Archived news and commentary: January 30 - February 5, 2006

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Sunday, February 5, 2006

News and commentary:

"Why Hamas?" (Martin Kramer, Sandbox, 2006/02/05)
"An important and largely overlooked poll confirms the impression that secularism has been vastly eroded in the Palestinian territories (as well as in Egypt and Jordan). The Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan in Amman published the results a year ago, under the title: "Revisiting the Arab Street: Research from Within." The pollsters drew all sorts of dubious conclusions from their data (I visited the center last spring and heard them first-hand). But one set of findings was impossible to spin, and should have constituted a flashing red light.
The pollsters asked Muslim respondents what role Islamic law, the shari'a, should play in legislation. The results were astonishing:

Asked whether Shari'a should be the only source of legislation, one of the sources of legislation, or not be a source of legislation, most Muslims believed it should at least be a source of legislation. Support was particularly strong in Jordan, Palestine, and Egypt, where approximately two-thirds of Muslim respondents stated that the Shari'a must be the only source of legislation; while the remaining third believed that it must be "one of the sources of legislation." By comparison, in Lebanon and Syria, a majority (nearly two thirds in Lebanon and just over half in Syria) favored the view that Shari'a must be one of the sources of legislation.

Even more remarkable, responses didn't vary with level of education: 'Pooled data from Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt indicate that 58% of respondents with low education, 59% of those with moderate education, and 56% with higher education believe that Shari'a must be the only source of legislation in their countries.'"

"Coping in Copenhagen" (Greyhawk, Mudville Gazette, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair XIV. A round-up of news on the Koran burning rumours which have been circulating in the Middle East:
"Copenhagen: ...

Demonstrators in Damascus stormed Denmark's embassy in Syria and burned it to the ground Saturday afternoon after rumours that copies of Muslims' holy book, the Koran, were going to be burned in Copenhagen.

Most major news media are crediting the cartoons of Mohamed as the cause for the rage. Although true, that's a slight over-simplification. The story has since been expanded to include the more significant allegations of planned Koran burnings. ...
It's not likely that the fact that the event never took place will restore any calm. Allegations of a plan (following the publication of cartoons) were sufficient to achieve a result. And thus far Muslim reports (in the form of threats of retaliation) remain the only source of the "planned Koran burning" story. ...
And Islam Online credits "Danish Muslim leaders" for the heads-up:

Danish Muslim leaders warned on Saturday, February 4, of grave consequences if copies of the Noble Qur’an were burnt in a rally planned by Danish extremists to protest Muslim anger over cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
"All hell will break loose, if those extremists burn the Qur’an," Raed Halil, the head of the European Committee for Defending Prophet Muhammad, told IslamOnline.net over the phone from the Danish capital Copenhagen."

(See also: "Danish Muslims Warn of Burning Qur’an in Planned Rally" (Ahmed Fathy, IslamOnline, 2006/02/04): "'Danish authorities have made clear that burning the Qur’an is a criminal offence whose perpetrator could face four months in prison,' prominent Muslim leader Abdel Rahman Abu Laban told IOL, adding that Muslim youths were heading in droves to the rally site to prevent extremists from burning their holy book.")

"Violence Spreads Over Muhammad Caricatures" (Zeina Karam, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair XIII: "Syria blamed Denmark for the protests, criticizing the Scandinavian nation for refusing to apologize for the caricatures of Islam's holiest figure.
"(Denmark's) government was able to avoid reaching this point ... simply through an apology" as requested by Arab and Muslim diplomats, state-run daily Al-Thawra said in an editorial Sunday.
"It is unjustifiable under any kind of personal freedoms to allow a person or a group to insult the beliefs of millions of Muslims," the paper said. ...
Iraqi Transport Minister Salam al-Maliki said his country has decided to cancel its contracts with Danish firms and reject any offers of reconstruction money from Copenhagen to protest the publication of the caricatures. The government had issued no official statement and the value of the transportation contracts was not available.
Iran also said it has recalled its ambassador to Denmark amid the controversy.
"Insulting the prophet was unacceptable, resentful, and a sign of barbarism," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said, adding that Tehran planned to take further action."

"Cartoons: 'Cut them to pieces'" (Omar Sinan, News24.com, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair XII: "The Islamic Army in Iraq, a key group in the insurgency fighting US-led and Iraqi forces, posted an internet statement on Sunday calling for gruesome violence against citizens of countries where caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad have been published.
The web posting was the second by the violent group since the storm broke over the cartoons, first published by Denmark's Jyllands-Posten in September.
"We swear to God, if we catch one of their citizens in Iraq, we will cut him to pieces, to take revenge for prophet," said the statement on a site known for carrying militant content.
Its authenticity could not immediately be confirmed.
The threat would appear to target citizens from Norway, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and New Zealand where editors have rallied along with two Jordanian newspapers in reprinting the cartoons in the name of free expression."

"Catholic priest shot dead in church in Turkey" (Reuters, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair XI (?): "ANKARA (Reuters) - An Italian Roman Catholic priest was shot dead in his church in the Turkish Black Sea city of Trabzon on Sunday, police said.
They gave no more details, but CNN Turk television said police were looking for a young man aged about 17 years old seen fleeing the scene.
CNN Turk showed a small crowd of onlookers near the Santa Maria church where the priest was killed. The state Anatolian news agency identified the dead man as Andrea Santaro, aged 60. Other Turkish media said he had been in Turkey about five years. ...
The gunman's motive was unclear. Turkey is overwhelmingly Muslim and has only a tiny Christian population.
Turkey, like many other Muslim countries, has seen regular protests in recent days against cartoons published in several European newspapers depicting the Prophet Mohammad."

"A Lebanese Islamist stands outside the burning Danish consulate..."
(Adnan Hajj, Reuters, 2006/02/05)
"A Lebanese Islamist stands outside the burning Danish consulate in Beirut February 5, 2006. Angry demonstrators set the Danish consulate in Beirut ablaze on Sunday and the violent turn in protests over publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammad drew condemnation from European capitals and moderate Muslims."

"Beirut mobs torch Denmark consulate" (DPA/Bangkok Post, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair X: "Angry protestors started throwing stones at a nearby Christian Maronite church, breaking its windows and prompting the priest at the church to protest.
Lebanese Justice Minister Charles Rizk condemned the attack on the church, saying " this is an unacceptable act by the demonstrators. Christian churches have nothing to do with the issue of the cartoons." ...
Demonstrators also broke the windows of cars and shops in the Christian neighbourhood of Ashrafieh. About twenty cars of residents of the area were damaged.
The clashes have caused panic in the streets of Christian areas and residents of the Ashrafiyeh area were angry at being targeted by the Muslim demonstrators.
"They broke my car for no reason ... we are against the cartoons that defamed Islam ... we (Christians) have nothing to do with it," said a Christian woman whose car windows were shattered.
"We call on the government to intervene immediately to protect the Christians in the Ashrafiyeh area," one woman shouted from her balcony." (Hat tip: Viking Observer.)

"Protesters Torch Danish Embassy in Beirut" (Zeina Karam, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair IX: "BEIRUT, Lebanon - Muslims protesting caricatures of Islam's prophet set fire Sunday to a building housing the Danish Embassy in Lebanon as security forces fired tear gas in an attempt to stop the protesters.
Thousands of protesters took part in the protest but only a small group of Islamic extremists tried to break the security barrier, prompting troops to fire tear gas and water cannons to disperse them, said the official.
Troops also fired bullets into the air and over the protesters' heads. Demonstrators attacked policemen with stones and set fire to several fire engines, witnesses said. Black smoke was seen billowing from the area. They also burned Danish flags.
Security officials said at least 18 people were injured, including policemen, fire fighters and protesters. Witnesses saw at least 10 people taken away by ambulance.
A security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media, said embassy staff had evacuated the building two days ago in anticipation of protests. Some 2,000 army troops and riot police were deployed around the building.
The Danish Foreign Ministry urged Danes to leave Lebanon as soon as possible."

