Archived news and commentary: February 6 - 12, 2006

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Sunday, February 12, 2006

News and commentary:

"Barbarians in the Gates" (Joshua Trevino, The Brussels Journal, 2006/02/12)
The Danish cartoon affair VIII. This has probably been the single worst week since the 1930's when it comes to the defence of Enlightenment values in Europe.
On Thursday, the European Union's Justice and Security Commissioner, Franco Frattini, promised that the EU is ready to self-regulate the right of free expression.
The same evening the Swedish government moved to shut down websites over the publication of one completely innocuous cartoon. Furthermore, though it was the first time since the Second World War the government has intervened directly against a publication, reactions have been very muted in Sweden.
On Friday, the editor of the Norwegian Magazinet, Vebjørn Selbekk, in fear for his and his family's life, was forced to prostrate before the leader of the Islamic Council Norway, offering a complete apology for republishing the cartoons.
And yesterday, as Danes fled for their lives from Indonesia, thousands rallied in Europe, in solidarity not with Denmark, but with the goals of the ones attacking it, albeit not with some of their methods.
All in all, it's been the most depressive week since I started this site back in September 2001. In fact, yesterday I seriously considered emigrating to America for the very first time in my life, as I really can't see how the situation in Europe could possibly be turned around. The detoriation will surely continue, slowly but steadily, day by day.
It's time to leave this sinking Continent. Offer me a job and I'll be on the next plane:

"The barbarians have won. Let us be forthright about this. In what should be a clear case of right and wrong — free expression good, death and violence against it bad — the great powers of the West have failed in their most elementary duties of conscience and self-preservation. There is no moral difference between appeasing the sensitivities of violent Islam, and appeasing the sensibilities of Germans circa 1933 who yearned for the return of the Volksdeutsche. The aping of the rhetoric of a just demand (for sensitivity!) does not signify the existence of that just demand (for submission!). There is no point of satiation at which the killers of 9/11, Theo van Gogh, Atocha, Fallujah, or the rest will be satisfied. There is no supine posture to forever preclude the “cartoon rage” of today. There is no appeasing gesture to deflect the blow. There is no demonstration of goodwill that will engender the same. There is only weakness — and strength.
We are not among the strong. We have chosen not to be.

"They have won. That is the sad fact.
"I guess that during the next generation no one in Denmark will draw the Prophet Mohammed."

Certainly not. The ultimate fault is not the murderous masses’, but our own. That is the truth. And that is our shame."

"We Are Being Pissed On" (Per Nyholm, Jyllands-Posten/The Brussels Journal, 2006/02/12)
The Danish cartoon affair VII. Translation of an editorial by Per Nyholm, a journalist on Jyllands-Posten:
"What is going on? I am not referring so much to the threats against Danish citizens and Danish commerce. Nor to the burnt down Embassies. I am thinking of a word that keeps popping up whenever the Mohammed cartoons are mentioned.
That word is BUT. A sneaky word. It is used to deny or qualify what one has just said.
How many times lately have we not heard people of power, the Opinion Makers and others say that of course we have freedom of speech, BUT.
They have said it, all of them, from Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, to our own Bendt Bendtsen [a Danish Politician]. Once we had to be sensitive to the easily hurt feelings of the Nazis, then came the Communists, now it is the Islamists. The reason I say ‘Islamists’ is that I do not for a moment believe all the world’s Muslims are pissing on us. I think we are dealing with thugs, fools and misled people. Those are the ones we have to deal with, and then the chickenshit politicians.
The cartoons are no longer something Jyllands-Posten can control. They have already been manipulated and misrepresented to the point that few know what is going on and fewer know how to stop it. This affair is artifically being kept buoyant in a sea of lies, suppressions of the truth, misconceptions, lunacy and hypocrisy, for which this newspaper bears no blame. The only thing Jyllands-Posten did was provide a pin-prick which has made a boil of nastiness erupt. This would have happened sooner or later. That it happened more than four months after the publication of the cartoons, raises a question of its own. Are we dealing with random events or with a staged clash of civilizations? One might hope for the former yet be prepared to expect the latter.
That is why I say: Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Speech. There is no but."

"Islamic Protestors in Paris Come Face to Face with an Unexpected Counter-Protest" (Eric, ¡No Pasarán!, 2006/02/12)
The Danish cartoon affair VI. Two counter-protesters at yesterday's anti-cartoon rally in Paris are almost lynched by a mob. The movie is a must-see:
"Voices start to ring out. "It's provocation!" "You tread on 1.5 million Muslims!" "Connards!" "Rat faces!"
"Ignore them, they are idiots!" reply others as a crowd starts to press around. A rhetorical question rings out: "Would they be carrying out the same provocations in other types of demonstrations?!" (Actually, Monsieur, yes we would and yes we have.)
The Danish American feels like replying that they have done the same to Chirac, to Mitterrand, to the civil servant salons, and to union demonstrations, but suddenly he and the French American start moving away. What has happened is that a short blonde Frenchwoman has tugged on their sleeves and gently but firmly started pulling them away.
"I will show you my ID 10 meters from here" says the plainclothes cop. "They are going to lynch you!" she adds, as she leads us into another street (in the movie taken by our valiant camera team, you can briefly see her wearing a brown coat, right after a bearded guy in white cap and tan jacket says "They are provoking us" and the camera turns).
"Sons of adultery!" "Hey, you two sons of the whore!" Uniformed policemen join us and start rushing us, more and more quickly down the street (I don't want to run, I tell them), with a growing crowd quickening their steps. A police van's door opens. "Go! Go!" shouts a policeman to the driver, "Foncez!" as sirens wail and the van rushes ahead.
"Are you out of your minds?!" ask the two officers. 'Do you know how many of them there were?!'" (See also footage from the demonstration in Antwerp: "Muslims Demonstrate in Brussels, Antwerp" (Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal, 2006/02/12))

"Toon-deaf Europe is taking the wrong stand" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2006/02/12)
The Danish cartoon affair V: "The European Union's Justice and Security Commissioner, Franco Frattini, said on Thursday that the EU would set up a "media code" to encourage "prudence" in the way they cover, ah, certain sensitive subjects. As Signor Frattini explained it to the Daily Telegraph, "The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression. . . . We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right."
"Prudence"? "Self-regulate our free expression"? No, I'm afraid that's just giving the Muslim world the message: You've won, I surrender, please stop kicking me.
But they never do. Because, to use the Arabic proverb with which Robert Ferrigno opens his new novel, Prayers for the Assassin, set in an Islamic Republic of America, "A falling camel attracts many knives." In Denmark and France and the Netherlands and Britain, Islam senses the camel is falling and this is no time to stop knifing him.
The issue is not "freedom of speech" or "the responsibilities of the press" or "sensitivity to certain cultures." The issue, as it has been in all these loony tune controversies going back to the Salman Rushdie fatwa, is the point at which a free society musters the will to stand up to thugs. ...
So when the EU and the BBC and the New York Times say that we too need to be more "sensitive" to those fellows with "Behead the enemies of Islam" banners, they should look in the mirror: They're turning into "moderate Muslims," and likely to wind up as cowed and silenced and invisible." (See also: "EU mulls media code after cartoon protests" (Reuters, 2006/02/09))

"Muslims are trading respect for fear" (Minette Marrin, The Sunday Times, 2006/02/12)
The Danish cartoon affair IV: "Respect is not a right. Almost anything one can think of these days is, supposedly, a right, and judging from the angry demands on all sides for respect, one might easily be bamboozled into thinking respect is somehow a right as well. Not so, rightly not.
Yet all the terrifying Muslim uprisings across the world in response to the Danish cartoons have all been about a demand for respect, as of right. They are demanding respect for religion, or at any rate for their own religion and their own religious sensibilities. The same is true of the more moderate demonstrations in London yesterday. Worse, many westerners are penitentially admitting that Muslims do indeed have a right to respect for their faith, and that it is wrong to express disrespect for a religion. This is disastrous.
Yesterday’s demonstrations were organised by the new Muslim Action Committee, which claims to represent more than 1m Muslims. They may indeed be moderates, as they claim, yet what they say sounds anything but moderate. They demand changes in the law and a strengthening of the Press Complaints Commission code to outlaw any possible publication of the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in the UK. “What is being called for,” said Faiz Siddiqi, the committee’s convenor, 'is a change of culture. In any civilised society, if someone says, ‘don’t insult me’, you do not, out of respect for them.'"

