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

[Adder]

I agree with that.

My only point is that they have the right to be outraged and offended.

Some would deny them even that by saying they should just let it go or words to that effect, very similar to what was told to every Christian who was outraged by Serrano's "art".


"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."

Absolutely. They do need to understand the "market place of ideas": they will not get their way by burning embassies etc. trying to bully others to accept their ideas at the end of a stone or molotov.

[Adder]

No. I am not "speaking for myself, of course".

There is little difference in the situations.

Islam has peaceful believers who build hospitals and schools, also.

So your point is what?

All I said is they have a right to be outraged.

I further said they did not have a right to burn and pillage...same thought, different words.

Now what exactly is your problem with that?