"How can we have respect for Islam when we are too fearful to criticise it?" (Muriel Gray, Sunday Herald, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair VIII: "This may seem a storm in a teacup, but it is in fact a profoundly serious moment in our history. Fundamentalism, utterly at odds with the Western values so vigorously and courageously fought for over two bloody world wars, has successfully undermined the very linchpin of our freedom. ...
This paper’s belief in freedom of speech is paramount. The decision not to reprint the cartoons, not to declare ourselves another Spartacus in support of our European colleagues, was taken, at least partly, out of consideration for the safety of the staff, and the safety of Scottish people here and abroad, and I fully support it. But the extremists, who created the fear that made that decision a foregone conclusion, must understand that if they think the UK press have done this out of respect, they are so very wrong. They have undoubtedly won this battle hands down. Well done. We are afraid. But do they think people neutered and silenced by fear are going to work at embracing their culture, their religion or their values? Clearly, they don’t care. The danger of this backlashing on to our innocent Muslim fellow citizens is a distinct possibility and the thought makes me sick to the stomach. It looks as though those of us aching for the misery of all this hatred to end are in for a long wait."

"Want freedom of speech? You may not like what you are going to hear" (Iain Macwhirter, Sunday Herald, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair VII: "Had it not been for the farce of Blair failing to turn up for his own vote, we would have found ourselves with legislation more typical of Bahrain than Britain. We need more freedom to criticise religion, not less.":
"Yet it’s disturbing to see commentators in the free-thinking Guardian last week suggesting that Westerners didn’t have the right to attack Islam. It was even more alarming to hear Stewart Lee, the comedian and author of Jerry Springer The Opera, saying on BBC’s Today that comedians did not have the right to make fun of the Prophet because “they don’t understand Islam”. I don’t understand Orangeism, but I don’t see why I shouldn’t laugh at Mason Boyne.
The Independent newspaper said the Danish Prophet cartoons were disrespectful to Muslims and that responsible media should avoid insulting peoples’ beliefs. Well, papers like the Indie and the Guardian make fun of democracy every day by portraying George Bush as a chimp and Blair as demented, but nobody would suggest that Steve Bell should be gagged for insulting democracy. ...
And I know that it is considered sacrilege to depict the Prophet, let alone show him with a bomb as a skull. Fair enough. It might be wrong to give such offence were Westerners to publish the cartoons in Iran or Saudi Arabia. But religious people have to accept that there are people who don’t share their faith, don’t have their irrational sensibilities and consider liberty to be more important than the risk of giving insult.
I’m afraid that the forecasts of a clash of civilisations may be coming true. There are some issues on which it is impossible to compromise, and freedom of speech is one of them. A handful of indifferent cartoons has forced Europe and the Muslim world to confront a profound philosophical difference between their cultures."

"Danish Muslims Rebel Against Imams" (Hjörtur Gudmundsson, The Brussels Journal, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair VI: "Yesterday the newly established network of moderate Danish Muslims urged Danish imams, who insist Muslims are being treated badly in Denmark, to move to other countries with societies more in harmony with their own view on the world. “If these imams think it is so terrible to live in Denmark, then why do they remain here?” Naser Khader, the leader of the network and a member of the Danish Parliament for the Social Liberal Party (Radikale), said in an interview with the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten.

'After all no one is forcing them to [live in Denmark]. They can always move to one of the countries in the Middle East which are based on the Muslim values they insist on living by. It seems that their loyalty is mainly to countries such as Saudi Arabia, so I think they should move there. I am tired of hearing them complain about the situation in this country which has given them shelter, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and tons of opportunities for their children. If they cannot be loyal to the values of this country they should leave and by that do the majority of Danish Muslims a big favour. The imams should stop critizising the cartoons and instead critizise the terrorists that cut the throats of innocent hostages in the name of Allah and therefore abuse Islam. But on such occasions we never hear a word from them. Hence, they are hypocrites.'"

(See also: "Denmark: Moderate Muslims Oppose Imams" (Hjörtur Gudmundsson, The Brussels Journal, 2006/01/19))

"'Sensitivity' can have brutal consequences" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair V: "One day, years from now, as archaeologists sift through the ruins of an ancient civilization for clues to its downfall, they'll marvel at how easy it all was. You don't need to fly jets into skyscrapers and kill thousands of people. As a matter of fact, that's a bad strategy, because even the wimpiest state will feel obliged to respond. But if you frame the issue in terms of multicultural "sensitivity," the wimp state will bend over backward to give you everything you want -- including, eventually, the keys to those skyscrapers. Thus, Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, hailed the "sensitivity" of Fleet Street in not reprinting the offending cartoons. ...
Very few societies are genuinely multicultural. Most are bicultural: On the one hand, there are folks who are black, white, gay, straight, pre-op transsexual, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, worshippers of global-warming doom-mongers, and they rub along as best they can. And on the other hand are folks who do not accept the give-and-take, the rough-and-tumble of a "diverse" "tolerant" society, and, when one gently raises the matter of their intolerance, they threaten to kill you, which makes the question somewhat moot.
One day the British foreign secretary will wake up and discover that, in practice, there's very little difference between living under Exquisitely Refined Multicultural Sensitivity and Sharia. As a famously sensitive Dane once put it, 'To be or not to be, that is the question.'"

"We are all Danes now" (Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair IV: "The current uproar over cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper illustrates yet again the fascist intolerance that is at the heart of radical Islam. ...
That anything so mild could trigger a reaction so crazed -- riots, death threats, kidnappings, flag-burnings -- speaks volumes about the chasm that separates the values of the civilized world from those in too much of the Islamic world. Freedom of the press, the marketplace of ideas, the right to skewer sacred cows: Militant Islam knows none of this. And if the jihadis get their way, it will be swept aside everywhere by the censorship and intolerance of sharia. ...
Make no mistake: This story is not going away, and neither is the Islamofascist threat. The freedom of speech we take for granted is under attack, and it will vanish if it is not bravely defended. Today the censors may be coming for some unfunny Mohammed cartoons, but tomorrow it is your words and ideas they will silence. Like it or not, we are all Danes now."

"A manifesto for murder" (Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Los Angeles Times, 2006/02/05)
"Much has been said about the Hamas charter's call for the destruction of Israel and the need for Hamas to renounce this goal as the condition for being granted international legitimacy, economic aid and diplomatic recognition.
But an examination of the charter (available at http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html ) reveals that Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, is not just dedicated (however wrongly or murderously) to the destruction of Israel. It shows Hamas to be governed by a Nazi-like genocidal orientation to Jews in general. ...
Seldom in the modern world has a political party enshrined such hallucinatory hatred and overt murderousness against another people in its constitution, and more seldom still has such a party taken power. The Nazi Party Program of 1920 also contained much anti-Semitism, but compared to Hamas' charter, its demonology and prescriptions were tame. Given the extreme political costs of such speech, governments, political parties and political leaders rarely speak the language of annihilation openly. So when they do, we should take them at their word. The last 100 years have shown that those expressing murderous dreams, like Hitler, mean it."

"Islam on the Outskirts of the Welfare State" (Christopher Caldwell, The New York Times Magazine, 2006/02/05)
"So Sweden now has a Muslim population of 200,000 to 400,000; the higher tally would place it among the most heavily Muslim countries in Western Europe.":
"Today immigrants and their children make up closer to 85 percent of the residents [in Tensta]. As in Bergsjon, dependence is at astronomical levels. A fifth of the women in their late 40's, to take just one of many possible indices, are on disability benefits. [Nalin] Pekgul, who sat for eight years in the Riksdag, the national Parliament, now heads the National Federation of Social Democratic Women. Her decision to stay in Tensta, among people she grew up with, has been an important symbol.
So it was national news when Pekgul let drop in a radio interview that she was looking to move elsewhere, citing rising insecurity and Islamic radicalization. "People are using Islam to distance themselves from Swedish society," she says, sitting over chocolate-covered oatcakes and tea in the building she grew up in. "Ten years ago when I was a member of Parliament, people would see me on the tiniest cable stations. Now, when I'm on big national programs, only one or two people will ever say they've seen me. Everybody else is watching Al Jazeera." ...
Dilsa Demirbag-Sten, a Kurdish immigrant author and television personality, says the focus is too much on discrimination. "Are immigrants discriminated against?" she asks over coffee in the Hotel Lydmar on a sunny Saturday morning. "Definitely. But it is not the only reason they have problems. They are also discriminated against by the racist, anti-Semitic honor culture that many of them live under." Demirbag-Sten, whose new book describes honor culture in Kurdish Sweden, says that the larger problem, in her community, at least, is a new kind of political Islam, one that knows how to probe liberal institutions and use them to advantage. She is particularly frustrated that recent government reports, thick with postcolonial theory and quotations from Edward Said, address neither immigrant anti-Semitism nor immigrant antifeminism. "The focus on discrimination is a way of avoiding the real problem," she says. 'Because if the problem is not discrimination, then the problem is the Swedish system itself.'" (See also: "Pekgul leaves suburb because of violence" (Olof Sjölander, Sveriges Radio, 2005/11/10))

