Saturday, February 14, 2009

Dangerous Feelings

Denmark is different.

DenmarkI keep saying it, and you all are probably tired of hearing it, but it’s true.

A case in point: recently an experimental policy was implemented in a Danish supermarket whereby a Muslim checkout clerk was allowed to do her job while veiled. But public reaction to the new practice was so negative that the permission to work in hijab was withdrawn.

Now — assuming you’re not Danish — can you imagine such a thing happening in your country? It certainly couldn’t happen in mine — the poor victim of racial discrimination would have had her boss up to his ears in civil rights lawsuits, most likely driving the supermarket into bankruptcy.

With that in mind, consider this editorial from yesterday’s Jyllands-Posten — Denmark’s largest newspaper, mind you — as translated by our Danish correspondent Kepiblanc:

Editorial: Dangerous Feelings

It should be self-evident that in a democratic country everyone is allowed to debate all kinds of matters freely and make harsh statements and mercilessly analyze anything, even if it involves strong emotions.

Something that comes naturally for native Danes, but not for immigrants and their descendants born in Denmark.

A study by CEPOS (Center for Political Studies) shows that half of immigrants and their descendants hold the opinion that criticism of religion in, for example, books and movies should be forbidden.

These appalling figures show once again that the nation’s timid and cautious attempts to familiarize certain foreigners with Danish ideas and values have failed miserably. Had it only been about some uprooted youths from immigrant ghettos trying to establish a sort of identity and self-respect, the task would probably be manageable.

But it’s much worse. The problem must be viewed in a global perspective, in which old, deep-rooted European democracies pathetically submit themselves to Muslim intolerance and jeopardize basic values.

It seems that politicians dare not face the fact that a dark, destructive force is at work here, pretending to be something most people in the civilized world, at least until recently, associated with some sort of friendliness.

However, the kind of religious view we see here reveals itself as a clear and present danger to democracy. If these dark forces ever really gained power they would be able to stop any new idea, any new philosophical trend or knowledge, and any new advance in science by shamelessly claiming a right to define what constitutes illegal criticism of religion. The right to define insult will always be claimed by those who feel themselves insulted.
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The British Empire, with its proud democratic traditions, is now a pathetic, servile lackey and forbids an elected Dutch parliamentarian to visit the country. It’s beyond pathetic, and should rightfully trigger a common European protest. But that remains to be seen, because the democratic foundations of Holland itself are in deep trouble. There the authorities brutally persecute a cartoonist who works in full compliance with the principles of public debate in a democratic society.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) tries to take over the agenda at the UN’s so-called Durban-2 Conference this April and compare criticism of religion to racism.

According to the CEPOS study, those dark forces have evoked so much response among immigrants and their descendants in our country that they advocate criminal sanctions for people who call things by their right names. Democracy must defend itself, draw a line in the sand, and oppose such tendencies. First and foremost by scuttling the so-called blasphemy clause, secondly the racism clause.

Not because the criticism of religion and religious people is a goal in and of itself in order to make way for defamatory utterances against groups — but because opinions must be met with opinions. Not violence, imprisonment or public flogging.

We should have come further than to discuss such obvious matters. But it appears that we have not.


Hat tip: TB.

8 comments:

Crusader Rick said...

I stand with Denmark!

Furor Teutonicus said...

I was at school in the U.K in the 70s.

The trouble with Britain, and probably the rest of Europe is that they have taken the 13 to 16 year old rose tinted and stary eyed naive world of the girls school common room, and have, are turned / turning it into Government policy.

All the idealistic "better red than dead", "C.N.D" crap, "What does it matter if Britain becomes a coffee coloured rabble", "Patriotism is next to naziism", "Peacefull protest", types that polluted our sixth forms are now polluting out Parliaments, and they have NOT changed their views.

They are ALSO polluting our media. Hence any one puts their head above the parapet that is more "right wing" than Mother Theresa, or Mahatma Ghandi, is immediately branded a "neo-nazi".

We are attacked from ALL sides.

Furor Teutonicus

Citizen Kane said...

It seems that Denmark is at the forefront of the defence of Western values. Other countries like the dhimmi UK seem hell bent on appeasement. One would have thought we would have learned from our previous mistakes, but it seems that history is destined to repeat itself.

Spinoneone said...

Americans shouldn't be too sanguine about this development. Give o a couple more months and pretty soon the word "Muslim" will become the dreaded "M" word, ranking right up there with the most dreaded "N" word and the "F bomb." To be expected, I suppose, from one who's father was half black, half Arab, and ALL Muslim. Observe, also, that the content of the previous sentence is banned from the main stream media in the US.

Furor Teutonicus said...

Spinoneone said...
Observe, also, that the content of the previous sentence is banned from the main stream media in the US.


Proof?

Furor Teutonicus.

xlbrl said...

The virus of Islam is unchanged and unchangable. The true problem is the Left. Without them, there is no Islam in the West.

They will use any instrument to destroy the West, as their original committment to communist dogma demonstrated.
Now they have two instruments.

Spinoneone said...

FT -
Effectively since 11/05/2008. Show me a single article written in a US newspaper since that date which comments on O's ancestry. Remember that peer review bans can be just as effective as anything committed to paper.

joe six-pack said...

"The right to define insult will always by those who feel themselves insulted".

I agree.

To a certain degree, cultural norms help standardize insults.

The culture of Islam takes it this to new heights.