"Islamo-bullies get a free ride from the West" (Andrew Sullivan, The Sunday Times, 2006/02/12)
The Danish cartoon affair III: "You’d think, wouldn’t you, it might be helpful to view the actual cartoons so you can see what on earth this entire fuss is about. But the British and American media have decided that it is not their job to help you understand this story. In fact it is their job to prevent you from fully understanding this story. As of this writing no major newspaper in Britain has published the cartoons; the BBC has shown them only fleetingly and other networks have shied away. All have decided not to give you this critical information, without which no intelligent person can construct an informed and intelligent position on the matter. You’re on your own. ...
But the bad news is that the Islamists have just scored a huge victory.
Their hope has always been what can only be called creeping sharia. Bit by bit, free societies abandon small freedoms to accommodate the sensitivities of Muslims or Christian fundamentalists or the PC police or other touchy fanatics. Bit by bit, we cede our freedoms to fear and phoney civility — all in the name of getting along.
Yes, in this new war of freedom versus fundamentalism I always anticipated appeasement. I just didn’t expect the press to be among the first to wave the white flag."

"We were brought up to hate - and we do" (Nonie Darwish, The Sunday Telegraph, 2006/02/12)
The Danish cartoon affair III: "Is it any surprise that after decades of indoctrination in a culture of hate, that people actually do hate? Arab society has created a system of relying on fear of a common enemy. It's a system that has brought them much-needed unity, cohesion and compliance in a region ravaged by tribal feuds, instability, violence, and selfish corruption. So Arab leaders blame Jews and Christians rather than provide good schools, roads, hospitals, housing, jobs, or hope to their people.
For 30 years I lived inside this war zone of oppressive dictatorships and police states. Citizens competed to appease and glorify their dictators, but they looked the other way when Muslims tortured and terrorised other Muslims. I witnessed honour killings of girls, oppression of women, female genital mutilation, polygamy and its devastating effect on family relations. All of this is destroying the Muslim faith from within. ...
Muslims need jobs - not jihad. Apologies about cartoons will not solve the problems. What is needed is hope and not hate. Unless we recognise that the culture of hate is the true root of the riots surrounding this cartoon controversy, this violent overreaction will only be the start of a clash of civilisations that the world cannot bear."

"Public anger at Muslim protesters" (David Smith, The Sunday Times, 2006/02/12)
The Danish cartoon affair II: "People in Britain take a hard line against Muslims protesting violently against supposed insults to their religion, and are gloomy about future relations between Muslims and the rest of the population. ...
The poll shows that 86% of people think the protests were “a gross overreaction”. By 56% to 29% respondents said it was right to publish the cartoons in Denmark and republish them elsewhere. ...
Where foreigners stir up racial and religious hatred, 81% of people think they should be sent back to their own countries, even if to do so would endanger their lives.
There is widespread gloom about the future, with 87% expecting further attacks in Britain by Islamic groups on the scale of the July 7 bombings; and only 17% seeing a future in which there is peaceful coexistence between Muslims and others in Britain, while 67% think there will be a worsening of tensions. This is also true internationally. While 34% say western nations can coexist peacefully with mainly Muslim countries, 45% disagree."

"Leader of cartoon rally warns of 'fire throughout the world'" (Ben Leapman, Nina Goswami and Charlotte McDonald-Gibson, The Sunday Telegraph, 2006/02/12)
The Danish cartoon affair I. Flowery words from a "moderate" Muslim:
"A Muslim leader behind a mass rally in London yesterday gave a warning of "fire throughout the world" if the West continues to publish cartoons of Mohammed.
At the protest in Trafalgar Square, attended by 5,000 Muslims, there were no arrests and none of the inflammatory placards or costumes seen at last weekend's demonstrations.
However, a row erupted over comments by Dr Azam Tamimi, a senior figure in the Muslim Association of Britain, which staged the event. He told Sky News: "The publication of these cartoons will cause the world to tremble. Fire will be throughout the world if they don't stop."
Last night Louise Ellman, the Labour MP and vice-chairman of Labour Friends of Israel, said: "It is inciting confrontation when he should be calming the situation." A Muslim Labour MP at the protest distanced himself from Dr Tamimi's comments. Sadiq Khan, the MP for Tooting, said: 'Speakers can get carried away, but they are just flowery words. I don't take them on board and others shouldn't.'" (See also: "'We are for peace … but if you insult us it is not peace you get'" (Nick Rutherford, Sunday Herald, 2006/02/12): "The speaker who drew possibly the loudest cheers of the day was Dr Tamimi. He said: 'We are for peace, if you give us peace. But if you insult us it is not peace you get. Don’t mess with our Prophet.'")

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: The Real Holocaust Is in Palestine and Iraq" (MEMRI TV, 2006/02/12)
"Following are excerpts from an address by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which aired on Jaam-e Jam 2 TV on February 11, 2006.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: The affront to the honor of the Prophet of Islam it is in fact an affront to the worship of God, and to the seeking of truth and justice, and an affront to all the prophets of God. Obviously, all those who harm the honor of the prophet of Islam...
Crowd: Death to Denmark.
Death to Denmark.
Death to Denmark.
Death to Denmark. [...]
Ahmadinejad: How come it is allowed to harm the honor of the prophets in your country, but it is forbidden to research the myth of the Holocaust? You are a bunch of tyrants, who are dependent upon the Zionists and who are held hostage by them. [...]
Even today, a group of people convene and declare: "We rule that the Holocaust happened, and everybody must think the same." This is a medieval way of thinking. On the face of it, the technology has changed, but the culture and the way of thinking remain medieval. If you are looking for the real Holocaust, you should look for it in Palestine. Over there, the pillaging Zionists are massacring the Palestinian people every day. If you are looking for the crimes of the Holocaust, you should find them among the oppressed people of Iraq. ...
Hear this: this is the voice of the Iranian people. It is expressing its opinion about nuclear energy clearly. Hear this: Nuclear energy is our indisputable right.
Crowd: Nuclear energy is our indisputable right.
Nuclear energy is our indisputable right.
Nuclear energy is our indisputable right." (See also: "Ahmadinejad: Israel 'will be removed'" (Bangkok Post, 2006/02/11) and "Iran: U.S., Europe Should Pay for Drawings" (Nasser Karimi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/11))

"Why striking bus drivers in Tehran are the real defenders of Muslim rights" (Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2006/02/12)
"For three weeks, there have been demonstrations across the planet about a great injustice done to Muslims. After baton-wielding cops inflicted dozens of injuries, the fear of death is in the air. George W Bush's State Department has warned of 'systematic oppression', while secularists and fundamentalists have revealed their mutually incompatible values. Since you ask, I am not talking about the global menace of Scandinavian cartoonists that has so terrified our fearless free press, but mass arrests in Iran.
The media have barely mentioned the story, even though it cuts through the nonsense about a clash of civilisations between the 'West' and the 'Muslims'. ...
The bus drivers claimed that managers were stealing money from their pay packets. They formed their own union and threatened to strike at the end of January.
Ahmadinejad won the rigged Iranian elections last year with a promise to stand up for the little man against the Islamic Republic's corrupt elite. Faced with a choice between sticking to his word and carrying on with despotism, he showed his true colours by allowing the most ferocious crackdown Tehran has seen since the religious authorities crushed dissident journalists and students in 1999.
The company's managers and Islamic council called in the paramilitary police who arrested the union's six officers and beat workers until they agreed to renounce the strike. Bravely, the majority refused. The state's thugs then targeted their wives and children. ...
No one knows how many people the authorities arrested. The highest figure the British TUC has heard is 1,300. International trade union federations and the British embassy in Tehran estimate that somewhere between 400 and 600 people are still in prison." (Note: For more on the crackdown on the strikers, see also: "Let's focus more on Iran's people" (Gene, Harry's Place, 2006/01/31))

"Hijacking Islam" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2006/02/12)
"Neo-Islam's attempt at destroying individual freedoms is as much a threat to Islam as the Inquisition was to Christianity.
To protect itself, Islam needs to revive its theology with emphasis on divinity (marefat al-ilahiyah). In other words, Islam must re-become a religion.
This does not mean that Muslims should stay out of politics or ignore Palestine, Iraq, Kashmir or any other cause. What it means is that they should recognize that these and similar causes are political, not religious, ones. Nobody prevents Muslims from practicing their faith in Palestine or Kashmir. These disputes are about territory, borders and statehood, not about faith.
Neo-Islam is a form of fascism, hence the term Islamofascism. Its primary victims are Muslims, both in Muslim majority countries and in the West.
In many Muslim countries, neo-Islam has been exposed as a political movement and can no longer deceive the masses. In the West, however, it is has managed to dupe parts of the media, government and academia into treating it not as the political movement it is, but as the expression of Islam as a religion.
It is time to end that deception and recognize neo-Islam in its many manifestations as a political phenomenon.
Neo-Islam has as much right to operate in the political field as any other party in a democracy. But it does not have the right to pretend to be a religion — it is not." (See also a critique of the article: "Hijacking rational discussion" (Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, 2006/02/12))

"British imam praises London Tube bombers" (The Sunday Times, 2006/02/12)
"A leading imam in the mosque where the July 7 bombers worshipped has hailed their terrorist attack on London as a “good” act in a secretly taped conversation with an undercover reporter.
Hamid Ali, spiritual leader of the mosque in West Yorkshire, said it had forced people to take notice when peaceful meetings and conferences had no impact.
He also praised the bombers as the “children” of Abdullah al-Faisal, a firebrand Muslim cleric, who was convicted of inciting murder and racial hatred in 2003.
Ali revealed that the leader of the London suicide bombers had attended sermons in Yorkshire by al-Faisal and tapes of al-Faisal’s teachings were still circulating within his mosque.
Al-Faisal, who has branded non-Muslims as “cockroaches” ripe for extermination, is serving a seven-year prison sentence but is eligible for early release next week.
Evidence of continuing extremism and terrorist sympathisers in the bombers’ community has been exposed by a six-week investigation by The Sunday Times. It contrasts with the public statements of condemnation by community leaders — including Ali — in the immediate aftermath of the July 7 attacks."

"How liberal Britain let hate flourish" (Richard Woods and David Leppard, The Sunday Times, 2006/02/12)
"When Hamza was convicted of inciting his followers to murder non-Muslims last week, it became clear that the British authorities had also failed to counter the extremism — although they were only too well aware of what was going on.
Is this how moderate Islam has ended up being overshadowed by fanatics in Britain? Has the politically correct Establishment made the fatal mistake of ignoring extremists?
The poisonous progress of Hamza, and the authorities’ slow reaction to it, reflects the wider rise of Islamic extremism in Britain and the sidelining of moderates. ...
Was there an unwillingness to confront Hamza and other fanatics for fear of offending the wider Muslim community? The idea that it was preferable to have radical groups such as Al-Muhajiroun based here rather than plotting elsewhere had been widespread in Whitehall since the 1980s. ...
Blunkett made little mention of Hamza in the Commons and did not condemn him outright.
Instead, Islamic radicalism was quietly building just as political correctness over ethnic and religious minorities was marching ahead.
The authorities were wary of offending Muslim sensibilities, even in the case of Hamza. When police did finally raid the Finsbury Park mosque they treated the hotbed of terrorism with utmost respect.
“Every precaution was taken to avoid hurting Muslim sensibilities,” Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police commissioner, wrote in his autobiography. 'All police officers who were to enter the mosque wore overshoes and headgear, and the raiding party included Muslim officers to handle copies of the Koran.'"

"US prepares military blitz against Iran's nuclear sites" (Philip Sherwell, The Sunday Telegraph, 2006/02/12)
"Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb.
Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
They are reporting to the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, as America updates plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear bomb ambitions. Teheran claims that it is developing only a civilian energy programme.
"This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," said a senior Pentagon adviser. 'This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months.'"

Saturday, February 11, 2006

News and commentary:

"The Adversary Culture: The perverse anti-Westernism of the cultural elite" (Keith Windschuttle, The Sydney Line, 2006/02/11)
The Danish cartoon affair VIII: "The real problem here was not the Western newspapers who published the cartoons but the Islamic response to them. Our political leaders did not blame the latter but turned the responsibility onto ourselves. Enclosed by a mindset of cultural relativism, most Westerners are loath to censure Muslims who go on violent rampages, burn down embassies and threaten death to their fellow citizens. Many of us regard this as somehow understandable, even acceptable, since we have no right to judge another religion and culture. ...
Muslim rage over the cartoons is not an isolated issue that would have been confined to Denmark and would have gone away if nobody had republished them. It is simply one more step in a campaign that has already included assassination, death threats and the curtailment of criticism. And our response, yet again, has been one more white flag in the surrender of Western cultural values that we have been making since Khomeini's fatwa against Rushdie in 1989. ...
Today, we live in an age of barbarism and decadence. There are barbarians outside the walls who want to destroy us and there is a decadent culture within. We are only getting what we deserve. The relentless critique of the West which has engaged our academic left and cultural elite since the 1960s has emboldened our adversaries and at the same time sapped our will to resist.
The consequences of this adversary culture are all around us. The way to oppose it, however, is less clear. The survival of the Western principles of free inquiry and free expression now depend entirely on whether we have the intelligence to understand their true value and the will to face down their enemies."

"Iran plant 'has restarted its nuclear bomb-making equipment'" (Con Coughlin, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/02/11)
"Iran's controversial Natanz uranium processing plant has successfully restarted the sophisticated equipment that could enable it to produce material for nuclear warheads, according to reports received by Western intelligence.
In the past few days Iranian nuclear scientists have reportedly restarted four of the centrifuges required to produce weapons-grade uranium, and have begun feeding them with uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas, a key component in the production of nuclear bombs.
This crucial development follows Iran's decision to withdraw its co-operation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna after the body decided last week to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council."

"Ahmadinejad: Israel 'will be removed'" (Bangkok Post, 2006/02/11)
More on Ahmadinejad's speech: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that the Palestinians and "other nations" will eventually remove Israel from the region.
Addressing a mass demonstration in Tehran - one of many organized throughout Iran to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the Islamic revolution - he once again questioned the Holocaust "fairy tale".
"We ask the West to remove what they created sixty years ago and if they do not listen to our recommendations, then the Palestinian nation and other nations will eventually do this for them," Ahmadinejad said in a ceremony marking the 27th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
"Do the removal of Israel before it is too late and save yourself from the fury of regional nations," the ultra-conservative president said. He once again called the Holocaust a "fairy tale" and said Europeans have become hostages of "Zionists" in Israel.
He also accused Europeans for not allowing "neutral scholars" to investigate in Europe and make a scientific report on "the truth about the fairy tale of Holocaust."
"How comes that insulting the prophet of Muslims worldwide is justified within the framework of press freedom, but investigating about the fairy tale Holocaust is not?" Ahmadinejad said.
"The real Holocaust is what is happening in Palestine where the Zionists avail themselves of the fairy tale of Holocaust as blackmail and justification for killing children and women and making innocent people homeless," Ahmadinejad said." (See also: "Iran: U.S., Europe Should Pay for Drawings" (Nasser Karimi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/11))

"Anti-Semitic and Anti-Christian publications at the Cairo International Book Fair" (The Free Copts, 2006/02/11)
Respecting religion in Egypt. Translations of some titles of anti-Semitic and anti-Christian publications at the 2006 Cairo International Book Fair (see the original post for images):

"1 - It Is Not Holy (Referring to the Holy Bible)
2 - Hidden Hands 3- Why they broke the Cross?” (Attacking Christian beliefs)
4 - Role of the crusade church in the fall of Islamic Caliphate
5 - Convert to Islam to Enjoy Security
6 - Christians of Egypt; how many and who are they? (Hateful publication inciting Muslims against the Copts, Egypt’s indigenous people)
7 - A call to Christians of Egypt; Abandon your grieves (i.e. Convert to Islam)
8 - Who killed the dog? (Referring to the murder of Egyptian intellectual Farag Foda, a free thinking Muslim intellectual who was killed because of his anti fanatic attitude, this book is considered a direct incitement to kill other Egyptian intellectiuals who take the same position)
9 - Islamic Enlightment (A hate filled periodical that incites hatred against Jews, Christians and non-Muslims in general).
10 - Inter-faith dialogue, a big scam (Portraying inter-faith dialogue as a conspiracy against Islam and the Muslims)
11 - O ye filthy gypsies, a message to the Diaspora Christians
12 - Pharaohs, the worshippers of cows, dogs and donkeys (Even the ancient Egyptian civilization was not spared the racist attacks of Islamists in the Cairo Book Fair supposedly held to encourage Egyptians to pride themselves of their ancient heritage as well)

The above vulgar and hate promoting publications, which were on display at the Cairo International Book Fair are also sold publicly in every Egyptian town. Mosque Imams and extremists alike are allowed to publicly insult Jews, Christians, the Bible, the Cross-, and Christianity. They have done this, not just through cartoons in the press, but also through the wide use of media such as TV channels, radio stations, and newspapers all over the Arab and Muslem world."

"PROPERTY OF ISLAM"
(Andrew Stuart, AFP, 2006/02/11)
"A demonstrator joins the "United Against Incitement and Islamaphobia" rally in Trafalgar Square in London 11 February 2006."

"Thousands join pro-Islam protest" (BBC News, 2006/02/11)
The Danish cartoon affair VII. As Danes are fleeing for their lives from Indonesia in a continuing frenzied global intifada against their country, it would be nice to report that their fellow Europeans were staging huge peaceful rallies in solidarity with Denmark all over the continent. But of course not.
Actually, there was a small demonstration in support of freedom of speech and the right to publish the cartoons, which was held in Stockholm on Monday, arranged by the Iranian Refugees National Organization, among others. From an article in City:

"Rana Karimzadeh fled from oppression in Iran a year ago. On Monday she was demonstrating on Sergels torg.
"I never thought I would have to defend freedom of speech here," she says. ...
"I don't understand how Swedes can be so passive. I see how freedom is shrinking," she says."

Indeed. I wonder how she feels today, watching how thousands of Europeans are rallying against the cartoons:

"More than 4,000 UK mainstream Muslims joined a protest against controversial cartoons satirising their Prophet Muhammad in London's Trafalgar Square. ...
Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather described the cartoons as "a juvenile posturing exercise".
"Nothing was done to further the cause of liberal values or the freedom of speech - the publication of the cartoons was just plain racist," she added. ...
Respect MP George Galloway received a rather frostier reception however, as he took to the stage to boos and cries of 'Big Brother, Big Brother.'"

(See also: "100,000 Muslims to vent anger in London at cartoon protest" (Nick Britten, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/02/09))

"Iran: U.S., Europe Should Pay for Drawings" (Nasser Karimi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/11)
The Danish cartoon affair VI: "Iran's hard-line president on Saturday accused the United States and Europe of being "hostages of Zionism" and said they should pay a heavy price for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have triggered worldwide protests. ...
In a speech marking the 27th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution Saturday, Ahmadinejad linked his public rage with
Israel and the cartoons satirizing Islam's most revered figure.
"I ask everybody in the world not to let a group of Zionists who failed in Palestine (referring to the recent Hamas victory in Palestinian elections) to insult the prophet," he said.
"Now in the West insulting the prophet is allowed, but questioning the Holocaust is considered a crime," he said. "We ask, why do you insult the prophet? The response is that it is a matter of freedom, while in fact they (who insult the founder of Islam) are hostages of the Zionists. And the people of the U.S. and Europe should pay a heavy price for becoming hostages to Zionists." ...
Saudi Sheik Abdul Rahman al-Seedes, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, called on Muslims to reject apologies for the "slanderous" caricatures.
"Is there only freedom of expression when it involves insults to Muslims? With one voice ... we will reject the apology and demand a trial," he said in his sermon, which was published Saturday in the Al Riyad daily."

"Denmark asks citizens to leave Indonesia after threats" (Ireland Online, 2006/02/11)
The Danish cartoon affair V: "Denmark’s Foreign Ministry today urged all Danes to leave Indonesia, saying they were under threat from an extremist group over the prophet cartoons.
The ministry said it had received reliable information indicating “a significant and imminent threat to Danes and Danish interests in Indonesia”.
“There is concrete information that indicates that an extremist group actively will seek out Danes in protest of the publication of the Mohammed drawings,” the ministry said in a statement. It did not name the group.
The ministry said the threat was focused on the eastern part of Java, but that it could spread to other parts of the country, including Bali."

"Denmark Pulls Envoys From Syria, Iran" (Karl Ritter, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/11)
The Danish cartoon affair IV: "Denmark has temporarily withdrawn its ambassadors from Syria, Iran and Indonesia because their safety was at risk in the wake of a Danish newspaper's publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
Danish embassy buildings in all three countries had been targeted by angry mobs protesting the publication of the caricatures in September. European and American newspapers subsequently reprinted the drawings.
The Foreign Ministry said it withdrew all Danish staff from its embassy in Tehran, Iran, because of "serious and concrete threats" against the ambassador.
Threats also were directed at the embassy personnel in Indonesia, the ministry said, without giving details. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country."

"The Cartoon Jihad: The Muslim Brotherhood's project for dominating the West" (Olivier Guitta, The Weekly Standard, 2006/02/20)
The Danish cartoon affair III. : "Abu-Laban's labors were not in vain, and everywhere the loudest protests have come from the Muslim Brotherhood. ...
That the Muslim Brotherhood would seek to inflame this controversy makes perfect sense, given the organization's Islamist philosophy and past links to al Qaeda. What may not be sufficiently appreciated, however, is the extent of the Brotherhood's deliberate planning for an Islamist takeover of the West -- and how neatly the cartoon jihad conforms to its strategy. ...
By inflaming a controversy such as the current one, the Muslim Brotherhood attempts to widen the rift between the West and Islam. It specifically targets Muslim communities living in the West, aiming to radicalize their moderate elements by continually pointing out the supposed "Islamophobia" all around them. Right on cue, the Saudi daily Al Watan reports that the Council of Islamic Countries decided in December to create a worldwide Islamophobia watchdog organization that will lobby for the adoption of "anti-Islamophobia" laws, as well as promoting a common position against states or organizations it sees as attacking Islam.
Under the scheme outlined in "The Project," the Muslim Brotherhood would seek to become the indispensable interlocutor of Western governments on issues relating not only to Islam but also to international issues touching the Islamic world, notably the Israeli-Arab conflict, the war in Iraq, and even the war on terror."

"Selling Out Moderate Islam" (Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Weekly Standard, 2006/02/20)
The Danish cartoon affair II. The Weekly Standard is the first nationwide publication in the US to publish all 12 cartoons from Jyllands-Posten:
"If Westerners appease Muslims who countenance violent intimidation, we are doing a terrible injustice to the liberal and progressive Muslims among us, who really would like to live in lands where people can say about the Prophet Muhammad what they have said about Jesus, Mary, and Moses. Among the Muslims of the United States and Europe, if not in the Middle East, there are many who have Western cultural sentiments and wit. The irreverent, religiously skeptical Western elite has Muslim members and Middle Eastern counterparts of equal intelligence and similar tastes. Islamic civilization may yet produce its Edward Gibbon, a sincere religious voyager who ends up scrutinizing the foundations of his civilization with a skeptical, cynical, and, at times, profoundly unfair irreligious eye. It would appear that if President Clinton had his way, a Muslim Gibbon would not be welcome in the United States."

"Reborn extremist sect had key role in London protest" (Ian Cobain, Nick Fielding and Rosie Cowan, The Guardian, 2006/02/11)
The Danish cartoon affair I: "When worldwide Muslim fury over cartoons of the Prophet spread to Britain, the flag-burning protests outside the Danish embassy in London appeared to be an entirely spontaneous outpouring of anger.
Inquiries by the Guardian have shown, however, that a key role in organising the demonstration was played by an Islamist sect whose supporters have repeatedly been linked to violence and terrorism.
Al-Ghurabaa, the organisation which takes credit for the protest, is essentially the same organisation as al-Muhajiroun, a sect which claims to have disbanded more than a year ago and whose founder, Omar Bakri Mohammed, was excluded from the UK last summer, shortly after he fled to Beirut. ...
The leading figures of al-Muhajiroun are now at the forefront of al-Ghurabaa and al-Firqat un-Naajiyah. They include Choudary, 38, a lawyer from Ilford, east London, Abu Izadeen, 30, a convert from the East End previously known as Trevor Brooks, and Abu Uzair, 37, formerly known as Sajid Sharif. Izadeen has described the 7/7 suicide bombers as "completely praiseworthy", while Uzair has declared that it is "OK" for bombers to attack Britain, because "the banner has been risen for jihad inside the UK". Several leading members of al-Ghurabaa were expelled from Lebanon after visiting Bakri last year."

Added in archives:
"Why Hamas?" (Martin Kramer, Sandbox, 2006/02/05)

Friday, February 10, 2006

News and commentary:

"Muhammedan self-censorship"
(SD-Kuriren, 2006/02/02 [?])
The cartoon of Muhammed which made the Swedish government move to shut down the websites of the Sweden Democrats and SD-Kuriren yesterday. (See also: "Sweden shuts website over cartoon" (BBC News, 2006/02/10))

"The Right to Offend" (Ayaan Hirsi Ali, ayaanhirsiali.web-log.nl, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair XI. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's speech in Berlin yesterday:
"Shame on those papers and TV channels who lacked the courage to show their readers the caricatures in The Cartoon Affair. These intellectuals live off free speech but they accept censorship. They hide their mediocrity of mind behind noble-sounding terms such as ‘responsibility’ and ‘sensitivity’.
Shame on those politicians who stated that publishing and re-publishing the drawings was ‘unnecessary’, ‘insensitive’, ‘disrespectful’ and ‘wrong’. I am of the opinion that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark acted correctly when he refused to meet with representatives of tyrannical regimes who demanded from him that he limit the powers of the press. Today we should stand by him morally and materially. He is an example to all other European leaders. I wish my prime minister had Rasmussen’s guts.
Shame on those European companies in the Middle East that advertised “we are not Danish” or “we don’t sell Danish products”. This is cowardice. Nestle chocolates will never taste the same after this, will they? The EU member states should compensate Danish companies for the damage they have suffered from boycotts. ...
I do not seek to offend religious sentiment, but I will not submit to tyranny. Demanding that people who do not accept Muhammad’s teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission." (See also: "'Everyone Is Afraid to Criticize Islam'" (Der Spiegel, 2006/02/06))

"Editor apologizes for caricatures" (Aftenposten, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair X. It's Nordic Dhimmitude Day, with the Swedish government leading the way and the editor of the Norwegian Magazinet, Vebjørn Selbekk, being forced to show public remorse in a scene reminiscent of Stalinist show trials:
"Editor Vebjørn Selbekk of the Christian weekly Magazinet issued Friday a complete apology for his decision to reprint the controversial caricatures of the prophet Mohammed originally run in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
At a joint press conference with the Islamic Council Norway at the Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion, Selbekk expressed his regrets.
"I personally address the Muslim community to say that I am sorry that your religious feelings are offended by what we did on Jan. 10 when Magazinet published a facsimile of the Danish drawings from Jyllands-Posten. It was never our intention to hurt anyone," Selbekk said. ...
"The Muslim community in Norway has tackled this in a dignified and restrained way. You deserve respect and credit for this," Selbekk said, and the editor pointed to the press conference as an example of the strength of Norway's multi-cultural society. ...
Mohammed Hamdan, leader of the Islamic Council Norway, emphasized that the Koran preached forgiveness.
"Selbekk has children the same age as mine. I want my children and his to grow up together, live together in peace and to be friends," Hamdan said."

"DESSIN SATANIQUE"
(Le Canard Enchaîné, 2006/02/08)

"Viva Voltaire" (Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair IX: "Two French satirical weeklies with Voltairean aplomb, Le Canard Enchaîné and Charlie Hebdo, have published a series of cartoons mocking the Islamists and their beliefs as they deserve, with a courage and frankness almost entirely missing from the British and American media. ...
Muhammad appears on the top left-hand corner of the first page of Le Canard Enchaîné with a rubber stamp, which he uses to certify several cartoons throughout the paper as Satanic. One of these cartoons has Muhammad under the caption “The Pencil: Weapon of Mass Destruction?” sitting at a desk, trying to draw a human figure, but managing only a childish stick man. “If only I knew how to draw,” he says.
On the inside pages, other Satanic cartoons have Hamlet declaiming, “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark” with the caption “Hamlet to enter Islamist repertoire?” and a picture of the Little Mermaid of Copenhagen, draped in a black Islamic costume with only the eyes showing, with the caption “The Islamists give a new look to the Little Mermaid.” (The verb in the caption, relouquer, brings to mind reluquer, which means to ogle — doubtless a deliberate play on words.)"

"THEY MAY GET ME FROM MY BAD SIDE...
...BUT THEY SHOW ME FROM MY WORST"
(The Daily Tar Heel, 2006/02/10)

"Cartoon Controversy in Chapel Hill" (Amber Rupinta, abc11tv.com, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair VIII: "A political cartoon in a student newspaper is triggering protests on campus.
UNC-Chapel Hill's Muslim Students Association is demanding an apology after a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed appeared in the Daily Tar Heel newspaper.
"It's very disrespectful, and I find it racist," said student Rafsan Khan, a Muslim. "I find it discrimination, too."
Similar cartoons have incited violent riots for the last week around the world. Muslims held protests around the world Friday, denouncing cartoons they say defame Mohammed. Muslims believe it is forbidden to portray any images of the prophet. Many news organizations will not show the cartoon.
The Muslim Students Association's response to the cartoon was published in today's Daily Tar Heel. It says the paper was insensitive for running the depiction of Mohammad, but newspaper editor Ryan Tuck says he had a reason for printing the cartoon. He issued a statement on his blog, explaining his decision to run the cartoon, but offered no apology. ...
Tuck defends the cartoon and the freedom of expression, saying it is a newspaper's job to spark dialogue, to provoke, and to challenge. But Muslim students on campus like Aisha Saad feel that job could have been done without using such a controversial cartoon."

"Gross sexual assault was filmed" (Maria Carlqvist, Svenska Dagbladet, 2006/02/10)
Södertälje is a town south of the Swedish capital Stockholm with a large amount of immigrants and a severe problem with criminal gangs of "youths":
"The police in Södertälje have obtained a film showing a torture-like sexual assault on a young girl ["not even 15 years old," according to Aftonbladet]. Prosecution awaits for the perpetrators, but the police have not managed to find the girl.
The film sequences were found on a cellular phone belonging to a 19-year old man in Södertälje.
They show how a young girl is forced to insert a burning cigarette and a tree branch in her vagina as a gang of boys are surrounding the girl while shouting "whore" at her.
"It's a very gross sexual assault and the film depicts a terrible view of women. What you see is completely repugnant," says Kenneth Dahlberg, detective inspector and investigator of crimes of violence at the Södertälje police to SvD.se.
According to the time stamp on the film, it was recorded in September last year.
"It happens in the middle of the day in a housing area with people passing by. Despite the complete openness of the assualt, nobody is caring about it," says Kenneth Dahlberg.
The film has also been disseminated to other cellular phones." (See also: "Immigrant Rape Wave in Sweden" (Fjordman, fjordman.blogspot.com, 2005/12/12))

"FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IS WESTERN TERRORISM"
(Sayyid Azim, AP, 2006/02/10)
"An unidentified Kenyan Muslim woman demonstrates in Nairobi, Kenya Friday, Feb. 10, 2006. Police shot and wounded one person Friday as they sought to keep hundreds of demonstrators from marching to the residence of Denmark's ambassador to protest against publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad first published in a Danish newspaper."

"Seething protests around world over Mohammed cartoons" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair VII [emphasis added]: "Tens of thousands of Muslims around the world vented their anger in a seething wave of protests over satirical images of the Prophet Mohammed, torching flags and clashing with police.
From Cairo, Istanbul and Nairobi to Kuala Lumpur and Islamabad, protesters took to the streets after traditional Friday prayers as politicians scrambled for answers to a crisis that has exposed cultural and religious divisions. ...
Thousands of people also demonstrated across Turkey, burning European flags and effigies of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
"The army of Mohammed is the fear of infidels! We will kill the bastards of the crusaders," a crowd outside Istanbul's historic Beyazit mosque chanted.
In the Middle East, the radical group Islamic Jihad threatened to "burn the ground beneath the feet" of anyone who caricatured the prophet.
"Apologies from European governments will do, but if they persist in their attack on the prophet we will burn the ground beneath their feet," said Jihad leader Khader Habib during a Gaza City rally attended by thousands."

"Losing Civilization" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair VI: "In the post-Osama bin Laden and suicide-belt world of our own, we shudder at these fanatical riots, convincing ourselves that perhaps the Salman Rushdies, Theo Van Goghs, and Danish cartoonists of the world had it coming. All the while, we think to ourselves about the fact that we do not threaten to kill Muslims when they promulgate daily streams of hate and racism in sermons and papers, and much less would we go about promising death to the creator of "Piss Christ" or the Da Vinci Code. How ironic that we now find politically-correct Westerners — those who formerly claimed they would defend to the last the right of an Andres Serrano or Dan Brown to offend Christians — turning on the far milder artists who rile Muslims.
The radical Islamists are our generation's book burners who search for secular Galileos and Newtons. They are the new Nazi censors who sniff out anything favorable to the Jews. These fundamentalists are akin to the Soviet commissars who once decreed all art must serve political struggle — or else.
If we give in to these 8th-century clerics, shortly we will be living in an 8th century ourselves, where we may say, hear, and do nothing that might offend a fundamentalist Muslim — and, to assuage our treachery to freedom and liberalism, we'll always be equipped with the new rationale of multiculturalism and cultural equivalence which so poorly cloaks our abject fear."

"Curse of the Moderates" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair V: "As much of the Islamic world erupts in a studied frenzy over the Danish Muhammad cartoons, there are voices of reason being heard on both sides. Some Islamic leaders and organizations, while endorsing the demonstrators' sense of grievance and sharing their outrage, speak out against using violence as a vehicle of expression. Their Western counterparts -- intellectuals, including most of the major newspapers in the United States -- are similarly balanced: While, of course, endorsing the principle of free expression, they criticize the Danish newspaper for abusing that right by publishing offensive cartoons, and they declare themselves opposed, in the name of religious sensitivity, to doing the same.
God save us from the voices of reason. ...
A true Muslim moderate is one who protests desecrations of all faiths. Those who don't are not moderates but hypocrites, opportunists and agents for the rioters, merely using different means to advance the same goal: to impose upon the West, with its traditions of freedom of speech, a set of taboos that is exclusive to the Islamic faith. These are not defenders of religion but Muslim supremacists trying to force their dictates upon the liberal West.
And these "moderates" are aided and abetted by Western "moderates" who publish pictures of the Virgin Mary covered with elephant dung and celebrate the "Piss Christ" (a crucifix sitting in a jar of urine) as art deserving public subsidy, but who are seized with a sudden religious sensitivity when the subject is Muhammad. ...
What is at issue is fear. The unspoken reason many newspapers do not want to republish is not sensitivity but simple fear. They know what happened to Theo van Gogh, who made a film about the Islamic treatment of women and got a knife through the chest with an Islamist manifesto attached.
The worldwide riots and burnings are instruments of intimidation, reminders of van Gogh's fate. The Islamic "moderates" are the mob's agents and interpreters, warning us not to do this again. And the Western "moderates" are their terrified collaborators who say: Don't worry, we won't. It's those Danes. We're clean. Spare us. Please."

"Cartoon rage" (Diana West, The Washington Times, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair IV: "We have watched the Muslim meltdown with shocked attention, but there is little recognition that its poisonous fallout is fear. Fear in the State Department, which, like Islam, called the cartoons unacceptable. Fear in Whitehall, which did the same. Fear in the Vatican, which did the same. And fear in the media, which have failed, with few, few exceptions, to reprint or show the images. With only a small roll of brave journals, mainly in Europe, to salute, we have seen the proud Western tradition of a free press bow its head and submit to an Islamic law against depictions of Muhammad. That's dhimmitude.
Not that we admit it: We dress up our capitulation in fancy talk of "tolerance," "responsibility" and "sensitivity." We even congratulate ourselves for having the "editorial judgment" to make "pluralism" possible. "Readers were well served... without publishing the cartoons," said a Wall Street Journal spokesman. "CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons in respect for Islam," reported the cable network. On behalf of the BBC, which did show some of the cartoons on the air, a news editor subsequently apologized, adding: "We've taken a decision not to go further... in order not to gratuitously offend the significant number" of Muslim viewers worldwide. Left unmentioned is the understanding (editorial judgement?) that "gratuitous offense" leads to gratuitous violence. Hence, fear — not the inspiration of tolerance but of capitulation — and a condition of dhimmitude."

"The Ayatollah Joke Book" (Michael Kinsley, The Washington Post, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair III: "The shameful American position on all this is boilerplate endorsement of free expression combined with denunciation of the cartoons as an "unacceptable" insult. When three protesters died this week in a confrontation at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, an American spokesman there said that Afghans "should judge us on what we're doing here, not on what some cartoonist is doing somewhere else." But the limits of free expression cannot be set by the sensitivities of people who don't believe in it. How can President Bush continue to ask young Americans to sacrifice their lives for freedom in the Muslim world, if he won't even defend freedom verbally when forces from that world are suppressing it in our own?"

"Sweden shuts website over cartoon" (BBC News, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair II. SVT Text: "Imam Haitham Rahmah thanked the Swedish Government during the Friday prayer in the Stockholm Mosque for their actions regarding the Muhammed cartoons. The Imam also said that the boycott of Danish goods will continue until an apology is given. Mustafa Kharraki, vice chairman of Sveriges Muslimska Råd [The Swedish Muslim Council] is pleased that the Swedish Democrats' website was shut down over the publishing of one cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.":
"The Swedish government has moved to shut down the website of a far-right political party's newspaper over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The site's host, Levonline, pulled the plug on the website of the Swedish Democrats' SD-Kuriren newspaper after consulting with the government.
It is believed to be the first time a Western government has intervened to block a publication in the growing row.
Kuriren editor Richard Jomshof said the government was breaking the law.
"We have to do something about it. This is illegal. They can't do this just because we are a small magazine," he told the BBC News website. ...
He had asked readers to send in their own Muhammad cartoons, but he denies intending to offend Muslims.
His website briefly posted a picture showing Muhammad from the rear, looking into a mirror, with his eyes blacked out - an image he said was about self-censorship. ...
Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds described Kuriren's move as "a provocation" by "a small group of extremists".
"I will defend freedom of the press no matter what the circumstances, but I strongly condemn the provocation by SD-Kuriren." (See also: "Säpo stops Muhammad cartoon site" (The Local, 2006/02/10) and "Sweden dragged into cartoon row" (The Local, 2006/02/09))

"Säpo stops Muhammad cartoon site" (The Local, 2006/02/10)
The Danish cartoon affair I. According to Dagens Nyheter, the Sweden Democrat's newspaper SD-Kuriren had posted one drawing, "which had been sent in by a reader and depicted the prophet Muhammed looking into a mirror."
The drawing was presumably posted in conjunction with SD-kuriren's "Draw Mohammed" contest.
I haven't seen it though, as the site was shut down yesterday and the picture is removed now when it has reopened.
Svenska Dagbladet has more: "I think it is tremendously remarkable. It seems as if freedom of speech had to yield before foreign policy and the main thing now is to protect Swedish interests in the Middle East," says Stig Fredriksson, the chairman of Publicistklubben." Publicistklubben was founded 1874 and its "foremost task is to protect freedom of the press and freedom of speech."
UPDATE: The cartoon is now posted above:

"The website of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) reopened on Friday morning, after the far-right party removed drawings of the prophet Muhammad. The site had been taken down by its hosting company after requests from Sweden’s foreign ministry and security service, Säpo.
The hosting company, Levonline, says its block on the Sweden Democrats’ site and that of its newspaper SD-Kuriren remains in place. The party’s secretary, Björn Söder, says the site has been reopened by moving it to another server, although the pictures of Muhammad have been removed.
"We have done this with the safety of Swedish citizens abroad in mind," Söder said.
At the time of writing, however, the site was not loading.
Söder had been contacted on Thursday afternoon by Levonline’s deputy CEO Anna Larsson, who told him that threats had been received against her company and its staff and she therefore wanted him to move his party’s website.
"It didn’t sound plausible that threats would have been made against a website hosting company and its staff – the threats should really have been made against us, who published the pictures," said Söder.
“I was later told by a journalist at Dagens Nyheter that [Larsson] had changed her story, and more or less admitted that the foreign ministry and Säpo had been applying pressure.”
The Sweden Democrats are instructing lawyers who will investigate Levonline’s actions, he said.
“We have followed the rules, and not broken any Swedish laws, and yet they close us down without notice. This is a clear case of breach of contract.”
“I also think it’s very peculiar that we weren’t contacted by the security services, and been informed about the threat.”
The Sweden Democrats and SD-Kuriren have received threats following the publication of the pictures."

(See also: "Sweden dragged into cartoon row" (The Local, 2006/02/09))

Added today:
"Abu Hamza, free speech and the 'Prophet' Mohammed" (Johann Hari, The Independent/johannhari.com, 2006/02/06)

Thursday, February 9, 2006

News and commentary:

"Sweden dragged into cartoon row" (The Local, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair XIV. Liberal Party leader Lars Leijonborg's lauding of Sweden's "clear position on freedom of speech" earlier today seems pretty ironic, as the Sweden Democrat's websites were shut down late this afternoon by the internet provider, after having been contacted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Security Police.
The reason is the publication of one cartoon depicting Muhammed on SD-Kuriren, the online edition of the party's official paper, and the reporting of this on the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah's television station Al-Manar.
Dagens Nyheter reports: "After the violence lately, following the publications of cartoons depicting Muhammed, the content is considered to constitute a danger for Sweden and Swedes abroad."
Expressen has more on the coverage on Al-Manar: "Sweden is warned by Arabic media.
The news that a Swedish paper publishes their own cartoons depicting Muhammed tops the Arabic newscast.
"Sweden hasn't learned the lesson from Denmark," reports the television station al-Manar."
Well, now it seems that we have.
As far as I know, this is the first time a Western government has intervened directly against the publication of a caricature of Muhammed:

"Caricatures of the prophet Muhammad on the website of Swedish far-right party Sverigedemokraterna (SD) have reportedly caused uproar in Syria, leading Swedish foreign minister Laila Freivalds to call on the party to act responsibly.
“We have freedom of the press in our country and everyone has to take responsibility in the context of freedom of the press, and I appreciate very much the responsibility shown by the Swedish media,” said Freivalds, following a meeting of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee at Stockholm’s Royal Palace.
“But there are those who still clearly want to offend and provoke in this way, and I think that they too ought to show some responsibility,” she added.
SD has invited sympathisers to send in their own caricatures of Mohammed, which will then be published on their site. ...
Liberal Party leader Lars Leijonborg repeated his argument that Sweden’s “clear position on freedom of speech” is laudable:
“We seek good relationships with Muslims, but a part of that is to protect freedom of speech.” ...
In another development, a television station owned by Hezbollah broadcast a report on Thursday which claimed that Sweden had criticised the prophet Muhammad, Swedish Radio reported.
According to Johan Gärde, an expert in the sociology of religion based in Lebanon, the report was shown in prime time on the al-Manar channel, a large channel with millions of viewers in the Middle East and Europe.
One of the main claims in the report was that Sweden and a Swedish newspaper were depicting Muhammad to provoke and to show that “democracy is more important than religion,” Gärde told the Studio Ett programme."

"Caricature publisher reported to police" (Aftenposten, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair XIII. What's the Arabic word for chutzpah? Magazinet's editor Vebjörn Selbekk is living under a death threat after having published a few cartoons: "The editor of the Norwegian Magazinet, Vebjørn Selbekk, moves his family every day. He and his wife and three children moves between localities in Norway and have constant police protection. ...
He says to the Norwegian paper Vårt Land that he receives daily death threats and thousands of e-mails where he among other things is told that he will burn in hell."
But the "Al-Jinnah Foundation" accuses Selbekk of posing a threat to others.
It's as if Salman Rushdie would have been charged for the homicidal fatwa against himself and all others who were involved in the publication of "The Satanic Verses":

"The Muslim Al-Jinnah Foundation will charge the editor of the Christian weekly Magazinet, the journal that published the controversial caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in Norway, with endangering Norwegian lives.
Editor Vebjørn Selbekk and Magazinet staff had no immediate comment on Thursday.
The organization delivered charges to Moss police station at noon on Thursday.
"The police must take Vebjørn Selbekk and put him in a safe place," Al-Jinnah leader Khalid Mohammad told Aftenposten.no. Mohammad emphasized that this remark was not meant as a threat to Selbekk, but rather to the threat Selbekk posed to others. ...
"It is frightening that one person through so-called freedom of speech can cause such damage that he nearly sets two worlds up against each other. There are limits for what expressions are acceptable, also in a democracy. This is a case for the police, it cannot be solved by the masses," Mohammad said.
Selbekk and Magazinet are also being accused of blasphemy.
"But this is really also treason," Khalid Mohammad said. "He has damaged Norway abroad. Not least, the publication has resulted in Norwegian soldiers in Afghanistan being injured. We feel for them," Mohammad said, and also noted that innocent Muslims in Norway now feel unsafe, and that they face greater danger."

"Nasrallah to US: 'Shut up' about Muslims" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair XII. Nasrallah is of course right when he points out that the West would have reacted differently if the cartoon controversy touched on Jews or Israel.
Then there would be no denouncements of the cartoons by EU and US leaders or talk about changing the media code to avoid such publications in the future, but rather complete silence as when, for example, the Italian paper La Stampa ran a first-page cartooon "showing a tank emblazoned with the Star of David pointing its gun straight at the baby Jesus, who tells the attackers: "Surely they don't want to kill me again?"
Or perhaps it would even be honoured as the Political Cartoon of the Year as Dave Brown's horrendous cartoon in Britain's The Independent depicting Ariel Sharon eating a Palestinian baby:

"The leader of Hizbullah, heading a march by hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite Muslims on Thursday, said US President George W. Bush and his secretary of state should "shut up" after they accused Syria and Iran of fueling protests over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said that if the controversy touched on Jews or Israel the West would have reacted differently and quickly.
"Is the Islamic world less important than a bunch of Zionists? We cannot acquiesce to this."
Nasrallah urged Muslims worldwide to continue demonstrations until there is an apology over the drawings and Europe passes laws forbidding insults to the prophet."

"EU mulls media code after cartoon protests" (Reuters, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair XI. Robert Spencer: "We'll bend over backwards not to offend you. Just please, please don't hurt us.":
"The European Union may try to draw up a media code of conduct to avoid a repeat of the furor caused by the publication across Europe of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, an EU commissioner said on Thursday.
In an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph, EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said the charter would encourage the media to show "prudence" when covering religion.
"The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression," he told the newspaper. 'We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right.'"

"Taleban say 100 enlist for suicide attacks over cartoons" (AFP/Khaleej Times, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair X: "KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - One hundred militants have enlisted to become suicide bombers in Afghanistan since the appearance of “blasphemous” cartoons of Prophet Mohammad, a top Taleban commander said on Thursday.
Mullah Dadullah, one of the Taleban’s most senior military commanders, said his Islamic militant group had also offered a reward of 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of gold to anyone who killed people responsible for the drawings.
“More than 100 mujahedin (holy warriors) have enlisted to carry out suicide attacks,” the fugitive Dadullah told AFP by telephone from an unknown location.
The targets would be “infidels”, said the commander, who is believed to be close to the Taleban’s wanted leader Mullah Omar.
He added: “The Taleban will give 100 kilograms of gold to one who kills the cartoonist.”
Five kilograms of gold would go to anyone who killed a soldier from Denmark, Germany or Norway - among the countries where the cartoons have appeared."

"It’s time to get serious" (Theodore Dalrymple, The Spectator, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair IX: "What does the episode tell us about ourselves? The first is that we are not morally serious people; in a word, that we are decadent. In this sense, the Muslim world is quite right about us. It correctly perceives cowardice, weakness and absence of any deep belief in the principles we supposedly espouse.
You would not have to be an acute psychologist, for example, to descry the insincerity and fear in the expressions of sympathy for Muslim outrage emanating from both British and American governments. ...
The reaction of Britain and the United States will have taught Muslim extremists that if they are thuggish enough, they can intimidate powerful states, and that professions of belief in freedom of expression are hollow; in other words, that the terrorist tactics of the weak can impose censorship on the strong. Muslim extremists will have come to the not altogether mistaken conclusion that the men who control Western governments don’t believe in anything strongly enough to risk their own skins; in short, that they are decadent. ...
As it happens, the Danish cartoons were making a morally serious point, if not very well; which is why, of course, they provoked such outrage. It is a sign of our moral frivolity that we have failed to defend and protect the Danes with the utmost vigour, without equivocation, on a point of the most profound principle. Their freedom is our freedom; and we should not forget that it is but a short step, morally and historically, from Chamberlain to Pétain."

"Cartoon war - global intifada?" (Arnaud De Borchgrave, UPI, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair VIII: "As for Prophet Mohammad wearing a smoking, turban-mounted bomb, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, and their Islamist terrorist fan club the world over, invoke and hail his name five times a day as their leader in the war they are waging against the "crusader infidels." That's us Judeo-Christians. The countless millions of Muslims in some 50 Muslim countries who tell pollsters bin Laden is more trustworthy than President Bush are deeply religious people. They scoff at the widely held notion in the U.S. that a tiny minority of terrorists has hijacked Islam. ...
When Iran's firebrand president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Holocaust never happened and Israel should be made to disappear from the map, there are just as many millions of Sunnis as there are Shiites who nod their heads in agreement. So all it requires is a match to light the fuse of Islamofascism, much the way Hitler's brown shirts in the 1930s got an eager populace to demonstrate against Jews - and ransack their stores. The moderate Muslim majority was once again spooked. As it doubtless will be again when another fatwa emanates from Iran -- this time authorizing the use of a nuclear weapon against Israel.
The cartoon war could be seen as a limbering exercise for a global intifada. It would be a miracle if the Wahhabi and Salafi and Deobandi and Shiite clergy leaders didn't see it the same way. Iran's Ahmadinejad, surveying the global cartoon thunderclaps, must have concluded that the return of the 12th Imam, known as the Mahdi, is drawing nearer, which means world chaos, death and destruction, before a new era of world peace under Islamic rule."

"Rent-A-Riots ABCs" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair VII: "To see how the whole thing was manufactured to serve precise political ends, consider the chronology of events:
The cartoons were published last September and, for more than three months, caused no ripples outside small groups of Salafi militants in Denmark.
In December, a group of Danish Muslim militants filled their suitcases with photocopies of the cartoons and embarked on a tour of Muslim capitals. ...
The emissaries found a more sympathetic audience in Qatar — where the satellite-TV channel Al Jazeera (owned by the emir) specializes in inciting Muslims against the West and democracy in general. The channel's chief Islamist televangelist, Yussuf al-Qaradawi (an Egyptian preacher who is also a friend of Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London), was all too keen to issue a "fatwa" to light the fuse. He then mobilized his network of Muslim Brotherhood militants in Europe to attack the cartoons and claim, falsely, that images were not allowed in Islam and that the Danish paper had violated "an absolute principle of The Only True Faith."
Thus the call for Jihad received its supposed "theological" green light. (Ironically, the section of the brotherhood headed by al-Qaradawi is financed by the European Union as a non-governmental organization.)"

"Bush: Al Qaeda attack on West Coast thwarted" (AP/CNN.com, 2006/02/09)
"Bush has referred to the 2002 plot before. In an address last October, he said the United States and its allies had foiled at least 10 serious plots by the al Qaeda terror network in the last four years, including plans for September 11-like attacks on both U.S. coasts. The White House initially would not give details of the plots but later released a fact sheet with a brief, and vague, description of each.
The president filled in details on Thursday.
He said that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks who was captured in 2003, had already begun planning the West Coast operation in October, just after the September 11, 2001, attacks. One of Mohammed's key planners was Hambali, the alleged operations chief of the al Qaeda related terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. Instead of recruiting Arab hijackers, Hambali found Southeast Asian men who would be less likely to arouse suspicion and who were sent to meet with Osama bin Laden, Bush said.
Under the plot, the hijackers were to use shoe bombs to blow open the cockpit door of a commercial jetliner, take control of the plane and crash it into the Library Tower in Los Angeles, since renamed the US Bank Tower, Bush said.
The president said the plot was derailed when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative. Bush did not name the country or the operative."

"Here are the rest of the cartoons inside of the Newspaper"
(Al Fagr/Rantings of a Sandmonkey, 2006/02/08)
"Freedom For Egyptians reminded me why the cartoons looked so familiar to me: they were actually printed in the Egyptian Newspaper Al Fagr back in October 2005. I repeat, October 2005, during Ramadan, for all the egyptian muslim population to see, and not a single squeak of outrage was present. ... Guess we will have to Boycott Egypt now as well, huh?"

"Cartoons in Egypt: Last October" (Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair VI: "While most British and American mainstream media refuse to print the cartoons out of respect for Muslims, one of Egypt's largest papers Al Fagr printed them last October, during Ramadan.
Guess what? Not a single Egyptian stormed the paper's offices to burn it down, not a single Jihadist threatened to assassinate its journalists. And not a single Egyptian embassy was torched in neighbouring countries. French supermarket chain Carrefour did not boycott Egyptian products either.
Apparently Muslim papers are allowed to do what Western papers are not: run Muhammad cartoons." (See also: "Boycott Egypt" (The Sandmonkey, Rantings of a Sandmonkey, 2006/02/08))

"All the Rage" (Bruce Bawer, The Stranger, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair V. The Stranger, "Seattle's Only Newspaper", also publishes some of the cartoons alongside with the article. See commentary by staff writter Eli Sanders here.
Bruce Bawer's new book, "While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within", is due to be released this month:
"Make no mistake, this is no isolated incident. It’s one step in a long-term effort by extreme Muslim forces to erode Western liberties and turn free, affluent countries into mirror images of their own dysfunctional dictatorships. “Muslims have a dream of living in an Islamic society,” declared a Danish Muslim leader in 2000. “This dream will surely be fulfilled in Denmark…. We will eventually be a majority.” (Or as a T-shirt popular among young Muslims in Stockholm puts it: “2030—then we take over.”) Even after the bombings in Madrid and London and the riots in Paris, many European leaders continue to be in denial about this effort; others, as eager as Neville Chamberlain at Munich to “keep the peace,” seem already to have chosen a policy of gradual surrender, accompanied by flurries of sycophantic praise for Islam and apology for Western liberties. ...
For them, Muslim rage — and its expression in acts of violence and death threats — is already an accepted part of life that is simply not to be questioned or criticized; in their view, the fault lies with those who provoke the rage by failing to be good enough dhimmis. “There is something wrong with a democracy,” read a typical viewer SMS on a Norwegian news discussion program, “where an editor can put the whole country in danger!” EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson was one of many who spoke of outraged Muslims as if they were a force of nature — every re-publication of the cartoons by other European newspapers, he said, “is adding fuel to the flames.” Across Europe, the same kind of leftists who reflexively cheer art for outraging Christians now uphold Muslims’ sacred right not to be offended." (See also: "Europe Aflame, Part I" (Brad Miner, CompassPoints, 2006/01/30))

"Our media must give Muslims the chance to debate with each other" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair IV: "One thing, however, I know with certainty: violence, or the direct threat of violence, of the kind we have seen in the past few days, is totally unjustified as a response to any published word or image. That is the first thing to be said. I have been saddened to see British politicians and commentators, particularly on the left, hesitating for a long moment to say so clearly, or feeling it necessary to say other things first. (Do you want to leave the defence of free speech and non-violence to David Davis?) I have also been saddened, though hardly surprised, by the weakness of the EU's reaction to the criminal attack on the Danish embassy in Syria, which seems to have been permitted, if not actively encouraged, by the Syrian regime. We should have said: when you burn the Danish flag you burn our flag. Why weren't all EU ambassadors instantly withdrawn from Damascus in protest? ...
This violence was unjustified and criminal, but perhaps it was also effective. One way of looking at the self-restraint of the British media over the past week is to say how responsible, pragmatic and sensitively multicultural they all were. Alternatively you might say they were scared of having their offices burned. Was it wisdom with a seasoning of fear, or rather fear packaged as wisdom? Throughout history, violence has often paid off, but the struggle of civilisation against barbarism is to ensure that it doesn't."

"Moral Atomic Bomb" (Bernard Henry-Levy, OpinionJournal, 2006/02/09)
The Danish cartoon affair III: "And, faced with this triangulation in progress, faced with this formidable hate-and-death machine, faced with this "moral atomic bomb," we have no other solution than to counter with another triangle--a triangle of life and reason, which more than ever must unite the United States, Europe and Israel in a rejection of any clash of civilizations of the kind desired by the extremists of the Arab-Muslim world and by them alone.
The heart of this second triangle? First, the affirmation of principles. The affirmation of the press's right to the expression of idiocies of its choosing--rather than the acts of repentance that too many leaders have resorted to, and which merely encourages in the Arab street the false and counterproductive illusion that a democratic state may exert power over its press.
And second, in the same breath, the reaffirmation of our support for those enlightened moderate Muslims who know that the honor of Islam is far more insulted, and trampled under foot, when Iraqi terrorists bomb a mosque in Baghdad, when Pakistani jihadists decapitate Daniel Pearl in the name of God and film their crime, or when an Algerian fundamentalist emir disembowels, while reciting the Quran, an Algerian woman whose only crime was to have dared show her beautiful face. Moderate Muslim