Support Denmark!

[Oneironaut]

http://skender.be/supportdenmark/

On the 30th of September 2005 the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. Mohammedans raised a storm of protest and two artists went into hiding after receiving death threats. Islamic organisations demanded an apology from the Danish government and the incident turned into a world-wide diplomatic issue. The OIC (the Organisation of the Islamic Conference), the Council of Europe and the UN all criticised the government of Denmark for not taking measures against the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen defended the freedom of the press and free speech and stated that any measures, if appropriate, could not be taken by the government but only by a court of law. Meanwhile in Islamic countries Danish flags are burned and Danish products are taken off the shelves. Several countries have withdrawn their ambassadors from Denmark and armed men attacked the office of the EU in the Gaza strip.

If you've been following this controversy over the Mohammed Cartoons ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jylland...ns_controversy ), I think you'll agree that the reaction to them has gone a bit overboard, to put it lightly. Simply because the Danish government refuses to censor a newspaper which printed cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed (one of which had a bomb in his turban), these people have taken to mass boycott of Danish products, death threats against the cartoonists, attempts to impose UN sanctions, and violent attacks including an attack of armed men on the office of the EU in the Gaza Strip and most recently the burning down of the Danish embassy in Syria (and the Chilean and Swedish embassies, which happened to be in the same building).

Look, people. No boycotts, no burning down of embassies, no whining is going to stop free speech in Denmark. Not gonna happen. If you don't like the newspaper's cartoons, don't read that newspaper. We in the western world may have a lot of faults, but thing we can definitely be proud of is our freedom of the press. To suggest censorship in such a society is absurd, and attempting to punish the economy and the government of Denmark isn't going to get you anywhere. Why? Because neither of them have anything to do with it. Those cartoons were published by one newspaper. The government is powerless to censor them under Danish law, and boycotting Danish products is only going to punish people who have nothing to do with the newspaper except that they happen to live in the country where it's published.

Oneironaut Reviewed by Oneironaut on 02-04-2006. Support Denmark! http://skender.be/supportdenmark/ If you've been following this controversy over the Mohammed Cartoons ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy ), I think you'll agree that the reaction to them has gone a bit overboard, to put it lightly. Simply because the Danish government refuses to censor a newspaper which printed cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed (one of which had a bomb in his turban), these people have taken to mass boycott of Danish Rating: 5

[Myth1184]

I support the Danish 100%

Notice there is hardly anything said about THIS MOVIE

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/movies/ar...02084309990001

Muslims can do what they want, but if some1 insults their precious Muhammed, oh its so bad...

[Oneironaut]

I have to say, the funniest thing about this whole debacle is that the fuss that they've raised about the cartoons has made them immensely popular. They're being republished throughout Europe and all over the Internet. If they had just kept their mouths shut from the beginning, nobody would have even heard of them. And I bet that newspaper is raking in the money, too. There's nothing like an international protest against your newspaper to boost sales.

[Breukelen advocaat]

Something Rotten in Denmark?

by Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard
New York Post
August 27, 2002
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/450


A Muslim group in Denmark announced a few days ago that a $30,000 bounty would be paid for the murder of several prominent Danish Jews, a threat that garnered wide international notice. Less well known is that this is just one problem associated with Denmark's approximately 200,000 Muslim immigrants. The key issue is that many of them show little desire to fit into their adopted country.

For years, Danes lauded multiculturalism and insisted they had no problem with the Muslim customs - until one day they found that they did. Some major issues:

* Living on the dole: Third-world immigrants - most of them Muslims from countries such as Turkey, Somalia, Pakistan, Lebanon and Iraq - constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending.

* Engaging in crime: Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes.

* Self-imposed isolation: Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane.

* Importing unacceptable customs: Forced marriages - promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousin in the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death - are one problem.

Another is threats to kill Muslims who convert out of Islam. One Kurdish convert to Christianity, who went public to explain why she had changed religion, felt the need to hide her face and conceal her identity, fearing for her life.