"Playing with fire" (Alex Duval Smith, The Observer, 2006/02/05)
Smith returns to Clichy-sous-Bois. Note the completely absurd use of the PC term "youths":
"Over, then, to the 'robbers', like 17-year-old Mahamadou Keita. 'We won! We kicked Sarko where it hurts,' he proclaims, reflecting the widely shared hatred, among youths, for Sarkozy. The interior minister, who has a keen eye on the 2007 presidential election, has riled youths by calling them 'louts' (racailles) and saying estates should be 'cleaned up with a Karcher' (high-pressure hose). To Mahamadou, a school drop-out who was born in France of Senegalese parents, the police are the physical representation of Sarkozy. 'We gave the police a good hiding and now they have become much more polite. Yesterday I had my ID checked and they used "vous" when they spoke to me. Before it was always [the familiar] "tu". Also, it was the first time I have been checked since the riots. I used to be stopped at least once a week.'
Mahamadou and his friends on the Forrestiere estate describe themselves as African, or 'Rebeu' (slang for Arab), even though most of them have French nationality. ...
'You don't fire at our mosques and expect us to just sit back,' says Algerian-born Samir Mihi, 28, a youth worker for the town hall. 'The grenade was fired "in the direction" of the mosque. We know this because it landed there. If that's what they say, then why do they put guys in prison for throwing stones "in the direction" of the police?' And he adds: 'The kids are very angry. The trouble is going to start up again. It was quiet at New Year, but it's just a matter of time.'"

"Timeline: a history of free speech" (David Smith and Luc Torres, The Observer, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair III. So, whatever happened to Voltaire's "I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write."?:
"1516 The Education of a Christian Prince by Erasmus. 'In a free state, tongues too should be free.' ...
1644 'Areopagitica', a pamphlet by the poet John Milton, argues against restrictions of freedom of the press. 'He who destroys a good book, kills reason itself.'
1689 Bill of Rights grants 'freedom of speech in Parliament' after James II is overthrown and William and Mary installed as co-rulers.
1770 Voltaire writes in a letter: 'Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.'
1789 'The Declaration of the Rights of Man', a fundamental document of the French Revolution, provides for freedom of speech .
1791 The First Amend-ment of the US Bill of Rights guarantees four freedoms: of religion, speech, the press and the right to assemble.
1859 'On Liberty', an essay by the philosopher John Stuart Mill, argues for toleration and individuality. 'If any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.' ...
1929 Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, of the US Supreme Court, outlines his belief in free speech: 'The principle of free thought is not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought we hate.' ...
1992 In Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky points out: 'Goebbels was in favour of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favour of free speech, then you're in favour of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise.'"

"Europe's New Dissidents: Middle Eastern repression comes to the Continent" (Daniel Schwammenthal, OpinionJournal, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair II: "Using their combined economic muscle, death threats and street protests, a combination of state and nonstate actors are slowly exporting to Europe the Middle East's repressive system. What Jyllands-Posten's editors are enduring is not unlike what dissidents under communism had to go through. The Islamists can't send the journalists to a gulag but they can silence them by threatening to kill them. Bomb threats twice forced the journalists to flee their offices last week.
Reminiscent of Stalinist show trials, the paper was in the end forced to show public remorse. The cartoons "were not in variance with Danish law but have indisputably offended many Muslims for which we apologize," the paper said Monday. "I would have never chosen to depict religious symbols in this way," the previously defiant Mr. Rasmussen added. But just like the original show trials, the "admission of guilt" won't cut the Danes much slack. Muslim organizations in Denmark rejected it as not "sincere" and the death threats, protests and boycotts continue. ...
But what really sealed the Danes' fate -- and possibly Europe's -- was the lack of solidarity from other governments. The European Union likes to call "emergency meetings" for the most trivial topics, from farm subsidies to VAT rates. But when one of their smallest members came under attack for nothing else than being a European country, for defending the values and norms the EU is based on, there was nothing but silence from Europe's capitals. That silence has been heard and understood in the Muslim world."

"Muslim protests are incitement to murder, say Tories" (Melissa Kite, The Sunday Telegraph, 2006/02/05)
The Danish cartoon affair I. "The only arrests made were of two men found carrying cartoons of Mohammed.":
"The Conservatives last night called on the police to arrest militant Muslims who threatened Westerners with violence during protests in London over newspaper cartoons that mocked the Prophet Mohammed.
As fanatics - some dressed as suicide bombers - staged more protests yesterday, David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said the police should take action against what were clearly offences of incitement to murder.
At the height of the protests on Friday demonstrators chanted slogans threatening more London bombings, praising the "magnificent" 9/11 hijackers and waving placards saying "Massacre those who insult Islam", "Europe you will pay" and "Europe you'll come crawling when Mujahideen come roaring".
Mr Davis said last night: "Clearly some of these placards are incitement to violence and, indeed, incitement to murder - an extremely serious offence which the police must deal with and deal with quickly.
"Whatever your views on these cartoons, we have a tradition of freedom of speech in this country which has to be protected. Certainly there can be no tolerance of incitement to murder."
Scotland Yard said a decision not to arrest protesters was taken because of public order fears. ...
The only arrests made were of two men found carrying cartoons of Mohammed. Police said they had been detained 'to prevent a breach of the peace.'" (See also: "Call for holy war at London demo" (Steve Bird and Daniel McGrory, The Times, 2006/02/04) and "BEHEAD THOSE WHO INSULT ISLAM" (Stephen Hird, Reuters, 2006/02/03))

Saturday, February 4, 2006

News and commentary:

"Cartoon Debate: The case for mocking religion" (Christopher Hitchens, Slate, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair XIII: "Islam makes very large claims for itself. In its art, there is a prejudice against representing the human form at all. The prohibition on picturing the prophet — who was only another male mammal — is apparently absolute. So is the prohibition on pork or alcohol or, in some Muslim societies, music or dancing. Very well then, let a good Muslim abstain rigorously from all these. But if he claims the right to make me abstain as well, he offers the clearest possible warning and proof of an aggressive intent. This current uneasy coexistence is only an interlude, he seems to say. For the moment, all I can do is claim to possess absolute truth and demand absolute immunity from criticism. But in the future, you will do what I say and you will do it on pain of death. ...
I am not asking for the right to slaughter a pig in a synagogue or mosque or to relieve myself on a "holy" book. But I will not be told I can't eat pork, and I will not respect those who burn books on a regular basis. I, too, have strong convictions and beliefs, and value the Enlightenment above any priesthood or any sacred fetish-object. It is revolting to me to breathe the same air as wafts from the exhalations of the madrasahs, or the reeking fumes of the suicide-murderers, or the sermons of Billy Graham and Joseph Ratzinger. But these same principles of mine also prevent me from wreaking random violence on the nearest church, or kidnapping a Muslim at random and holding him hostage, or violating diplomatic immunity by attacking the embassy or the envoys of even the most despotic Islamic state, or making a moronic spectacle of myself threatening blood and fire to faraway individuals who may have hurt my feelings. The babyish rumor-fueled tantrums that erupt all the time, especially in the Islamic world, show yet again that faith belongs to the spoiled and selfish childhood of our species."

"The cartoon jihad (2)" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair XII: "The still escalating confrontation over the Danish cartoons dramatically illustrates the now pathological reluctance of the leaders of Britain and America to face up to the blindingly obvious and the extent to which they have already run up the white flag in the face of clerical fascism. With holy war declared openly upon the west, with death threats being issued against cartoonists and editors, with Danes, Scandinavians and other Europeans being hunted for kidnap and in fear of their lives, with blood-curdling intimidation, with mob demonstrations, calls to behead westerners and rallying cries for ‘holy war’ by Islam against Europe, the governments of Britain and America are busy prostrating themselves before this terror, apologising for ‘causing offence’ and blaming the victims of this assault; while their intelligentsia earnestly debates whether it is wrong to insult someone else’s religion, for all the world as if this were a university ethics seminar rather than a world war being waged by clerical fascism against free societies and with people in hiding and in fear of their lives for having exercised the right to protest at religious violence and intimidation."

