The Silence Is Deafening

 
UPDATE: a commenter here says he's received about fourteen thousand death threats since putting his Mohammed comics online. That's an awful lot of fear loose in the world. Imagine being that thin-skinned.


The Brussels Journal continues to carry forward an important story which the MSM continues to avoid most studiously. It is difficult to find mention anywhere of the on-going and almost-universal p.c. pressure on Denmark to stifle free speech by making their leading newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, Take Back The Cartoons.

Unlike the mainstream media, who (apart from Denmark) are not interested in the case, we think it is very important for the future of Europe.

The full weight of Muslim outrage is being brought to bear on Denmark for refusing to bow to Islam:

An influential Islamic organisation, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), has called upon its 51 member states to boycott Denmark unless the Danish government “presents an official apology for the drawings that have offended the world’s Muslims.” Last Thursday, the foreign ministers of the 22 members of the Arab League also expressed their dissatisfaction with the Danish government. They demand that the Danish government change its attitude. So far Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has consistently refused to interfere, saying that his government has no power over what the media do.

The Danes are a breath of fresh air in Europe, one of the few remaining Old World countries with any spine.

Since September, a predictable variety of outraged Islamists have delivered official nastygrams from dozens of countries, have vilified Denmark publicly and officially, have ginned up the populace into hysterical temper tantrums, threatened boycotts and generally acted as though they have the leverage and the muscle to do anything to a country (some of) whose citizens acted in way that they found offensive. Predictably the UN has put in its grossly inflated two cents’ worth, and like foreign service officers everywhere, a group of retired Danish diplomats sent a stern letter to the Prime Minister.

This kind of supremely ignorant hubris would be funny if it were not potentially so lethal. But when you have Islamic countries (Islamic democracy seems to be an oxymoron) led by the ignorant or the psychologically unstable, it raises concern for the future of a free press anywhere, especially given the Euro attraction to the hideously malformed -- whether it be aesthetics or ethics or philosophy. Islam demands that Europe commit suicide and many are only too happy to oblige.

Can you imagine the Queen of England saying the things that the Queen of Denmark has? Poor England is slipping into dhimmitude a little more each day whilst noisily proclaiming it is doing no such thing. Meanwhile, Denmark quietly and firmly grasps its first principles, refusing to let go.

Thank God for Denmark.