Posted on 02/05/2006 2:44:38 AM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
We are all Danes now, as Paul Belien, editor of the Brussels Journal said in his editorial this week.
Or we should be.
Because today Denmark is taking a beating for us all, fighting for press freedoms that can mean the difference between democracy and totalitarianism, between free speech and terror, between sleeping at night and being afraid of the knock on the door, between light and despair.
And that tiny democracy is doing so under threat of economic sanctions -- and death for its citizens and those of other Western countries where news media have rallied to the defence of free expression.
Think I'm overstating the danger of the outpourings of threats, violent protests and intimidations from radical Muslims over the Danish government's refusal to shut down Jyllands-Posten -- a newspaper in the Free World, after all -- after it published 12 cartoons depicting Mohammed, including some that appeared to be commenting on terrorism carried out in the name of religion?
Consider this news sampling: Fatah gunmen took over the French cultural centre headquarters in the Gaza strip to protest the refusal, Jyllands-Posten received bomb threats, its cartoonists death threats, Libya announced it would close its embassy in Denmark, and Pakistan's ambassador -- eeek! --urged the Danish prime minister to "penalize the cartoonists!"
Meanwhile one Muslim leader noted if Satanic Verses author Salmon Rushdie had been killed for his writings about Islam -- "this rabble who insult our Prophet Muhammad ... would not have dared to do so."
This is a powder keg of violence, we should note, created by Danish Muslims who enjoy Danish freedoms -- including the rights to pen their own opinions for publication and to hold protest rallies, if they'd cared to -- who toured Arab countries in January denouncing Denmark and demanding a boycott of Danish products.
(They got that. Arla Foods, Denmark's biggest exporter to Arab countries, announced this week it would lay off 125 staff as a result of lost sales.)
And what did some publishers of newspapers -- which are supposed to defend free speech -- do in the face of terror?
Fold.
Ironically the first "beheading" occurred in the homeland of the great French philosopher Voltaire whose views were once summed up as: "I do not agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it."
Would that the publisher of France-Soir had remembered those words before firing his editor after the paper republished the original cartoons along with another depicting Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and Muslim gods sitting on a cloud that said: "Yes, we have the right to caricature God."
Meanwhile a Jordanian newspaper reprinted the cartoons to show readers "the extent of the Danish offence" -- along with an editorial entitled "Muslims of the world be reasonable."
"What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the camera?" wrote editor Jihad Momani -- before he was fired.
Whether you find the drawings clumsy, offensive or dead on (they're on the web) is not the issue.
The issue is that the paper had a right to print them. And a proper response is to write back to express views -- not violence.
It's called democratic debate, and there's too precious little of it in this so-called Free World anymore where governments and powerful institutions, including religions, use politically correct blankets to smother debate and criticism -- for their own purposes.
Ironically, the world's most beloved religious leaders -- who so often fought despotic rulers for the right to freedom of religion, expression and peace -- must be mourning this turn of events from the heavens.
And so in the spirit of the solidarity in which the Danes defended Jews in the Second World War -- by suggesting if the Nazi's ordered Jews to wear armbands in Denmark they would all be Jews.
And in the spirit of former U.S. president John F. Kennedy's "I am a Berliner" speech -- defending democracy over Communist tyranny.
And in the spirit of the editorial in the French paper Le Monde after 9/11- "We are all Americans."
I agree with the Brussels Journal: We are all Danes.
And I for one am going out to buy some Danish cookies and jams today. And if you care one fig for freedom, so should you.
Dianne Rinehart is a former magazine editor and news correspondent who has worked in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Moscow.
* Freedom of the press includes defending the right to criticize religion
We have found the enemy's soft underbelly!
DRAW MORE CARTOONS!
Europe -- asleep so long -- is finally awaking to the dire threat posed by the existance of Islam.
They speak rather good English, wouldn't you say? I wonder if these signs are like others that show up in whatever country's language...?
So when do we start telling the Euros to look for the "root cause"... And that it is all really their fault by inciting all this rage. Had they changed the policies towards these people this never would have happened... Bla, bla, bla...
If they don't wake up from this shot across the bow, they aren't going to wake up.
DISCUSSION ABOUT:
"Editorial Cartoon ('We Are All Danes, Now')"
Yet another Ping about "the Cartoons" issue; however, this is a very readable, worthwhile editorial.
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Good for the Danes.
And good for the people cheering for them! (I'd buy something of Danish origin, but I'm a little broke! :D)
I am a Dane~~~~~~
~Moshi-chan
It is disgusting that so many people are appeasing this slugs! Bravo for the Brave Danes.
Back in the days of the Cold War, CBS would interview aq "typical Russian" -- bus driver, window washer, or such -- whose English would be perfect. We could all say KGB.
These days CNN always interviews someone like a humble goat herders (CNN never shows the goats scooting along on their tails on the ground) whose English is too good. We say media plant. (Sometimes the English sounds poor till, but containing some American or New England idioms)
Ya know...
If these had been cartoons about Jesus, no one would be defending the right of the paper to print them.
Mooslimes take outrage to new limits, I'll grant you and should be smacked down for it but their outrage is every bit as real as if it were our own.
Good job as usual. Can you believe the infantile reactions of these Islamists? They're cartoons, dumbasses!
When you sit back and think about some of the horrid cartoons that have been published in US papers, trashing everyone from Bush, Rice, and Jesus Christ, these chuckleheads appear to just be using this as an excuse to riot. Nothing more, nothing less.
I'm sorry, but I'm tired of the apologies to a religion of murders. I won't separate the "radicals" from "all the good Muslims", because you will die old before you'll find "good Muslims" protesting against the violence and murder being perpetrated in the name of Allah. The few "moderate" Muslims may be practicing the fine, long approved art of Muslims, i.e. lying to the infidels (that's us) for the good of Islam. Muslim's can lie, cheat, steal, defraud, kill, or rape "infidel's" with no consequence; indeed they'll be greatly honored for doing so. Islam is a sick, historically fake religion, and it's poor dupes are murdering and dying for nothing.
I did not start this war of hate. I do not hate every Muslim, but I do not trust ANY Muslim. I'm more than willing to answer their rhetoric of hate, and acts of violence, with a Western crusade to destroy Islam and it's followers as necessary.
Lives are at stake in all of this. Terror will eventually hit the USA in a large and regular way. Millions of little Muslim kids are being raised to be the foot soldiers of a militant Islam. They're being raised on a steady stream of hate, hate of my wife, my kids, my home, of a generous and giving American people who they will never know. Their Mullah's and dictator's will never allow it. They will eventually act on that hate and bring death to Americans on American soil.
President Bush once said, in effect, that "any state which sponsor's terrorism is guilty of the same…". There's over two-dozen target nations out there, one of which is now literally going nuclear, but the spineless, opportunistic Democrats have made defending the USA a political game. Bush won't follow through now, because the public will to war is just not there anymore. We're in serious trouble, folks. We should ALREADY be in Iran, but instead, Iran, Al Qaeda, and Hamas will have nuc's and the means to deliver them to American soil (either ballistically or in a truck via cargo container).
SFS
Ich bin ien Dane
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