"Two Jordan editors are arrested" (BBC News, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair XI: "Two Jordanian newspaper editors who published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad have been arrested.
Jihad Momani and Hisham Khalidi are accused of insulting religion under Jordan's press and publications law.
Mr Momani was fired from the weekly Shihan after reproducing the cartoons - originally printed in Denmark - which have caused a global storm of protest. ...
Mr Momani's arrest came earlier on Saturday, a day after Jordanian King Abdullah condemned the cartoons as an unnecessary abuse of freedom of speech.
Mr Momani's paper, Shihan, had printed three of the cartoons, alongside an editorial questioning whether the angry reaction to them in the Muslim world was justified.
"Muslims of the world be reasonable," wrote Mr Momani.
"What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?"
Mr Khalidi, whose al-Mehwar newspaper had also reprinted the cartoons, was detained late on Saturday." (See also an interview with Momani: "'The Cartoons Are Silly'" (Joanna Chen, Newsweek, 2006/02/04). Also: "Anger over Mohammad cartoons spreads" (Kerstin Gehmlich, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/03) and "Mohammed Cartoon Conflict Gets Even Hotter" (Deutsche Welle, 2006/02/02))

"Iran president orders economic reprisals for cartoons" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair X: "TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the cancellation of economic contracts with countries where the media have carried cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, the ISNA news agency reported.
The report said the hardline president had ordered the creation of an official body to respond to the cartoons, saying the regime "must revise and cancel economic contracts with the countries that started this repulsive act and those that followed them."
The presidential decree also condemned Saturday the 'the insult by certain Western media of the prophet which shows the hatred towards Islam and Muslims of the Zionists who govern these countries and the absence of serious action by the leaders of these countries.'"

"IAEA Reports Iran to U.N. Security Council" (George Jahn, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/04)
"The U.N. nuclear watchdog Saturday reported Iran to the
U.N. Security Council in a resolution expressing concern that Tehran's nuclear program may not be "exclusively for peaceful purposes." Iran retaliated immediately, saying it would resume uranium enrichment at its main plant instead of in Russia.
The landmark decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board sets the stage for future action by the top U.N. body, which has the authority to impose economic and political sanctions.
Still, any such moves were weeks if not months away. Two permanent council members, Russia and China, agreed to referral only on condition the council take no action before March.
Twenty-seven nations supported the resolution, which was sponsored by three European powers — Britain, France and Germany — and backed by the United States.
Cuba, Syria and Venezuela were the only nations to vote against. ...
Iran reacted immediately, saying a proposal by Moscow to enrich Iranian uranium in Russia was dead.
"Commercial scale uranium enrichment will be resumed in Natanz in accordance with the law passed by the parliament," Javad Vaeidi, deputy head of the powerful National Security Council, told Iran state television in a telephone interview from Vienna."

"Angry demonstrators set ablaze the Danish embassy..."
(Louai Beshara, AFP, 2006/02/04)
"Angry demonstrators set ablaze the Danish embassy in Damascus 04 February 2006."

"Cartoon row: Danish embassy ablaze" (CNN.com, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair IX: "DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Hundreds of Syrian demonstrators stormed the Danish Embassy in Damascus Saturday and set fire to the building, witnesses said.
The demonstrators were protesting offensive caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammed that were first published in a Danish newspaper several months ago.
Witnesses said the demonstrators set fire to the entire building, which also houses the embassies of Chile and Sweden. ...
A leader of the Islamic militant Hamas group, which recently swept Palestinian parliamentary elections, told an Italian newspaper on Saturday that the cartoons were an "unforgivable insult" that should be punished by death.
"We should have killed all those who offend the Prophet and instead here we are, protesting peacefully," Mahmoud Zahar, a top leader of the militant Islamic group that won the January 25 Palestinian elections, told Italian daily Il Giornale.
"We should have killed them, we should have required just punishment for those who respect neither religion nor its holiest symbols," Zahar was quoted as saying." (See also: "Embassies burn in cartoon protest" (BBC News, 2006/02/04): "Syrians have set fire to the Norwegian and Danish embassies in Damascus to protest at the publication of newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Protesters stormed the Danish site amid chants of "God is great", before moving on to attack the Norwegian mission.
Police fired tear gas to try to disperse crowds at the second site, but protesters broke in and set it ablaze.")

"The reality of cartoon violence" (Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair VIII: "Fleming Rose, culture editor of Jyllands-Posten, commissioned the 12 cartoons in an effort to clear the air of "self-censorship". A Danish children's writer had announced he could find no artists willing to illustrate his biography of Mohammed. You can see why the artists worried. ...
Observers keep reaching for doctrinaire explanations of what the Danish controversy is about. "The issue at stake here is not 'self-censorship'," Edgar Bronfman of the World Jewish Congress wrote in The Times.
"It is whether respect for other religious beliefs, traditions and practices really applies to everybody, including Muslims."
It would be nice if that were true. But there have been enough similar episodes to make clear that self-censorship is at stake here: the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the murder of Mr Rushdie's Japanese translator and his Norwegian editor, the murder of Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands in 2004, the insistence on anonymity of all translators of the Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and so on. Bill Clinton, the former US president, and German Muslim leaders have also likened the cartoons to historical anti-Semitism. But this is cant. The worst threats and most unruly demonstrations did not object to any demeaning "message" in the cartoons. They objected to the sacrilege of depicting Mohammed at all. This is not a demand for respect or fair treatment. It is a demand that non-Muslims live by Muslim religious rules.
In recent decades, Denmark has been a haven for hardcore pornography, Nazi broadcasting and movies flogging the dead horse of European Christianity. One did not notice global leaders rushing to condemn the Danes. Are the Mohammed drawings so much worse than these? Or is it that they have been met with a credible threat of violence?"

"If you get rid of the Danes, you'll have to keep paying the Danegeld" (Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair VII: "Which leads me to question the extreme tenderness with which so many governments and media outlets in the West treat these outbursts of outrage. It is assumed that Muslims have a common, almost always bristling, view about their faith, which must be respected. Of course it is right that people's deeply held beliefs should be treated courteously, but it is a great mistake - made out of ignorance - to assume that those who shout the loudest are the most representative. ...
If we take fright whenever extreme Muslims complain, we put more power in their hands. If the Religious Hatred Bill had passed unamended this week, it would have been an open invitation to any Muslim who likes getting angry to try to back his anger with the force of law. Even in its emasculated state, the Bill will still encourage him, thus stirring the ill-feeling its authors say they want to suppress. ...
There is a great deal of talk about responsible journalism, gratuitous offence, multicultural sensitivities and so on. Jack Straw gibbers about the irresponsibility of the cartoons, but says nothing against the Muslims threatening death in response to them. I wish someone would mention the word that dominates Western culture in the face of militant Islam - fear. And then I wish someone would face it down."

"So they have thin skins. That shouldn’t stop us poking fun at them" (Matthew Parris, The Times, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair VI: "But offence implicitly offered, and offence actually taken, are two different matters. On the whole Christians, for example, take offence less readily than Muslims. The case for treating them, in consequence, differently is obvious, but we should be wary of it. It means groups are allowed to be as thin-skinned as they wish: to dictate for themselves how delicately we must tread with them — to create, as it were, their own definition of respect and require us to observe it. ...
Many faiths and ideologies achieve and maintain their predominance partly through fear. They, of course, would call it “respect”. But whatever you call it, it intimidates. The reverence, the awe — even the dread — that their gods, their KGB or their priesthoods demand and inspire among the laity are vital to the authority they wield.
Against reverence and awe the best argument is sometimes not logic, but mockery. Structures of oppression that may not be susceptible to rational debate may in the end yield to derision. When people see that a priest, rabbi, imam or uniformed official may be giggled at without lightning striking the impertinent, arguments may be won on a deeper level than logic.
We should never, therefore, relinquish, nor lightly value, our right not to argue in the face of other people’s gods — but to fart."

"Drawn into a religious conflict" (Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair V: "The West's current struggle with a murderous global Sunni Muslim insurgency and the threat of a nuclear-armed theocracy in Iran makes it clear that it's no longer possible to overlook the culture of intolerance, hatred and xenophobia that permeates the Islamic world. The hard work of rooting those things out will have to be done by honest Muslim leaders and intellectuals willing to retrace their tradition's steps and do the intellectual heavy lifting that participation in the modern world requires. They won't be helped, however, if Western governments continue to pander to Islamic sensitivity while looking away from violent Islamic intolerance. They won't be helped by European diplomats and officials who continue to ignore the officially sanctioned hate regularly directed at Jews by the Mideast's government-controlled media, while commiserating with Muslims offended by a few cartoons in the West's free news media."

