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In Paris, the newspaper France Soir, printed all 12 of the cartoons in question. The newspaper declared, "No religious dogma can impose its view on a democratic and secular society."
-- Alan Cowell for The NY Times
Finally! It is especially encouraging that the Europeans are able to see this. I don't care for the idea that we ought to be ruled by the notions of a Christian God, and I certainly don't believe that should be less true when it comes to the Muslim God.
I first came across the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in a Politicartoons discussion.
In checking my links, though, I see this story seems to be running wild, as I see "Image Removed" everywhere at the Wikipedia page, and as they advise, since this is a current story, changes on that page may be ongoing for a while.
The cartoons may not be in the best taste, but that doesn't mean that we should be subject to Muslim councils of blasphemy and censorship, just as we didn't care to follow their death sentence for Salman Rushdie. If they wish to engage in the censorship business, they ought to begin with their own anti-Western vehicles, the ones preaching death and destruction.
___ ___ ___
COPENHAGEN, Feb. 1 — Broadening a debate that has set Europe against the Islamic world, several European newspapers on Wednesday reprinted cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in an unflattering light, supporting a Danish newspaper that had inspired a huge outcry in the Islamic world by publishing them in the first place.
The newspapers' actions fed a sharpening debate here over freedom of expression, human rights and what the culture editor of Jyllands-Posten, the paper that first published the cartoons last September, called a "clash of civilizations" between secular Western democracies and Islamic societies.
Indeed, the culture editor, Flemming Rose, said in an interview: "This is a far bigger story than just the question of 12 cartoons in a small Danish newspaper.
"This is about the question of integration and how compatible is the religion of Islam with a modern secular society — how much does an immigrant have to give up and how much does the receiving culture have to compromise."
In recent days, Denmark has become the object of a widespread boycott of its goods in Muslim countries, its diplomats have been summoned to be dressed down in Tehran and Baghdad, and protesters have taken to the streets of Gaza.
While Jyllands-Posten has apologized for giving offense, it has not apologized for publishing the cartoons, one of which depicts the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Images of Muhammad are regarded as blasphemous by many Muslims.
The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has rejected demands by Arab governments for an official apology, saying: "I can't call a newspaper and tell them what to put in it. That's not how our society works."
Mr. Rose called the decision not to apologize for printing the cartoons "a key issue of principle."
Some Muslim leaders in Copenhagen have said they accept the apology from Jyllands-Posten, but Arab and Islamic governments in the Middle East have continued to express outrage.
In support of the Danish position, newspapers in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland reprinted some of the cartoons on Wednesday. A small Norwegian evangelical magazine, Magazinet, also published the cartoons last month.
The dispute has been likened to a string of earlier cultural confrontations between Islam and the West, beginning with the death sentence declared in 1989 on the British author Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran after the publication of "The Satanic Verses."
In 2004, a Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, was murdered after making a film called "Submission," which dealt with violence against women in Islamic societies.
Robert Ménard, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based body that monitors media developments, said in a telephone interview: "All countries in Europe should be behind the Danes and Danish authorities to defend the principle that a newspaper can write what it wishes to, even if it offends people.
"I understand that it may shock Muslims, but being shocked is part of the price of being informed."
On Wednesday, Syria became the latest Arab country to withdraw its ambassador from Denmark, saying publication of the cartoons "constitutes a violation of the sacred principles of hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims," according to SANA, the Syrian state news agency.
The Danish Embassy in Damascus was evacuated after a bomb threat on Wednesday, but no bomb was found.
In Paris, the newspaper France Soir, printed all 12 of the cartoons in question. The newspaper declared, "No religious dogma can impose its view on a democratic and secular society."
Arnaud Lévy, the editor in chief of France Soir, said there had been no coordination between European editors about publishing the cartoons simultaneously. "Absolutely not," he said in a telephone interview.
In Berlin, a senior German editor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on behalf of her employers, also said there had been no contacts among European newspapers to synchronize their coverage.
France Soir's decision to publish the cartoons drew a sharp response from French Muslims.
Dalil Boubakeur, leader of the French Council for the Muslim Religion, called the publication of the cartoons a "provocation" and an abuse of press freedom that was disrespectful of the world's more than one billion Muslims. "The publication of the cartoons can only revive tensions in Europe and the world at a time when we are trying to unite people," he said.
In Germany, the conservative Die Welt printed one image on its front page and declared in an editorial: "The protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they were less hypocritical. When Syrian television showed drama documentaries in prime time depicting rabbis as cannibals, the imams were quiet."
In Italy, the Turin daily La Stampa published the cartoons on Wednesday. Milan's Corriere della Sera printed them on Monday. In Spain, they were printed in El Periódico on Wednesday.
Dominique von Burg, the editor in chief of Switzerland's Tribune de Genève, which planned to publish the cartoons on Thursday, told Agence France-Presse: "You can understand the feelings of Muslims, but we're in a pluralist state. We have a right to do that." The Swiss newspaper Blick published two of the cartoons on Tuesday.
Freedom of expression is a closely protected right in Denmark, to the extent that the country became known in the 1970's as a haven for hard-core pornography.
Niels-Erik Hansen, a lawyer at a center offering legal support for people complaining of racial discrimination, said the debate over the cartoons raised the question of whether it would provoke attacks on Denmark's 200,000 Muslims in a nation of some 5.4 million people.
"There's a balance here between freedom of speech and the right not to be subjected to racial discrimination." he said. "It's a difficult line."
But Carsten Juste, the editor in chief of Jyllands-Posten, said the principle to be drawn from the debate was that opponents of press freedom had secured a victory. "My guess is that no one will draw the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark in the next generation, and therefore I must say with deep shame that they have won," he said in an interview with the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tiden.
-- Alan Cowell
xXx
In Paris, the newspaper France Soir, printed all 12 of the cartoons in question. The newspaper declared, "No religious dogma can impose its view on a democratic and secular society."
-- Alan Cowell for The NY Times
Finally! It is especially encouraging that the Europeans are able to see this. I don't care for the idea that we ought to be ruled by the notions of a Christian God, and I certainly don't believe that should be less true when it comes to the Muslim God.
I first came across the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in a Politicartoons discussion.
In checking my links, though, I see this story seems to be running wild, as I see "Image Removed" everywhere at the Wikipedia page, and as they advise, since this is a current story, changes on that page may be ongoing for a while.
The cartoons may not be in the best taste, but that doesn't mean that we should be subject to Muslim councils of blasphemy and censorship, just as we didn't care to follow their death sentence for Salman Rushdie. If they wish to engage in the censorship business, they ought to begin with their own anti-Western vehicles, the ones preaching death and destruction.
___ ___ ___
COPENHAGEN, Feb. 1 — Broadening a debate that has set Europe against the Islamic world, several European newspapers on Wednesday reprinted cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in an unflattering light, supporting a Danish newspaper that had inspired a huge outcry in the Islamic world by publishing them in the first place.
The newspapers' actions fed a sharpening debate here over freedom of expression, human rights and what the culture editor of Jyllands-Posten, the paper that first published the cartoons last September, called a "clash of civilizations" between secular Western democracies and Islamic societies.
Indeed, the culture editor, Flemming Rose, said in an interview: "This is a far bigger story than just the question of 12 cartoons in a small Danish newspaper.
"This is about the question of integration and how compatible is the religion of Islam with a modern secular society — how much does an immigrant have to give up and how much does the receiving culture have to compromise."
In recent days, Denmark has become the object of a widespread boycott of its goods in Muslim countries, its diplomats have been summoned to be dressed down in Tehran and Baghdad, and protesters have taken to the streets of Gaza.
While Jyllands-Posten has apologized for giving offense, it has not apologized for publishing the cartoons, one of which depicts the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Images of Muhammad are regarded as blasphemous by many Muslims.
