Editorial Cartoon ["We Are All Danes, Now" -- Brave, MUST-READ Editorial!]

Hamilton Spectator ^ | 02/04/2006 | Dianne Rinehart

[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

[hinckley buzzard]

If these had been cartoons about Jesus, no one would be defending the right of the paper to print them.

True, because..."if these had been cartoons about Jesus," no one would be calling for the deaths of the cartoonists, or burning down buildings, and they would hardly have made the news in the first place. A few letters to the editor and outraged statements by some Christian leaders, and that would have been it. The newspaper's right to print them would be conceded up front and not need defending.

[hinckley buzzard]

I'm coming around to the opinion that it is just an excuse to blow things up. Like they really need one :/

This whole round of protests is orchestrated, obviously, and is a probing of the West's resolve. They are taking our temperature to see how sick we are. The less we defend our values, the sicker we appear to them, and the more emboldened they become. that is why the danish cartoons, and our response to the moslems' attacks, are an important issue in the overall war.

[RunningWolf]

There must be some greater reason they are zeroing in on Denmark. Perhaps they think they can engineer a total breakdown into chaos and maybe even a coup.

Wolf

[He Rides A White Horse]

Hey, there you go! I know some people who would understand this. Thank you much..

[jwh_Denver]

We have found the enemy's soft underbelly!

The truth is their soft underbelly. They can't stand it.

[Richard Axtell]

Ostensibly, the rioting Muslims were offended by the Danish cartoons because of the implication that their religion inspired violence, and that Mohamed was depicted as complicit in that sense. Now, that mobs of fevered fantatics have torched embassies and counselates across the Middle East, and a Maronite Catholic priest was shot and killed in Turkey, we have little doubt that he cartoons were accurate.

That Danish paper should publish the Arab's own cartoons, those slanderous and disgusting attrocities they publish showing hook knosed Jews skewering Islamic babies, and Uncle Sam as a murdering coward. Will the Europeans have the cahones to call a terrorist a terrorist? Is there any doubt left that we ARE heading towards a clash of civilizations?

[grey_whiskers]

The proper response to that sign on the right is:

Syria, Iran, and other terrorist states: Your Hiroshima will come.

(The United States remains the only power to have used nukes on known civilian populations...these clowns are rank amateurs.)

[SmoothTalker]

"Maybe we should enlist the American porn industry to make some "Patriotic" cartoons of the "Prophet" Mohammed. "

Best idea i've heard in ages!

[SmoothTalker]

"If these had been cartoons about Jesus, no one would be defending the right of the paper to print them.
"

I would even if I was offended by it. And I sure as heck wouldn't be rioting and recalling ambassadors over it. One of the things you have to be willing to deal with in a free society is the chance of being offended by what someone else has to say. If you don't like something then right a letter to the editor, or boycott a publication. Don't start rioting and issuing death threats against people who had nothing to with the publication of whatever it is that upset you.

[Adder]

Well lets just see...

What happened when there was outrage over "Piss Christ"? The same papers and cultural centers defended their "right" to publish anything they wanted and Christians should just shut the heck up about it. Christians, if I recall were "outraged".
According to your standards, they should not have been.

No, Christians did not riot in the streets and I didn't defend Mooslimes doing so in the least.

[Smokin' Joe]

I, for one, was outraged by the so called 'art' of an inverted crucifix in urine. Even more so by the fact that the NEA (our tax dollar) funded it. Christians didn't go on a rampage burning buildings or making death threats.

No one was beheaded.

In fact no one did any violent act, although there was expression of discontent.

God gave us the freedom to choose, we will all have to answer for those choices.

I guess when you figure God will settle such scores in the end, things are different.

And while I would, in fact defend their right to print what they will, I continue to defend my right to not fund their activities by nto contributing or buying their product.

If the Arabs want to boycott Danish products, that is their right. There are those of us who will go out of our way to buy them.

Burning embassies, however, is commonly accepted as an act of war.

[Steve0113]

Burning embassies, however, is commonly accepted as an act of war.

That was my first thought when I heard the news. Embassies worldwide are considered extensions of their respective countries. Attack the embassy, you are attacking the country. Have the rules changed?

[Lady Heron]

Good post.

We do not allow Cannibalism, Thuggee-ism, Sutti, or Satanic human sacrifices in our society by law because they all involve murder, but we do allow a religion that demands its followers to kill us if we do not convert, treats its women as slaves with no rights and creates barbaric suppressive societies where ever it gains control.

Hopefully enough people will learn what this "religion" teaches and demand it outlawed for the same reasons the other murderous "religions" have been, otherwise we will eventually lose the freedoms found in the west as other countries have.

That is the choice the west has to make, it is time for the media and our governments learn what islam teaches and oppose it as evil, and to stop promoting evil every time they give us the propaganda line "its a religion of peace". Their throats are on the line just as much as ours are.

Being afraid to discuss the problem is akin to allowing it to spread and risk our grandchildren falling to it. The WWII generation did not sit back forever and allow the Nazis to spread their ideology or leave it for their grandchildren to tackle the problem allowing the ideology to spread to the point it got impossible to take care of.

Some ideologies are worth wiping out, and this religion is like those we in the west have already wiped out because they were pure evil.

[Theo]

Here are some links:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/009804.php

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=RWMUJUM4YO3C5QFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?view=BLOGDETAIL&grid=P30&blog=newsdesk&xml=/news/2006/02/06/bleurope106.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=BLOGDETAIL&grid=P30&blog=newsdesk&xml=/news/2006/02/06/bleurope06.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/02/06/ixportaltop.html

If you could help promote the *real* reason the Muslims are rioting (these 3 additional repulsive "cartoons"), that'd be great. I saw the 3 images, but am not sure of the direct link any more. One is of Mo with a pig snout, another is of a praying Muslim man being humped by a dog, and I forget what the third was.... I'll look for the link to those images.

[Conservomax]

boy, a couple of gatling guns would have come in handy when that pic was taken.

[Theo]

Here are some more links:

http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2006/02/fabricated_cart.html

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=19053_Danish_Islamists_Fake_Cartoons#comments

[Theo]

I finally found links to the 3 "additional" images added by Danish Muslims to incite violence. Note that these really *are* repulsive:

http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/tegninger38sm.jpg

http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/tegninger39sm.jpg

http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/tegninger40sm.jpg

[Steel and Fire and Stone]

Christians should just shut the heck up about it. Christians, if I recall were "outraged". According to your standards, they should not have been.

======================================================================================

You're speaking for yourself, of course. Isn't this "religion thing" a sad, primitive waste of time? < /end sarcasm >

Again, you engage in moral relativism, so your world view is transparent. There's a heck of a difference in the two situations. Serrano (a) created art designed to denigrate a religious figure held sacred by peaceful believers who build hospitals, schools, and (b) a leftist government forced those believers to pay for that art through their tax dollars. The Muslim's oppose a political cartoon which mocks not Mohammad, but the followers of Mohammad who maime, murder, rape, pillage, and steal in the name of Islam. These political cartoon's were not "piss Mohammad", but in fact, merely using this as an illustration for discussion would move MILLION's of Arab to stone me for the blasphemy. Million's of Christians were not moved to stone Serrano, just defund him.

Again, the fact that you cannot understand the distinction reflects upon you, and you're warped world view. All religions are not the same, all religious people's are not the same, all religious philosophies are not the same, and the end DOES NOT justify the means.

SFS

[HitmanLV]

Thank you very much for posting these links. I am spreading the word among my friends via email. Good work and thanks! The TRUTH is the way!

[MarMema]

Bravo. Bravo. (applause)

Buy Danish. Support the Danes whenever you can!