Anders Gravers’ Response

I reported earlier today on the smear job that was done on Anders Gravers and SIAD by the Danish “newspaper” Avisen.dk. Anders Gravers has responded with a letter to the editor, kindly translated here by Exile:

To Chief Editor David Trads:

Nyhedsavisens journalist Rune Eltard-Sørensen has written a critical article today (May 8th) concerning SIAD and the Anti-jihad movement, under the title “Armed network will stop Islam in Denmark”

“Armed network will stop Islam in Denmark” is full of misrepresentation and lies.

Firstly, the title in itself is a direct lie. The Anti-jihad movement is not armed. During a telephone interview on the 7th May 2007 the SIAD chairman clearly stated that Anti-jihad operates only within the framework of the law, as Rune Eltard-Sørensen was clearly interested in this and asked: was this the case?

The subtitle in the article states: “With loaded weapons and support from abroad, a newly formed extreme right wing group will form the agenda concerning the debate on immigration”.

As mentioned before, there are no weapons in the Anti-jihad movement. Secondly, Anti-jihad is neither left, right nor middle orientated. We have no political agenda as such, in that we are broad-spectrum and have only one goal: that is, to stop the Islamisation of Denmark. To call us right wing extremists is a direct lie.

Furthermore, in the article it is stated: “On Saturday, Anti-jihad will take to the streets and demonstrate for ‘more freedom for citizens — less control over gangs’. The initiative is aimed at concentrating the debate on immigration”.

Once again, a lie. Our slogan is “more freedom for citizens — more control over gangs”, which can be clearly read on our website, www.siad.dk

The article states, concerning The Chairman, Anders Gravers and SIAD, that: “He has now allied himself with a collection of groups from the extreme right wing and has established contact with the international organisation, ‘Vigilant Freedom’. The organisation offers support to Islam-critical groups over the entire world and was recently involved in the creation of a Scandinavian section of the Anti-jihad movement.

SIAD refutes the charge of right wing extremism and is not allied to groups in the extreme right wing. All our groups are non-political, neither right, left, nor center. Vigilant Freedom has not been involved in the formation of “Anti-jihad” in Denmark. The 910 group is SIAD’s contact and has nothing to do with “Anti-jihad”.

Finally the article mentions Michael Ellegaard, chairman of Frit DK, who mentions weapons. Michael Ellegaard is expressing a personal opinion and is not a spokesperson for “Anti-jihad”. Anything he says is personally accountable to him.

However, the article seems to be based solely on his statements about weapons and thereby his statements are directly linked to “Anti-jihad”, which has been done deliberately but which is a complete distortion of the truth.

All in all, this article is a disgrace and a very poor advertisement for the credibility of your journalists.

SIAD and Anti-jihad demand an immediate retraction of the lies and distortions that are presented in this article.

Sincerely,
Anders Gravers
Chairman, SIAD

Vigilant Freedom will also be writing to Avisen.dk. Stay tuned.


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