The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has rejected demands by Arab governments for an official apology, saying: "I can't call a newspaper and tell them what to put in it. That's not how our society works."
Mr. Rose called the decision not to apologize for printing the cartoons "a key issue of principle."
Some Muslim leaders in Copenhagen have said they accept the apology from Jyllands-Posten, but Arab and Islamic governments in the Middle East have continued to express outrage.
In support of the Danish position, newspapers in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland reprinted some of the cartoons on Wednesday. A small Norwegian evangelical magazine, Magazinet, also published the cartoons last month.
The dispute has been likened to a string of earlier cultural confrontations between Islam and the West, beginning with the death sentence declared in 1989 on the British author Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran after the publication of "The Satanic Verses."
In 2004, a Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, was murdered after making a film called "Submission," which dealt with violence against women in Islamic societies.
Robert Ménard, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based body that monitors media developments, said in a telephone interview: "All countries in Europe should be behind the Danes and Danish authorities to defend the principle that a newspaper can write what it wishes to, even if it offends people.
"I understand that it may shock Muslims, but being shocked is part of the price of being informed."
On Wednesday, Syria became the latest Arab country to withdraw its ambassador from Denmark, saying publication of the cartoons "constitutes a violation of the sacred principles of hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims," according to SANA, the Syrian state news agency.
The Danish Embassy in Damascus was evacuated after a bomb threat on Wednesday, but no bomb was found.
In Paris, the newspaper France Soir, printed all 12 of the cartoons in question. The newspaper declared, "No religious dogma can impose its view on a democratic and secular society."
Arnaud Lévy, the editor in chief of France Soir, said there had been no coordination between European editors about publishing the cartoons simultaneously. "Absolutely not," he said in a telephone interview.
In Berlin, a senior German editor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on behalf of her employers, also said there had been no contacts among European newspapers to synchronize their coverage.
France Soir's decision to publish the cartoons drew a sharp response from French Muslims.
Dalil Boubakeur, leader of the French Council for the Muslim Religion, called the publication of the cartoons a "provocation" and an abuse of press freedom that was disrespectful of the world's more than one billion Muslims. "The publication of the cartoons can only revive tensions in Europe and the world at a time when we are trying to unite people," he said.
In Germany, the conservative Die Welt printed one image on its front page and declared in an editorial: "The protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they were less hypocritical. When Syrian television showed drama documentaries in prime time depicting rabbis as cannibals, the imams were quiet."
In Italy, the Turin daily La Stampa published the cartoons on Wednesday. Milan's Corriere della Sera printed them on Monday. In Spain, they were printed in El Periódico on Wednesday.
Dominique von Burg, the editor in chief of Switzerland's Tribune de Genève, which planned to publish the cartoons on Thursday, told Agence France-Presse: "You can understand the feelings of Muslims, but we're in a pluralist state. We have a right to do that." The Swiss newspaper Blick published two of the cartoons on Tuesday.
Freedom of expression is a closely protected right in Denmark, to the extent that the country became known in the 1970's as a haven for hard-core pornography.
Niels-Erik Hansen, a lawyer at a center offering legal support for people complaining of racial discrimination, said the debate over the cartoons raised the question of whether it would provoke attacks on Denmark's 200,000 Muslims in a nation of some 5.4 million people.
"There's a balance here between freedom of speech and the right not to be subjected to racial discrimination." he said. "It's a difficult line."
But Carsten Juste, the editor in chief of Jyllands-Posten, said the principle to be drawn from the debate was that opponents of press freedom had secured a victory. "My guess is that no one will draw the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark in the next generation, and therefore I must say with deep shame that they have won," he said in an interview with the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tiden.
-- Alan Cowell
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 06:26 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 07:00 am (UTC)From:http://community.livejournal.com/politicartoons/590652.html
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 09:09 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 09:27 am (UTC)From:This is definitely not the ideal way, I like to think. That's from the Wikipedia page, reading more of the material.
