mail, from a certain “Hayet” said:

Update (7 February 2006): The Cartoon Hoax 

The Danish imams, who protested the publication of 12 Muhammad cartoons [see them all below] in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September, have announced that they want to end the dispute. For four months the imams and their radical Muslim organizations have unsuccesfully demanded government censorship. However, despite immense pressure (also from international organizations such as the UN and the EU) the Danish government refused to call the newspaper to account.

The European Parliament has condemned countries that do not recognize same-sex unions as “homophobic.” It did so last Thursday by approving a (nonbinding) resolution with 468 votes against 149 and 41 abstentions. Catholic groups criticize the EP for meddling in affairs outside the European Union’s competence.

Mario Mauro, one of the 149 MEPs opposing the resolution, said that “an ideological document has been approved that has very little to do with the concrete protection of people’s fundamental rights.” According to Mauro, a Forza Italia politician who is also vice president of the European Parliament, the resolution, which refers to religious freedom as a “source of discrimination,” is “in open contradiction with treaties and even common sense.”

This week the Dutch Parliament voted a bill which obliges immigrants to pass a compulsory exam. The Dutch Parliament is also in favour of a proposal to have troublesome youths disciplined and drilled by the army.

From 1 March onwards people who want to settle in the Netherlands (e.g. to join family members or to marry someone living there) will have to pass a preliminary test at the Dutch embassy in their country of origin. In this so-called “integration test” the immigrants have to prove that they have sufficient knowledge of the Dutch language and the geography, history and political system of the Netherlands. The fee for taking the test is 350 euros. Those who do not pass are not allowed to enter the Netherlands. Those who do pass have only taken the first hurdle. After their arrival in the Netherlands they will have to pass a second – more difficult – exam.

Last Wednesday’s BJ article about an Amsterdam school with two separate entrances – one for indigenous Dutch children, the other for immigrant children – drew a response from Robin Gerrits, the journalist of the Dutch (left-liberal) newspaper De Volkskrant, who first reported the case.

For four months The Brussels Journal has been covering the Danish cartoon affair (see links below), while the mainstream media have all but ignored the story. There is good news, however. The firm stand by the Danish government against Muslim extremists seems to be paying off.

Despite pressure by various Muslim countries (including Turkey, Bosnia, Egypt, etc.), by international organisations (including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the European Union) and by some of Denmark’s own ‘sophisticated’ diplomats, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has courageously refused to limit freedom of expression in connection with the publication of cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. Though most of the cartoons were far from offensive, Islam forbids depicting the Muslim prophet. So far no other European (or for that matter Western) government has spoken out in support of Rasmussen, but this, too, appears to be changing.

C. Boyden Gray

Brussels is home to no fewer than three US ambassadors: one to the Kingdom of Belgium, one to NATO and one to the European Union. Yesterday President Bush appointed C. Boyden Gray as American ambassador to the EU. The President invoked his power to make “recess appointments” when the Senate is out of town. He had nominated Mr Gray to the EU post in July 2005 but Democrat senators have been delaying the vote of confirmation for months. The senators are angry with Mr Gray for accusing some Democrats of being anti-Catholic because they opposed the nomination of a Catholic pro-life judge.

Yesterday I reported about the opposition of the presidents of the Austrian, Finnish and German parliaments to the the so-called Duff/Voggenhuber report – aimed at resuscitating the EU constitution. Andrew Duff, one of the authors of the European Parliament’s report, said yesterday: “I must say that I find it fairly curious in this context that the Presidents of the Austrian, Finnish and German Parliaments seem somewhat reluctant to cooperate with us. It is up to the parliaments to decide whether or not they turn up. Those who choose to turn up will have a decisive say in fashioning the decisions about the future of Europe.”

The economically freest societies are the most prosperous, and the most economically repressive societies are the poorest.

Suppose you were appointed global economic czar, and your task was to bring the world’s per capita income up to the level of Ireland’s (almost that of the U.S.). Would you:
(A) Insist the world’s rich nations transfer substantial wealth though massive foreign aid to the poor nations?
(B) Insist all nations adopt policies that would make them as economically free as the top 10 freest economies today?

This is the text of Daniel Hannan’s speech in the European Parliament today. MEPs voted by a large majority to push ahead with the implementation of the Constitution by 2009 (despite opposition, i.a. from national parliaments).

Mr President,

Listening to this debate, I am reminded of Bertold Brecht’s lines: