Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Open Season on Danish Newspaper Editors

Being a Danish newspaper editor is a risky profession. Fatwas, death threats, terrorist plots, the outrage of the Muslim street, disapproval from Swedish politicians — why would anyone want the job?

The latest trial facing them is… a trial. In Jordan, that is:

Danish editors face trial in Jordan

A Jordanian organisation wants to prosecute the Danes responsible for the printing of the Mohammed cartoons

Eleven Danes have been summoned to appear before the Jordanian pubic prosecutor to answer charges of blasphemy and threatening the national peace. They include the cartoonist who drew one of the Mohammed cartoons and editors from 10 of the 17 newspapers that reprinted them.

Danish flag burningThe group behind the announcement is called The Prophet Unites Us, a union of Jordanian media organisations, organisations and private individuals.

‘The public prosecutor decided to summon the Danes for a series of criminal offences. Now the Danes have to meet in Jordan,’ said Zakaria al-Sheikh, the group’s general secretary, to Politiken newspaper.

He explained that the public prosecutor will ask the Danish embassy for help in contacting Danish officials to arrange the meeting of the editors.

Osama al-Bettar, the group’s lawyer, said that if the Danes do not appear, the next step will be to inform Interpol and seek their arrest.

This is the crux of the issue. Not now, but after January 1st — when the Lisbon Treaty goes into effect — will the EU, as a part of the EuroMed initiative, ask Interpol to serve a warrant on the Danish miscreants? After all, under the European Arrest Warrant, all it will take is for one member state of the EU to issue the warrant under one of the listed categories.

The Danes, needless to say, will resist such absurdities:
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The public prosecutor confirmed to Politiken that the editors have been summoned.

However, the Danish foreign ministry has said that a forced deportation is not a possibility. It would require that the printing of the Mohammed cartoons is punishable in Denmark, which is not the case.

In a related story, the Pakistani ambassador in Denmark says, in effect, that the Danes had it coming to them:

Pakistan ambassador: ‘Are you satisfied?’

Terrorism experts and Pakistan’s ambassador in Denmark are linking Monday’s terror bombing to the Mohammed cartoons

Allah go boom! Danes need look no further than their own newspapers to find the reason for the car bombing that severely damaged their embassy in Pakistan on Monday, according to Rohan Gunaranta, an international terrorism expert from Pakistan.

‘There is still a lot of dissatisfaction here about the cartoons, as well as the fact that the Danish government still has not condemned them or the people that were responsible for them. As long as that hasn’t happened, Denmark will be under the constant threat of militant muslims,’ Gunaranta said.

Notice here the oft-repeated implied equivalence between the drawing of a cartoon and retaliatory killing. The two acts occupy the same moral classification. Drawing a picture and killing someone are functional equivalents.

Fauzia Mufti Abbas, Pakistan’s ambassador to Denmark, agreed that the Mohammed cartoons, first published in Jyllands-Posten newspaper in October 2005, had incited Muslim anger and were possibly the motivation for the attack, which killed eight and wounded as many as 30.

‘It isn’t just the people of Pakistan that feel they have been harassed by what your newspaper has begun,’ she said. ‘I’d like to know if your newspaper is satisfied with what it has done and what it has unleashed?’

[…]

The matter of the cartoons, she said, was something Danes needed to reflect on.

‘Danes know that they have insulted people around the world by printing and reprinting the Mohammed cartoons, which were done in poor taste.’

OK, here’s another implication: a drawing executed in poor taste (according to Muslim sensibilities) is a capital offense.

It’s the same old thing that we’ve come to expect from Islam. When the honor of Muslims has been insulted, retaliatory action — up to and including the murder of dozens, hundreds, or thousands of infidels — is regrettable, but justified.

It’s justified because… well, you know, because their honor was insulted! What more of an explanation do you need?

Don’t you understand?


Hat tips: TB.

13 comments:

Findalis said...

The minute the Danes go to Jordan, they will be killed. As for the bombing in Pakistan, do you think we can get the newspapers to put those cartoons on the front page everyday?

Anonymous said...

I can understand Western countries having a relationship with oil-exporting countries, but why do we need any Pakistani ambassadors? What do they sell us, cotton pajamas and curry? Denmark should ask for an apology or boycott said pajamas and curry. The Danes should also discuss this with their ambassador to Jordan, but in this case, there can't even be a boycott because Jordan doesn't have anything anyone needs.

randian said...

If they go to Jordan, they'll never get to trial. A mysterious lapse in "security" will see to their doom. Oops, so sorry, can't be helped!

Anonymous said...

This Pakistani Ambassador's comments show exactly why Islam and Western democracy are mutually exclusive.

Geert Wilders says it for many/most in Europe when he demands the cessation of immigration from Muslim countries.

It was a Pakistani Minister who tacitly condoned suicide bombings as a response to Salman Rushdie's knighthood.

As most of England's Muslims originate from Pakistan I think the comments made by its ammbassador to Denmark are reason enough to commence the stopping of immigration into England from Pakistan.

spackle said...

"Eleven Danes have been summoned to appear before the Jordanian PUBIC prosecutor to answer charges of blasphemy and threatening the national peace."

Oh my. Pubic hairs have now become blasphemous and threaten the peace? I guess they were not trimmed to halal specification. Where will it end. : )

ole said...

There can only be one kind of answer that the muslims (or MUHAMEDANS as Gert Wilders some times call them) is capable of understanding ,and that is to ESCALATE the conflict in a 100% uncompromising way.
If they try to attack us for merely having made a bit of FUN of muhammed&the koran ,then our next logic step must be to start BURNING copies of the koran ,mo-puppets and the flags of whatever muslim countries that voluntiers to get involved.
This is the way forward
BURN THE KORAN !

Henrik R Clausen said...

Burn the Quran?

Nah.

Let's do what they did to our flag Dannebrog, blow it to shreds with relevant explosives. In a safe and controlled way that doesn't hurt any human beings, preferably not animals either. And record it with a high-speed video camera.

That's a de-escalation, since we take care to not harm living beings.

Then post the video to YouTube, and watch the Islamists explode :)

José, The Fenec. said...

I'll second that, Henrik!

Let's just widespread Mohammed cartoons and the burning/exploding/tearing/doggy pooping of the Koran, lets see them going red with fury, yeah!

Anonymous said...

The reason some people here want to do this self-help thing of desecrating the Koran, mailing cartoons to Pakistani embassies, and the like, is that our governments refuse to stand up to the Muslims, so we have to. So, this is kind of a false gesture. Because our governments aren't on our side. If anyone were caught doing this self-help Koran burning and cartoon mailing thing, don't you think our governments, including the U.S.A., would make an example of us to show how non-racist Americans are? Maybe we should be sending our protest cartoons to our own governments, who are the real problem. When I thought some more about why we even have ambassadors to neanderthal countries like Pakistan and Jordan, I realized...it's not what they sell us, it's what we sell them. And who is this "we"? Not me! It doesn't help me at all to sell neanderthals weapons, pharmaceuticals, Coca-Cola and other stuff. Sure, some people in the West are profiting from having a relationship with the neanderthals, but it doesn't benefit citizens, only multi-national companies. Before we work off our anger by sending cartoons and thinking we've accomplished something...let's just sit and think about why we have to do that, why that's all that's left to us. (By all means send the cartoons and burn the Koran, but please think about what we can do about the real problem.)

ole said...

If our governments are going to "make an examble of us" for burning the koran ,then thats just a risk we'll have to take.
What are we, mice or men ?
Some of the muslims (or muhamedans) are willing to die for what they believe in. If we cannot find in ourselves the wilingness to risk our comfortable lifestyles,we have already lost.
Only by provoking the dhimmi-governments into repressive measures can we expose their real nature to the wider public.
It is ofcourse true that "the real problem" is of a much wider nature, but this is a good place to start. Does anyone have a better place ?
And by the way,burnig the koran is not "desekrating it" but rather destroying it. Desekrating it would be more like sowing it into pigsskin ,as the english used to do to muslim fanatics back in the 18'th century ;AFTER they hanged them.

Henrik R Clausen said...

our governments refuse to stand up to the Muslims, so we have to.

Latte, I disagree on this. It *is* the job of ordinary citizens to make fun of what deserves to be made fun of, and to mock mock religions (get that one?)

It is then the duty of our governments to protect our right to do so. And this is where they fall down, in many cases. Some stand in some situations, which is good.

Anonymous said...

One other issue I have with self help is that governments could use it as an excuse for collective punishment, i.e. more surveillence of the internet and stricter speech codes, even in the U.S. Some high-school punk in my town was arrested this week for posting sexist rap lyrics on Myspace. (It also led to violence. An immigrant thing.) The newspaper says the police say he may face felony charges. I'll try to find out more about this, but this is what I'm seeing lately. The authorities don't like free speech and they are taking action.

Does anyone remember a few years ago, the US government tried to regulate bloggers, trying to impose a fee for blogging? It failed because of aggressive resistence. But they will act now if we give them a reason, by insulting their special pets and their special book. I myself have absolutely no respect for Islam, the silly book or muslims, and if I had photoshop skills I'd advertise kitty litter made from recycled Korans--if anyone can do that, go for it--I'm just saying, I think we're already at the eleventh hour of losing free speech, and provoking the various Pakistani ambassadors with cartoons and such, causing the usual riots, may be the thing that causes the internet censors to act again.

BTW, those of you who know more about the attempt, years ago, to impose fees and credentialism on bloggers, please share your memories. It's important, because it will happen again as soon as the authorities feel it's the right moment. Neither Obama nor McCain has a clue about the free speech thing. Maybe the crackdown will come soon after the inauguration.

Henrik R Clausen said...

The authorities don't like free speech and they are taking action.

Yup, it's pretty bad. Here in Denmark we're doing OK - check the images here at Nyhedsavisen - but in the larger picture we're in some trouble. It's more subtle than during WWII, and harder to counter.

The tendency to leave too many matters to the state complicates things significantly. I'm reading The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, and that's a joy, even as a non-American. Constitutions should be short and clear, defending citizens against the state, not the other way round. Back then, people stood up for principles and real issues (not just 're-election issues'), and generally seemed much more interested in fundamental issues than today.

I think Big Government is going to fall flat within a couple of decades. That will be messy.