"Portraying prophet from Persian art to South Park" (Anthony Browne and Ruth Gledhill, The Times, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair IV: "Despite the outcry, the Danish cartoons of Muhammad are just the latest in a long line of depictions of the Muslim prophet, both in the West and in Islamic countries. From Ottoman religious icons to market stalls in Iran, from the US Supreme Court building to the South Park cartoon, Muhammad has been frequently portrayed in flattering and unflattering lights. ...
Muhammad is recorded in the hadith, one of the four arms of Sharia, or Islamic law, as having said: “And who is more unjust than those who try to create the likeness of My creation?” He also said: “Angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or a picture.”
Taken with the Koran’s injunctions on respect for the Prophet, these sayings mean, in strict Islamic interpretation, that any representation of any living thing is forbidden. Essential illustrations in academic textbooks might, for example, show a cow but with the head missing. ...
In the past 20 years, many books on Islam in France have shown pictures of Muhammad, even on their cover, in a more sympathetic light.
In 2001, the satirical television cartoon South Park included an episode called Super Best Friends in which Muhammad and the founders of the other world religions acted as superheroes. Although not deliberately blasphemous, there can be few portrayals of Muhammad less respectful than this all-singing, all-dancing version." (See also: "Mohammed Image Archive: Depictions of Mohammed Throughout History" (zombietime))

"Child's tale led to clash of cultures" (Luke Harding, The Guardian, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair III: "It began innocuously enough. Last year the Danish writer Kare Bluitgen had been searching for someone who could illustrate his children's book about the life of the prophet Muhammad. It soon became clear, however, that nobody wanted the job, through fear of antagonising Muslim feelings about images of Muhammad.
One artist turned down the commission on the grounds that he didn't want to suffer the same grisly fate as Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film-maker stabbed to death by an Islamist fanatic. Two others also declined. "They were worried," Mr Bluitgen said, adding: "Eventually someone agreed to do it anonymously."
Mr Bluitgen's trouble prompted several Danish newspapers, including the best-selling Jyllands-Posten (Jutland Post), to begin a debate. How far should Denmark go down the road of self-censorship? And was freedom of speech more important than Muslim sensitivities?
On September 30 the paper's editor, Carsten Juste, launched his own provocative experiment, commissioning and publishing 12 cartoonists who had come up with their own satirical drawings of the prophet Muhammad."

"Danish cartoonists fear for their lives" (Anthony Browne, The Times, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair II: "Twelve Danish cartoonists whose pictures sparked such outcry have gone into hiding under round-the-clock protection, fearing for their lives.
The cartoonists, many of whom had reservations about the pictures, have been shocked by how the affair has escalated into a global “clash of civilisations”. They have since tried, unsuccessfully, to stop them being reprinted.
A spokesman for the cartoonists said: “They are in hiding around Denmark. Some of them are really, really scared. They don’t want to see the pictures reprinted all over the world. We couldn’t stop it. We tried, but we couldn’t.”
Mogens Blicher Bjerregaard, president of the Danish Union of Journalists, told The Times: 'They are keeping a very low profile. They are very concerned about their safety. They feel a big responsibility on their shoulders. It’s blown up so big. It is tough for them.'"

"Call for holy war at London demo" (Steve Bird and Daniel McGrory, The Times, 2006/02/04)
The Danish cartoon affair I. Evan Kohlmann: "Anyone who remains skeptical of this serious threat to the political stability of Europe should come and listen to extremist British Muslims gleefully express their desire to "spread blood in the streets of England" in "another 7/7" -- precisely as they did today in front of hundreds of police and other onlookers. There can be no clearer warning to the Western world.":
"Muslim protesters threatened more terrorist attacks as they converged in their hundreds outside the Danish Embassy in London yesterday for what organisers said was the start of a new holy war in Britain. ...
There were sporadic clashes with passers-by over chants praising the four British-born suicide bombers who killed 52 passengers on three Underground trains and a London bus last July 7.
People who tried to snatch away what they regarded as offending placards were held back by police. Several members of the public tackled senior police officers guarding the protesters, demanding to know why they allowed banners that praised the “Magnificent 19” — the terrorists who hijacked the aircrafts used on September 11, 2001 — and others threatening further attacks on London. ...
Anjem Choudary, one of the organisers, refused to condemn threats of another series of bombings on Britain. He said: “The fact is 7/7 was brought upon the people of London by the foreign policy of Tony Blair. He violated the sanctity of Muslims. He violated the covenant of security.
' If Muslims don’t feel safe and think they will be subject to arrest or deportation, if their houses are going to be raided, then there will be repercussions. There’s no reason why there will not be another suicide bombing.'" (See also: "BEHEAD THOSE WHO INSULT ISLAM" (Stephen Hird, Reuters, 2006/02/03))

Friday, February 3, 2006

News and commentary:

"BEHEAD THOSE WHO INSULT ISLAM"
(Stephen Hird, Reuters, 2006/02/03)
"British Muslims demonstrate outside the Danish embassy over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, in London February 3, 2006." Some other charming slogans at the rally: "EXTERMINATE THOSE WHO SLANDER ISLAM", "EUROPE. YOU WILL PAY. DEMOLITION IS ON THE WAY.", "EUROPE. TAKE SOME LESSONS FROM 9/11", "BE PREPARED FOR THE REAL HOLOCAUST" and "FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION GO TO HELL!!".

"Van Gogh Murderer: Prophet Justifies My Deed" (NIS News, 2006/02/03)
"AMSTERDAM, 03/02/06 - The prophet Mohammed justifies Islamic violence in the battle between the faithful and unfaithful. Paradise awaits the faithful who die as a result, Mohammed Bouyeri claimed yesterday in the district court of The Hague.
Bouyeri hoped for paradise himself when he assassinated Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam on 2 November 2004. But after a shoot-out with the police, he was taken alive, and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder with terrorist motives. Yesterday, he made a 2.5-hour plea in the court case against the Hofstad alleged terrorist group, of which he is allegedly the leader.
"When you compare me to Osama Bin Laden, you are seriously wronging him and giving me too much honour that I do not deserve," Bouyeri said to the Public Prosecutor (OM). 'But the fact that you see me as the black standard-bearer of Islam in Europe fills me with honour, pride and happiness.'" (Hat tip: LGF.)

"Massacre of Christians in Jolo deals heavy blow to hopes for peace" (AsiaNews.it, 2006/02/03)
Meanwhile, in the Philippines: "Suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen knocked on door in a farm in Patikul, Mindanao, and opened fire after asking residents if they were Christian. Six people are confirmed dead, including a nine-month baby girl, and five others are seriously wounded.
Jolo (AsiaNews) – The massacre of Christians in Jolo “deals a heavy blow at hopes for peace” and is very dangerous because “any incident can now spark a war of religion,” a local Catholic source (who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons) told AsiaNews as he commented this morning’s attack against Christians in Patikul, a small town on Sulu Island near Jolo (Mindanao). The perpetrators could be foreign extremists from abroad, a missionary expert in Filipino affairs said.
Muslim extremists raided the farm over night in Patikul township, killing six Christians, including a nine-month infant girl, said Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, the island's military chief, who also confirmed that five other people were seriously wounded, among them a three-year old boy.
The gunmen appeared to be from the Abu Sayyaf (Bearers of the Sword) Group, a Muslim extremist organisation believed to be al-Qaeda-linked.
According to one eyewitness who survived, the attack was clearly motivated by religion. “Survivors of the carnage told military investigators that the attackers asked them for their religion. The gunmen left and then came back soon after and just opened fire on the Christians,” Brig. General Aleo said."

"Text of Danish Imams' case against Denmark" (Judith Apter Klinghoffer, HNN, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair XVI. An English translation of the Danish Imams' case against Denmark: "Here is what the Danish Islamic priest told religious and political leaders of the Middle East. This is the first pages of a 40 page case file compiled by the Danish Imams." [Remarks in italics by the translator]
One of their examples of a "continuation of the aggression" against Muslims is that Denmark allowed Ayaan Hirsi Ali to visit and that she even was allowed to criticise Islam.
One of their "direct demands" is "an apology from the newspaper, and promises of that it would never happen again, and in future to respect all that is holy to the Muslims."
So now you see how it is…:
"Even though they belong to the Christian faith, the secularizations have overcome them, and if you say that they are all infidels, then you are not wrong. ...
The faithful in their religion (Muslims) suffer under a number of circumstances, first and foremost the lack of official recognition of the Islamic faith. (This is not true) Which lead to a lot of problems, especially the lack of right to build mosks (Another lie, everybody is free to build, when municipal rules are followed), and the true believers are forced in to converting former business building and warehouses to place of worship.
Among these conditions you find an atmosphere, which nourish a growing racism, which grow worse after the 9/11 incidents. And it, the racism, has many different expressions, but common for them all is that they speak badly about Islam. ...
Denmark greeted the Dutch author of Somali decent, who is the author of the film, that degrades Islam, and whose producer was killed recently in Holland. The reception for her was a continuation of the aggression especially because she gave an interview to Danish television where she talked about Islam in a degrading way. And the most strange is, that the prime minister, which said no to meet with the ambassadors, welcomed her and awarded her with a price, just as he showed his approval of her courageous points of view, and that he supported her fee [free?] opinions. So now you see how it is…"

"Democracy in a Cartoon" (Ibn Warraq, Der Spiegel, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair XV: "A democracy cannot survive long without freedom of expression, the freedom to argue, to dissent, even to insult and offend. It is a freedom sorely lacking in the Islamic world, and without it Islam will remain unassailed in its dogmatic, fanatical, medieval fortress; ossified, totalitarian and intolerant. Without this fundamental freedom, Islam will continue to stifle thought, human rights, individuality; originality and truth.
Unless, we show some solidarity, unashamed, noisy, public solidarity with the Danish cartoonists, then the forces that are trying to impose on the Free West a totalitarian ideology will have won; the Islamization of Europe will have begun in earnest. Do not apologize.
This raises another more general problem: the inability of the West to defend itself intellectually and culturally. Be proud, do not apologize. ...
The west is the source of the liberating ideas of individual liberty, political democracy, the rule of law, human rights and cultural freedom. It is the west that has raised the status of women, fought against slavery, defended freedom of enquiry, expression and conscience. No, the west needs no lectures on the superior virtue of societies who keep their women in subjection, cut off their clitorises, stone them to death for alleged adultery, throw acid on their faces, or deny the human rights of those considered to belong to lower castes. ...
Freedom of expression is our western heritage and we must defend it or it will die from totalitarian attacks. It is also much needed in the Islamic world. By defending our values, we are teaching the Islamic world a valuable lesson, we are helping them by submitting their cherished traditions to Enlightenment values."

"Protecting Mohammed" (William F. Buckley, Jr., National Review, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair XIV: "The most striking aspect of the controversy is the leverage of the offended Muslim community. Even in the United States, even a publication as venturesome as Slate magazine describes the offending caricatures but is careful not to reproduce them. A quite natural curiosity attaches to how these twelve caricatures actually looked. One of them features Mohammed in a vaporous cloud addressing an assembly of suicide terrorists, with the caption that the heavenly kingdom has run out of virgins, so that aspirant debauchers simply have to lay off for a while. How was all that actually depicted by the cartoonist? Even the banal representation of Mohammed with a bomb replacing the turban on his head did not appear in the New York Times, the paper of record.
The offending cartoons have to be imagined. The reason for it is what turns out to be an iron glove at the disposal of the Islamic establishment. The publisher of Paris's France Soir, which did reproduce the images, fired the editor who was responsible. Massive boycotts of Danish goods are in motion. Foreign leaders and press spokesmen are objects of boycotts and even death threats. Flag burning is routine. What we have seen is an intimation of the strength of a mobilized Muslim community. And this is early on, in the great narrative of the growth of Muslim power in Europe, where national suicide is reflected in the birth rates of Italian, German, French, and British non-Muslims (to call them Christians would be wholesale co-optation). These societies seem to be willing themselves to go out of existence, as the birth rate falls below the replacement rate.
There are Europeans who are satisfied that the tradition of press liberty is asserting itself in the current challenge but who are entitled to wonder whether five, ten years from now — let alone fifty — any such frolic as that of Jyllands-Posten would in fact be tolerated."

"Three Pillars of Wisdom" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair XIII: "Now the Islamic world is organizing boycotts of Denmark because one of its newspapers chose to run a cartoon supposedly lampooning the prophet Mohammed. We are supposed to forget that it is de rigueur in raucous Scandinavian popular culture to attack Christianity with impunity. Much less are we to remember that Hamas terrorists occupied and desecrated the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in a globally televised charade.
Instead, Danish officials are threatened, boycotts organized, ambassadors recalled — and, yes, Bill Clinton steps forward to offer another lip-biting apology while garnering lecture fees in the oil-rich Gulf, in the manner of his mea culpa last year to the Iranian mullacracy. There is now a pattern to Clintonian apologies — they almost always occur overseas and on someone else's subsidy.
Ever since that seminal death sentence handed down to Salman Rushdie by the Iranian theocracy, the Western world has incrementally and insidiously accepted these laws of asymmetry. Perhaps due to what might legitimately be called the lunacy principle ("these people are capable of doing anything at anytime"), the Muslim Middle East can insist on one standard of behavior for itself and quite another for others. It asks nothing of its own people and everything of everyone else's, while expecting no serious repercussions in the age of political correctness, in which affluent and leisured Westerners are frantic to avoid any disruption in their rather sheltered lives."

"The lies we tell ourselves" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair XII: "At its base, the Muslim furor over the cartoons is part and parcel of their culture war against the West. The Muslims pushing the issue believe that non-Muslims ought to behave obsequiously towards all things Islamic, while the Muslims are free to demonize Jews as monkeys and pigs and accuse Christians of being idolaters. According to the rules of their culture war, if Western societies refuse to behave in accordance with their dictates, the Muslims have the right and duty to attack them.
That is, the culture war that is being waged by the Arabs and Muslims in response to the Danish cartoons is an assault on the West's right to live and govern in accordance with its values. It is an assault on the notions of freedom and self-determination themselves."

"Turkey Condemns Danish Cartoons of Islamic Prophet" (Amberin Zaman, VOA News, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair XI: "Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has added his voice to those that are condemning the publication of caricatures of Islam's prophet. On Friday, he called the images an attack on the spiritual values of the Muslim people.
Late last year, during an official trip to Denmark, Mr. Erdogan criticized images that depict the Prophet Muhammad in different guises.
On Friday, he went further. He was quoted by the Turkish media as saying there should be a limit to freedom of the press. He said caricatures of Islam fuel conflict at a time when the world is seeking to establish an alliance between civilizations. ...
Analysts say Mr. Erdogan's remarks about limits on press freedom are sure to draw criticism from the European Union. Turkey opened membership talks with the 25 nation alliance in October but has faced mounting censure over the continued prosecution of academics, journalists and writers, including the world famous novelist Orhan Pamuk, for expressing views deemed to insult the Turkish identity."

"US sides with Muslims in cartoon dispute" (Reuters, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair X. Glenn Reynolds: "I'm sorry, but the lesson here is that if you want to be listened to, you should blow things up. That's a very bad incentive structure, but it's the one the allegedly responsible parties have created.":
"Washington on Friday condemned caricatures in European newspapers of the Prophet Mohammad, siding with Muslims who are outraged that the publications put press freedom over respect for religion.
By inserting itself into a dispute that has become a lightning rod for anti-European sentiment across the Muslim world, the United States could help its own battered image among Muslims.
"These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question. "We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable."
"We call for tolerance and respect for all communities for their religious beliefs and practices," he added."

"Protests Over Muhammad Drawings Intensify" (Ibrahim Barzak, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair IX: "In Sudan, some even urged al-Qaida terrorists to target Denmark.
"Strike, strike, Bin Laden," shouted some in a crowd of about 50,000 who filled a Khartoum square. ...
"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, a tailor who marched in the pouring rain with hundreds of other Muslims in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," the protesters chanted. ...
In Iraq, about 4,500 people protested in the southern city of Basra, burning the Danish flag. Some 600 worshippers stomped on Danish flags before burning them outside Baghdad's Abu Hanifa Mosque, Sunni Islam's holiest shrine in Iraq. Demonstrators also burned Danish journalists in effigy and torched boxes of Danish cheese."