* Fomenting anti-Semitism: Muslim violence threatens Denmark's approximately 6,000 Jews, who increasingly depend on police protection. Jewish parents were told by one school principal that she could not guarantee their children's safety and were advised to attend another institution. Anti-Israel marches have turned into anti-Jewish riots. One organization, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, openly calls on Muslims to "kill all Jews . . . wherever you find them."

* Seeking Islamic law: Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.

Other Europeans (such as the late Pim Fortuyn in Holland) have also grown alarmed about these issues, but Danes were the first to make them the basis for a change in government.

In a momentous election last November, a center-right coalition came to power that - for the first time since 1929 - excluded the socialists. The right broke its 72-year losing streak and won a solid parliamentary majority by promising to handle immigration issues, the electorate's first concern, differently from the socialists.

The next nine months did witness some fine-tuning of procedures: Immigrants now must live seven years in Denmark (rather than three) to become permanent residents. Most non-refugees no longer can collect welfare checks immediately on entering the country. No one can bring into the country an intended spouse under the age of 24. And the state prosecutor is considering a ban on Hizb-ut-Tahrir for its death threats against Jews.

These minor adjustments prompted howls internationally - with European and U.N. reports condemning Denmark for racism and "Islamophobia," the Washington Post reporting that Muslim immigrants "face habitual discrimination," and a London Guardian headline announcing that "Copenhagen Flirts with Fascism."

In reality, however, the new government barely addressed the existing problems. Nor did it prevent new ones, such as the death threats against Jews or a recent Islamic edict calling on Muslims to drive Danes out of the Norrebro quarter of Copenhagen.

The authorities remain indulgent. The military mulls permitting Muslim soldiers in Denmark's volunteer International Brigade to opt out of actions they don't agree with - a privilege granted to members of no other faith. Mohammed Omar Bakri, the self-proclaimed London-based "eyes, ears and mouth" of Osama bin Laden, won permission to set up a branch of his organization, Al-Muhajiroun.

Contrary to media reports, the real news from Denmark is not flirting with fascism but getting mired in inertia. A government elected specifically to deal with a set of problems has made minimal headway. Its reluctance has potentially profound implications for the West as a whole.
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[eg420ne]

I find it funny that they would be outrage over a cartoon, I've seen arab cartoons of Jesus in an offensive manner B4, Just like they do with the jews....I wonder Cui bono....

[nicholasstanko]

how convenient that there is this uproar right around the time bush and his pals need some fanatical muslims to retaliate and thus boost approval ratings...

[dopesmoker]

i dont support denmark at all. But i dont think there should be killing and death over it. I think that both sides need to apologize for what they have done during this mess and move on

[Oneironaut]

how convenient that there is this uproar right around the time bush and his pals need some fanatical muslims to retaliate and thus boost approval ratings...

Are you seriously suggesting that the publication of this Danish newspaper article was somehow connected to getting Bush's approval ratings up?

[Oneironaut]

i dont support denmark at all. But i dont think there should be killing and death over it. I think that both sides need to apologize for what they have done during this mess and move on

What have the Danish people done wrong? Nothing. They failed to censor somebody with an opposing viewpoint. I think that should be applauded. In a free society, you should have the right to say whatever you want to say, no matter who gets offended. And if the offense was unwarranted, it is the newspaper and the newspaper alone who is at fault. Not Denmark or the Danish people, but the people who work at Jyllands-Posten. If anybody needs to apologize, it's them.

But personally, I don't think they need to. It is high time that people started exposing false and violent dogmas like Islam for what they are. Muhammed was a warrior, and his dogma encourages a warrior's behavior. There's nothing wrong with saying so in cartoon form. He may not have used a bomb, but his sword got the job done.

[Breukelen advocaat]

i dont support denmark at all. But i dont think there should be killing and death over it. I think that both sides need to apologize for what they have done during this mess and move on

I've prepared an appropriate apology for the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to personally deliver to a representative of the Muslims that are demanding censorship of the press .

Knep dig selv, lortehoved!
(English translation: Go fuck yourself, shithead!)




Below:
Palestinian youths ride their bikes over a painting of the Danish national flag in Hebron, Feb. 1, 2006. (AP)