I'm sorry to see that there actually seems to be a lot of concilliatory gestures toward the Muslim authorities, which must encourage them in the notion that their religion rules over us as well.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 09:56 am (UTC)From:http://www.ejbdotcom.net/content/10520.html
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 10:25 am (UTC)From:When others are bent on violence in carrying out their beliefs and ideologies, it would seem that violence is needed to fend them off.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 10:03 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 10:08 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 10:33 am (UTC)From:I don't think anyone has ever argued that we should have to follow specific religious notions of idolatry, but neither should we be shocked when those religious groups and the organizations and governments that use them as political leverage act negatively in response.
Sensitivity will always go further than deliberate provocation. As I said, Europe's Muslims often feel incredibly threatened by European hostility to them.
This was a silly idea that has proven little other than if you poke sticks at a beehive, the bees will come out and sting you.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 10:39 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 10:43 am (UTC)From:But there is such a thing as choosing one's battles and taking necessary stands where needs be. This was a really poor choice on which to pitch that clash.
Additionally, there continues to be the issue of lumping everyone and everything in together. I would very much doubt that the majority of people opposed to the cartoons supports violent retribution.
They aren't shy about using even more offensive images against non-muslim faiths.
No, but unfortunately we're not really in a position to point fingers and say "but you, but you, but you." That's not under our control: our sensitivity and delicacy is. You deal with what you've got.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 06:27 am (UTC)From:It seems to me the trouble and stupidity is on both sides. Certainly most moderate Muslims would understand the cartoon. We're really talking about the hardcore religious types with sticks up arses. But that is the same here in America with Christian fundies.
On the other hand, a little more education could be done by people so as to have respect for the faithful and avoid offending.
Basically, the bottom line is that everywhere in the world right now there is a respect issue. Everybody just needs to learn to respect others.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 07:03 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 07:55 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 08:15 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 08:41 am (UTC)From:But, since we're from the West and I speak as a Westerner, I'd also say that we have to be aware of the other side and that our rough treatment of others when we are aware of delicate sensibilities is esp. problematic. I love pushing boundries and violating norms as much as the next person...but on the other hand, it comes at a price.
Every child should learn Santa doesn't exist? That isn't really for you or me to say is it? I think that might be the issue here. Other people's prejudices should not govern our art and discussion, but then our prejudices should not govern theirs either.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 09:13 am (UTC)From:I think anyone should be free to think and say it. I certainly like to think we are free to do so in the West.
Other people's prejudices should not govern our art and discussion, but then our prejudices should not govern theirs either.
The issue is what has been produced and circulated in the West. Although I personally believe artists and debaters should be free to use such images in the Arab Middle East as well, I could better appreciate the proscription there, but we are indeed talking about Western art and discussion.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 10:40 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 11:05 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 11:13 am (UTC)From:I would defend to death someone's right to say something idiotic...but that doesn't mean it isn't still idiotic. I support Pat Robertson's right to say what he wants, but that doesn't mean there aren't consequences to his mouthing off.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 10:39 am (UTC)From:As it is, in this country the number of voters who would be horrified by such overt expressions likely significantly outstrips the number of voters who would applaud it.
However, as far as I'm concerned, political opportunism rules where commitment to theoretical values and ethics once reigned. You can witness that in nearly every country on earth, I'd wager... mine, yours, Syria, everything. Even Saddam Hussein had his fair share of support mongering.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 10:43 am (UTC)From:The hope and ambition is to see in the Arab Mideast that kind of open and free society where such religious railery has no more value than it does here.
However, as far as I'm concerned, political opportunism rules where commitment to theoretical values and ethics once reigned. You can witness that in nearly every country on earth, I'd wager... mine, yours, Syria, everything. Even Saddam Hussein had his fair share of support mongering.
Agreed. And it has always been thus. More fundamentally, self-interest trumps all, generally, and this alas is no less true for leaders.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 10:46 am (UTC)From: