Muslims Get Animated, Denmark Becomes the New Israel
By
Aaron Goldstein (02/05/06)
& Anders Fogh Rasmussen Is My New Hero A week ago when one thought of Denmark one would likely conjure an image of a breakfast pastry or Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Now Denmark is in the midst of a real life epic tragedy but its people are holding steadfast.
Denmark has provoked the ire of the Arab world and because of it has received the sort of treatment normally reserved for Israel. As of this writing, its embassy in Syria was set ablaze (along with that of Norway). Both Syria and Saudi Arabia have recalled their Ambassadors. Libya has closed its embassy in Copenhagen. Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq have demanded explanations from Danish diplomats. The Prime Minister of Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates’ Justice Minister have publicly condemned Denmark. An European Union office in the Gaza Strip was temporarily occupied by armed terrorists. Danish flags were burned in the West Bank. Terrorist entities such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt are demanding a formal apology by the Danish government. Danish products have been removed from grocery stores in Algeria, Bahrain, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia and Yemen amongst other places. Muslims protesting near Regent’s Park in London held up signs such as “freedom of expression go to hell” and “behead the one who insults the prophet”. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi (London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s favorite imam) has called for an “international day of anger” against Denmark. Given al-Qaradawi’s support for Palestinian suicide bombers and the execution of homosexuals, it prompted Charles Moore to write, “This is a man for whom a single “day of anger” is surely little different from the other 364 days of the year.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the Danes that their government “cannot accept an assault against Islam.” In Iraq, followers of radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr organized an anti-Danish demonstration and demanded an apology from the EU. For its part, the Danish government has warned its citizens to refrain from traveling to Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Syria and also withdrew aid workers from the Gaza Strip. It must also be remembered that Denmark has troops stationed in Iraq. In late January, a roadside bomb exploded near a joint Danish-Iraqi patrol outside of Basra. Fortunately, there were no casualties.
So what has Denmark done to so anger Muslims?
One of its newspapers, Jyllands-Posten, published some cartoons.
Cartoons? Yes, cartoons.
To be precise, in September 2005 it published several cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. In one cartoon, Mohammed appears to have a bomb in his turban. In another, Mohammed tells suicide bombers who have done their deed that there are no more virgins in heaven for them because there have been so many suicide bombings.
Allow me to digress for a moment. I am certain if I were a Muslim I might not much care for cartoons of that nature. What if the shoe were on the other foot?
Let me recount an incident that occurred while I was a graduate student at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario about eight or nine years ago. I came across a cartoon in the display case of the Muslim Students Association in an underground tunnel near the university’s library. It depicted a Palestinian being stomped on by an Israeli with a large hook nose not unlike the anti-Semitic cartoons of the Nazi era. Since the Muslim Students Association received funding from the Carleton University Students Association I contacted one of their councilors and expressed my concerns. She took my concerns to the university’s anti-racism office. A few days later she informed me that the man who ran the anti-racism office (who happened to be Muslim) did not find the cartoons in question offensive and for the record neither did she. I was informed that no further action would be taken on the matter.
I did write a letter to the student newspaper, The Charlatan, raising my concerns but it never published. In retrospect, perhaps I should have done more. Maybe I should have contacted B’nai Brith or the Canadian Jewish Congress. Perhaps the outcome would have been different. The point here is that I spoke my peace. I did not get the results that I wanted but I was not silent on the matter either. When I did not get my way I did not threaten to burn flags or buildings or chant “Death to the Muslim Student Association.” My protest was done in a civilized manner.
The Mohammed cartoons weren’t the only cartoons that caused offense this week. The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote a letter objecting to a cartoon that appeared in The Washington Post. It depicted a bed ridden wounded soldier that lost both arms and legs. To his side, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was depicted as a physician who told the soldier, “I’m listing your condition as battle hardened.” The cartoonist, Tom Toles, said the cartoon was in reference to Rumsfeld having rejected a Pentagon commissioned report that warned the Department of Defense that the military was too thinly stretched. However, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace and other top military personnel saw the cartoon as a personal attack on U.S. soldiers. They criticized the Post for “using such a callous depiction of those who volunteered to defend this nation and, as a result, suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds.” For his part, Toles insisted he meant no personal malice against U.S. soldiers. Yes, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff are angry at The Washington Post. But they did not launch a missile attack on the Post’s headquarters much less chant, “Death to Bob Woodward”.
Another case in point. In May 2003, The Chicago Tribune ran a political cartoon featuring President Bush, the late Yasser Arafat and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon standing on a bridge called the “Middle East gulch”. President Bush is placing dollar bills on the bridge while Sharon, with an exaggerated hook nose, says, “On second thought, the pathway to peace is looking a bit brighter.” Meanwhile, Arafat is standing at the end of the bridge with his arms crossed. The cartoon outraged Jewish leaders in Chicago and across the United States. It left readers with the impression that Arafat wanted peace and that all Sharon (and by extension all Jews) cared about was money, specifically U.S. aid when in fact the reality was just the opposite. After a letter writing campaign, meetings with Tribune editors, peaceful demonstrations and internet driven publicity, the newspaper apologized on June 8, 2003 with an editorial stating it had “failed to recognize that the cartoon conveyed symbols and stereotypes that slur the Jewish people and that are offensive.” Again, Jewish leaders in Chicago made their feelings known about the cartoon. But they did so in a civilized and constructive fashion. Note that Jewish leaders in Chicago did not chant “Death to the Chicago Tribune” or threaten to attack their headquarters.
For its part Jyllands-Posten eventually apologized for printing the cartoons. But that has not placated Muslims to refrain from burning Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in effigy. In some ways, it is fitting that Denmark should be the one European nation that would rise to pariah status in the Arab world. After all, it is worth remembering that Denmark was the one European nation that would not allow the Nazis to kill its Jews and did something about it. In September 1943, after orders were issued to ship Danish Jews to Nazi death camps, the Danish population mobilized itself to evacuate Denmark’s 7,500 Jews to safety in neutral Sweden. The Danes also made a point of maintaining the properties of the Jews who had evacuated until they returned.
By all indications, Prime Minister Rasmussen has inherited the stubborn determination of Danes willing to risk their lives to save their Jews. Rasmussen was elected Prime Minister in November 2001 and his right of center Liberal Party formed a governing coalition with the Conservative People’s Party ousting the Social Democratic Party from power. The coalition was re-elected in February 2005.
Prime Minister Rasmussen has done a number of things unlikely to endear himself on the Arab street. First and foremost, Rasmussen has been an outspoken supporter of the War in Iraq. Not only has Rasmussen spoken in favor of the War in Iraq but his money where his mouth is by stationing 550 troops stationed in Iraq near Basra. As mentioned earlier, Danish troops have now been targeted by terrorists as a result of the cartoons. But Rasmussen has given no indication that he will withdraw troops anytime soon. In an interview Rasmussen conducted while in Israel he stated, “The Danish soldiers will continue to serve in Iraq for as long as the Iraqi government asks them to, for our presence there helps stabilize the situation and change the reality in that country.”
Second, Rasmussen is also ardently pro-Israel. Last March, Rasmussen traveled to Israel to meet with Ariel Sharon and to attend the dedication of the new Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum. Sharon praised Rasmussen’s efforts in persuading the EU to recognize Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations. During the 2005 election campaign, Rasmussen participated in a televised debate with Social Democratic Party leader Mogens Lykketoft. While debating Danish participation in Iraq, Lykketoft challenged Rasmussen. Lykketoft said, “You explained your decision to send Danish troops to the war in Iraq by saying that that country is not obeying Security Council resolutions, but Israel is also not complying with the UN resolutions. Would you send Danish troops over there?” “You can’t compare Israel and Iraq,” replied Rasmussen, “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Its neighbors want to throw it into the sea, its very existence is in danger, and therefore it can view the UN resolutions with skepticism.” Lykketoft lost the election and then resigned as leader of the Social Democratic Party.
Third, Rasmussen has made a concerted effort to limit immigration through measures such as the 24 year rule which prohibits men and women under the age of 24 from immigrating to Denmark under the auspices of family reunification and the tightening of refugee eligibility rules. This has been one of Rasmussen’s more popular policies given the high rate of unemployment amongst recent immigrant communities and higher than average crime rates amongst recent male immigrants. Since 2001, immigration to Denmark has declined by 80%.
The 53-year-old Rasmussen has been characteristically straight forward during the crisis and has refused to back down. While he personally found the images to be distasteful and disrespectful, Rasmussen stated that his government “cannot make apologies on behalf of a Danish newspaper. That is not how our democracy works. Independent media cannot be edited by the government.”
Unfortunately, other Western leaders have not displayed Rasmussen’s courage. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said, “I share the distress of the Muslim friends who feel that the cartoon offends their religion. I also respect the right of freedom of speech. But of course freedom of speech is never absolute. It entails responsibility and judgment.” British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sung a similar tune although not in Annan’s soothing tones. “There is freedom of speech, we all respect that, but there is not any obligation to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory. I believe that the republication of these cartoons has been unnecessary, it has been insensitive, it has been disrespectful and it has been wrong,” lectured Straw. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton also chimed in on the discussion. While attending a conference in Qatar, Clinton asked, “So now what are we going to do?...Replace the anti-Semitic prejudice with anti-Islamic prejudice?” Clinton condemned what he described as “these totally outrageous cartoons against Islam.”
Although quick to condemn the cartoons, Annan, Straw and Clinton made no effort to condemn the response of Muslims against the Danes. Kofi Annan never questioned the responsibility and judgment of armed Muslims storming an EU building in the Gaza Strip. Jack Straw never got around to describing the placard in Regents Park calling for those who insult Mohammed to be beheaded as “gratuitously inflammatory.” Bill Clinton never described the attack on Danish troops in Iraq as “totally outrageous.”
The cartoons have been published in other European nations such as Norway followed by France, Germany, Spain and others. Some of the fury has now been directed at Norway as their embassy in Syria was also attacked as mentioned earlier.
There is no question that many Muslims have become animated as a result of these cartoons. Again, I can empathize with Muslims genuinely angered by the cartoon. However, I cannot empathize with their response. Writing letters to the editor, organizing demonstrations and even initiating boycotts is one thing. But calling for people to be beheaded, burning down embassies and shouting “Death to Denmark” is quite another. This is a test of civilization. If Muslims want to be a part of the civilized world they cannot threaten to issue a fatwa every time someone does something with which they disagree.
Be that as it may, Denmark has become the Israel of Europe. One can look at it as being set apart and isolated from its neighbors and the rest of the world. One can also look at it as a nation that is willing to stand up for itself against forces that would destroy it. If anything good comes of this unfortunate episode is that the Danish people value freedom, are willing to express it and will not be intimidated from doing so.
Denmark is also fortunate to have Anders Fogh Rasmussen as their Prime Minister. Rasmussen has demonstrated track record of doing the right thing even if it is not always the popular thing be it with Iraq, Israel, immigration and for that matter taxation and deregulation. No government can capitulate to intimidation by a mob mentality even on a global scale. It is difficult to know how Lykketoft would have handled this situation had he been elected in 2005. The same could be said of current Social Democratic leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Given the volatility of the situation, Rasmussen has put his life on the line. I would not be surprised if within the next year there is an attempt on Rasmussen’s life. If Muslim extremists could execute Pim Fortuyn and Theo Van Gogh in Holland who can say that Rasmussen won’t be next? For that, Rasmussen is my new hero.
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03-02-2006, 02:59
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