"Anger sweeps Middle East over cartoons of Mohammad" (Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Reuters/SignOnSignDiego.com, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair VIII: "'We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible,' one preacher told worshippers at the al-Omari Mosque in the Gaza Strip as tensions spread over the publication of the cartoons, first in Denmark and later in Norway, France, Germany and Spain. ...
'We must tell Europeans, we can live without you. But you cannot live without us,' prominent Muslim cleric Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi told worshippers in Qatar. 'We can buy from China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia... we will not be humiliated.'
In Lebanon, thousands of Palestinian refugees marched through the streets of their camps, burning Danish and Norwegian flags and calling on Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader, to avenge the Prophet Mohammad.
'We will not be satisfied with protests. The solution is the slaughter of those who harmed Islam and the Prophet,' said Sheikh Abu Sharif, spokesman for the militant Osbet al-Ansar group, at a rally in Lebanon's largest camp, the southern Ein al-Hilweh. ...
At a rally organized by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections last week, as many as 50,000 protesters called for the cartoonists to be punished.
'Let the hands that drew (the cartoons) be severed,' they chanted."

"Anger over Mohammad cartoons spreads" (Kerstin Gehmlich, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair VII: "Denmark said on Friday it could not apologize for cartoons in a Danish newspaper depicting the Prophet Mohammad as outrage spread across the Muslim world from the Middle East to countries in Asia. ...
"Neither the Danish government nor the Danish nation as such can be held responsible for drawings published in a Danish newspaper," Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after meeting with Muslim envoys in Copenhagen.
"A Danish government can never apologize on behalf of a free and independent newspaper," he said. "This is basically a dispute between some Muslims and a newspaper." ...
Palestinian gunmen seized and later released a German on Thursday, and a hand grenade was thrown into the compound of the French Cultural Center in the Gaza Strip. ...
The editor of a Norwegian magazine which reprinted the Danish cartoons said he had received 25 death threats and thousands of hate messages.
A Jordanian editor was sacked for reprinting them, despite saying his purpose had been only to show the extent of the Danish insult to Islam. "Oh I ask God to forgive me," Jihad Momani wrote in a public letter of apology.
Iraqi Christians said they feared a new wave of attacks by Muslims, driven by anger over the images."

"Muslims attack Danish embassy building in Jakarta" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair VI: "About 300 militant Indonesian Muslims went on a rampage inside the lobby of a Jakarta building housing the Danish embassy on Friday in protest over cartoons that Muslims say insult Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.
Shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), the white-clad protesters from the hardline Islamic Defender's Front (FPI) smashed lamps with bamboo sticks and threw chairs around in anger at cartoons originally published by a Danish daily.
They also threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at the Danish embassy symbol inside the lobby. The embassy is on the 25th floor of the building and protesters were unable to get past security in the lobby, a Reuters photographer said."

"Muslims: integration or separatism?" (David Pryce-Jones, The New Criterion, February 2006)
"Day after day, in one detail after another, European authorities and decision-makers, some of them at a high level and others local, degrade the values and practices of their societies by currying favour with Islam in politics, the media, cultural, and behavioral issues, and even the law — a British judge prohibited Hindus and Jews from sitting on the jury in the trial of a Muslim. ...
The mayor of London, a critic of the Iraqi campaign and a notorious Jew-baiter to boot, shared a platform with Sheikh Qaradawi, and praised him as a great Muslim scholar, although Qaradawi is wanted for murder in his native Egypt, calls for the assassination of homosexuals, and is on record as describing suicide bombings as “heroic operations of martyrdom.” The British bishops have gathered to pontificate that “Democracy as we have it in the West at the moment is deeply flawed and its serious shortcomings need to be addressed.” Their recommendation is “a public act of repentance” made to senior figures from the Muslim community. In medieval Spain, King Ferdinand III fought the Moors for twenty-seven years, and recently the municipality of Seville removed him as the patron saint of their fiesta, for fear of offending Muslims — at the moment when Osama bin Laden was speaking on a video released to al-Jazeera television of his intention to liberate Andalusia, to give Moorish Spain its Muslim name."

"Palestine Without Illusions" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2006/02/03)
"The world must impress upon the Palestinians that there are consequences for their choices. And so long as they choose rejectionism -- the source of a 60-year conflict the Israelis have long been ready to resolve -- the world will not continue to support and subsidize them.
And that means cutting off Hamas completely: no recognition, no negotiation, no aid, nothing. And not just assistance to a Hamas government but all assistance. ...
They want blood and death and romance? They will get nothing. They choose peace and coexistence? Then, as President Bush pledged in June 2002, they will get everything: world recognition, financial assistance, their own state with independence and dignity.
In August 2001, Hamas sent a suicide bomber into a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. He killed 15 innocent Israelis, mutilating many dozens more. A month later, Hamas student activists at al-Najah University in Nablus celebrated the attack with an exhibit, a mockup of the smashed Sbarro shop strewn with blood and fake body parts -- a severed leg, still dressed in jeans; a human hand dangling from the ceiling. The inscription (with a reference to the Qassam military wing of Hamas) read: "Qassami Pizza is more delicious."
The correct term for such a mentality is not militancy, not extremism, but moral depravity. The world must advise the Palestinian people that if their national will is to embrace Hamas -- its methods and its madness -- then their national will is simply too murderous and, yes, too depraved for the world to countenance, let alone subsidize."

"'The War is On'" (Hjörtur Gudmundsson, The Brussels Journal, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair V: "Yesterday (Thursday) Mullah Krekar, the alleged leader of the Islamist group Ansar al-Islam who has been living in Norway as a refugee since 1991, said that the publication of the Muhammad cartoons was a declaration of war. “The war has begun,” he told Norwegian journalists. Mr Krekar said Muslims in Norway are preparing to fight. It does not matter if the governments of Norway and Denmark apologize, the war is on.
Islamist organizations all over the world are issuing threats towards Europeans. The Islamist terrorist group Hizbollah announced that it is preparing suicide attacks in Denmark and Norway. A senior imam in Kuwait, Nazem al-Masbah, said that those who have published cartoons of Muhammad should be murdered. He also threatened all citizens of the countries where the twelve Danish cartoons ... have been published with death."

"European press review" (BBC News, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair IV: "Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung warns of the consequences of apologising for the cartoons' publication.
The paper says people seem more willing to apologise over the cartoons than at the time of the fatwa against Mr Rushdie.
It believes their attitude is undermining the principles of freedom of speech and the autonomy of art.
"It would be utterly disastrous if, under the pretext of 'political correctness', something like a special duty to protect all or some religions were to be devised," the paper says.
It argues that in secular civil society there must not be any "taboos on thought" and that, if in doubt, people can appeal in court.
"Nobody must be threatened," the daily says.
Austria's Der Standard is alarmed at what it calls an "apology as soft as butter" by the country's ambassador in Tehran.
The paper complains that the envoy expressed "deep regret" but apparently failed to mention "that there is something like freedom of speech in the West".
It concedes that an escalation is in nobody's interest, but adds that 'this cowardly renunciation of any awareness of values is intolerable.'"

"Day of anger threatened over cartoons of Prophet" (David Rennie and Tim Butcher, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair III: "A leading Islamic cleric called for an "international day of anger" today over publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, and a Danish activist predicted that deadly violence could break out in Europe "at any minute". ...
A leading hard-line Muslim cleric, Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi, called for the day of anger to protest against the printing of the cartoons - first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September - in other European papers.
"Let Friday be an international day of anger for God and his prophet," said the sheikh, who is the head of the International Association of Muslim Scholars. ...
Ahmed Akkari, a Muslim theologian from Copenhagen, said he had attended a meeting this week with the Danish intelligence service, which called the situation "very, very tense".
He said that a text message had been sent to the mobile phones of young Muslims "telling people not to react to provocations from Right-wing extremists, like burning the Koran, but I know some Muslims will not listen to our message".
He said the level of anger was "very high" in the Muslim community across Europe and the wider world.
"It is more likely [than not] that any minute we will hear of violence unless the police can control the situation."
Mr Akkari is the spokesman for a group of Danish imams and activists who brought the cartoons - plus three more offensive ones from an unknown source - to the wider attention of Muslims in trips to Egypt and Lebanon. One of the three new cartoons shows Mohammed with a pig's snout." (See also: "Imams accused of doublespeak" (The Copenhagen Post, 2006/02/02))

"Cartoon wars and the clash of civilisations" (Daniel McGrory and Dan Sabbagh, The Times, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair II: "The BBC was drawn into the row after broadcasting the images on its main evening bulletins. The move drew accusations from Muslim leaders that the corporation was inciting racial hatred.
Channel 4 News and The Spectator magazine website also showed the images, originally published in Denmark, dragging Britain into an increasingly ugly confrontation between Islam and the West. ...
Across the region, including Baghdad and Basra, Muslim leaders called for protests after Friday prayers today. Demonstrations are also expected to spread to major European capitals after a dozen more publications in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain carried the cartoons. ...
Last night both the Muslim Association and the militant Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Britain condemned the BBC’s behaviour and pleaded with it to drop the broadcasts.
A spokesman for the Muslim Association said: 'The BBC is inciting racial hatred and not conducting a serious debate on freedom of speech. This threatens to become another Salman Rushdie affair.'"

"Foreigners flee as gunmen hunt 'targets'" (Anthony Browne and Stephen Farrell, The Times, 2006/02/03)
The Danish cartoon affair I: "Militants threatened yesterday to kidnap Western citizens in retaliation for the publication of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Western governments tried to ease tensions before today’s prayers in mosques, which they fear will increase anger.
Diplomats, journalists and aid workers fled Gaza and the West Bank as Palestinian gunmen searched hotels for citizens of countries where newspapers had printed the pictures, declaring that they were legitimate targets.
The EU, the main financial supporter of the Palestinian Authority, stepped up security at its offices in Gaza after gunmen fired into the air outside and scrawled graffiti saying that the offices were “closed until an apology is sent to Muslims”. ...
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the extremist Hezbollah movement, said: “I am sure there are millions of Muslims who are ready to give their lives to defend our Prophet’s honour.” He said that people would not have dared to insult Islam if the novelist Salman Rushdie had been executed."

Thursday, February 2, 2006

News and commentary:

"Imams accused of doublespeak" (The Copenhagen Post, 2006/02/02)
The Danish cartoon affair XI: "Danish imams are blamed for fanning the flames of the on-going conflict over Mohammed caricatures by saying one thing in Danish and something else in Arabic
PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen lashed out at extremist Muslim leaders in Denmark on Thursday for speaking with two tongues in the on-going row between the country and the Muslim world.
Rasmussen said imams' positive comments in Danish about the recent days' thaw in the dispute over newspaper Jyllands-Posten's publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet Mohammed had been undermined by statements made in Arabic to the media from Muslim countries.
'We have clearly noted that in certain situations, some people are speaking with two tongues,' Rasmussen said after meeting the parliament's foreign policy committee. 'The government watches what news and information is circulated in Arabic countries very closely so we can catch false stories and correct them immediately.'
Rasmussen was referring specifically to an incident in which controversial imam Abu Laban said to television station al-Jazeera that he was happy about the Muslim boycott. Later in the day, Laban said to Danish television station TV2 that he would urge Muslims to stop the boycott immediately. ...
Earlier this week, imam Abu Bashir appeared on BBC World showing a caricature of Mohammed with a pig's snout and ears to representatives of the Arabic League. Bashir falsely claimed that the caricature was one of the 12 Jyllands-Posten drawings." (See also: "Scandinavian Update: Israeli Boycott, Muslim Cartoons" (Hjörtur Gudmundsson, The Brussels Journal, 2006/01/14))

"British Jihadists: 'Kill all those who insult Muhammad'" (Judith Apter Klinghoffer, History News Network, 2006/02/02)
The Danish cartoon affair X. Note that the "Kill those..." text cited here is taken from the current page at Al Ghurabaa and differs slightly from the one in Klinghoffer's original post. I guess Al Ghurabaa has updated the page since then:
"As far as I know the British paper have not yet published the cartoons but one group Al Ghurabaa is planning a mass demonstration in London on Saturday and issued the following calls: ...

THE TRINITY OF EVIL

The recent cartoons that appeared in a Danish newspaper (Jyllands-Posten) and that were then re-printed in a Norwegian magazine, The Paris daily France Soir, The German Welt daily, Spanish and also Italian newspapers and which insult the Messenger Muhammad (saw) carry the death penalty in Islam for the perpetrators, since the Prophet said ‘Whoever insults a Prophet kill him’ ...

Kill those who insult the Prophet Muhammad (saw)

The kuffar in their sustained crusade against Islam and Muslims have yet again displayed their hatred towards us this time by attacking the honour of our beloved Messenger Muhammad (saw). In September 2005 the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 10 cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad (saw) which were later republished by a Norwegian paper Magazinet. Until now both governments have refused to denounce the drawings and to condemn the publication of them. ...
The insulting of the Messenger Muhammad (saw) is something that the Muslims cannot and will not tolerate and the punishment in Islam for the one who does so is death. This is the sunnah of the prophet and the verdict of Islam upon such people, one that any Muslim is able execute."

(See also: "London Islamists target Israel, Denmark" (Ynetnews, 2006/02/02))

"Cartoon jihad" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2006/02/02)
The Danish cartoon affair IX: "Yet for becoming the latest unlikely front in the war declared upon civilisation by religious fascism, Denmark has not been supported but criticised from the United Nations and the EU. This was a staggering reaction when one considers the fact that relatively mild images making a valid political point were condemned by the EU and UN; while the truly hate-filled, disgusting images about Jews that pour out of the Arab and Muslim world portraying them as diabolical, Satanic, bestial, repellent and inhuman – in the service of lies and libels designed to incite mass murder – attract no opprobrium from the EU or UN at all. ...
And people still say there is no clash of civilisations. There is – and on this evidence, the west is losing it."

"Iraqi churches bombed: Link with Danish cartoons?" (Barnabas Fund, 2006/02/02)
The Danish cartoon affair VIII: "A spate of car bombs exploded outside churches in Iraq last Sunday 29th January in what appears to have been a coordinated attack. The explosions occurred within a half hour period, apparently chosen to coincide with the time at which Christians would be going to church.
Two churches in the northern city of Kirkuk and at least two others in the capital Baghdad were targeted. At least three people, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed and an estimated 16-20 people injured. According to some reports as many as seven churches were bombed. ...
Many Christians in Iraq are connecting this week’s church bombings with the growing furore across the Muslim world caused by the publication of some cartoons caricaturing Muhammad in a Danish newspaper on 30th September 2005. ...
On the same day, 29th January, Christian students at Mosul University were beaten up by Muslim students. Some days earlier a number of fatwas had been issued by sheikhs in Mosul, acting in reponse to pressure from Islamic militias in the city. The fatwas called for their followers to 'expel the crusaders and infidels from the streets, schools and institutions because they insulted the person of the prophet in Denmark." (See also: "The first fatality of the Mohammed pictures" (Nuri Kino, Expressen, 2006/01/31) and "Bombs Strike Christian Targets in Iraq" (Paul Garwood, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/01/29))

 

"Islam: les caricatures de la discorde"
(Plantu, Le Monde, 2006/02/02)

"France's Le Monde publishes front-page cartoon of Mohammed" (AFP/TTC, 2006/02/02)
The Danish cartoon affair VII: "France's respected daily newspaper Le Monde joined a European press campaign for freedom of expression Thursday with a front-page cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed and an editorial defending the right to ridicule religions.
The drawing by the paper's long-time cartoonist Plantu featured a head of the prophet made up of the words "I must not draw Mohammed" written repeatedly in long-hand.
"Religions are systems of thought, constructions of the spirit, beliefs which are to be respected certainly, but also freely analysed, criticised and even turned to ridicule," Le Monde said.
"A Muslim may well be shocked by a picture of Mohammed, especially an ill-intentioned one. But a democracy cannot start policing people's opinions, except by trampling the rights of man underfoot," it said.
Plantu told the newspaper that cartoonists and other humourists find it increasingly hard to touch on religion in their work.
"People do not understand to what point -- outside the Catholic Church which we can attack and which is, one has to say, very lenient -- it has become impossible to criticise religious things," he said."

"Global reaction" (Fiona Symon and Alan Rappeport, Financial Times, 2006/02/02)
The Danish cartoon affair VI: "Publications that printed part or all of controversial cartoons
Jyllands-Posten (Danish); WeekendAvisen (Danish); Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (German); Magazinet (Norwegian); Brussels Journal (Belgium); DV (Icelandic); Die Tageszeitung (German); France Soir (French); Die Welt (German); Tagesspiegel (German); Berliner Zeitung (German); La Stampa (Italian); El Periodico(Spanish); Volkskrant (Dutch); NRC Handelsblad (Dutch); Elsevier (Dutch); Die Zeit (German); al-Shihan (Jordanian); Le Soir (Belgium); Le Monde (French); BBC (UK)"