Sunday, September 23, 2012

Protecting Social Cohesion in Norway

Cultural Enrichment News

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article from Aftenbladet about yesterday’s Islamic rallies in Oslo against the Innocence of Muslims trailer:

“Indefensible that Stang will be present at the rally against the Muhammad movie”

The Mayor of Oslo, Fabian Stang (H), should focus on defending free speech in stead of participating in a rally against the Muhammad movie, says Christian Tybring-Gjedde [FRP – Progress Party].

On Friday afternoon the Islamic Council of Norway organized a rally against the movie “The Innocence of Muslims” which has led to violent riots in numerous countries during the last few days.

The Islamic Council condemns what they call a hate video and “agree with Muslims’ condemnation and indignation about the film’s content and message.”

However, the Council urges all Muslims to remain calm. The council is staging the rally “in solidarity against the insult.”

“Caves in to meaningless criticism”

The mayor of Oslo Fabian Stang [Høyre — Conservatives] held an appeal at the rally, something which the leader of the Progress Party in Oslo strongly dislikes.

“I find it absolutely reprehensible that the Mayor of Oslo would take part in such a pointless rally. Whatever he says there will be a legitimization of the demonstration and the right of Muslims to feel resentment and rage,” Christian Tybring-Gjedde tells Aftenposten’s online newspaper, aftenposten.no.

He believes that the mayor leaves himself wide open to criticism by attending the rally. “The video is pretty bad, but that’s beside the point. What we really should do is ignore this matter. What we are doing now is to open ourselves wide open to pointless collective criticism. We should never apologize for using our freedom of speech,” says the FRP leader.

“Police in the mosque is a defeat”

Tybring-Gjedde emphasizes that Muslims and everybody else should be allowed to demonstrate against whatever they want. “But the fact that mayors attend a rally against free speech is disgraceful. What he should do is to stand up for freedom of expression,” says Tybring-Gjedde.

He is highly skeptical of the fact that the police last week addressed the congregation of a mosque in connection with the riots

“It is in itself a genuflection, but at least they did it out of safety concerns. That is not the case with Stang,” says Tybring-Gjedde.

Stang: Great manifestation of freedom of speech

Unlike Tybring-Gjedde, Fabian Stang believes that the demonstration is a “tribute to freedom of expression.”

“I see today’s events as a great manifestation of the freedom that we have in Norway. Here we have a group who wish to express their feelings about this film,” says Stang to aftenposten.no.

Stang intended to say something about freedom of speech, that it is OK to be angry, but that it is unacceptable to react with violence to expressions. There was never a question about whether he should attend or not.

“It is my understanding that the purpose of the rally is to reject meeting hate speech with violence. But if some want to abuse this event to act violently or to throw stones or whatever it may be, then of course I will strongly condemn it,” says Stang.

“What do you think of the criticism from Tybring-Gjedde?”

“In the words of Voltaire: ‘I will defend with my life his right to disagree with me.’ I will always defend Tybring-Gjedde’s right to express his opinions and I only wish that he would grant me the same generosity,” says Stang.

A group of radical Muslims called the Prophet’s Ummah will stage a rally outside the U.S. Embassy at the same time that the Islamic Council stage their rally in Youngstorget [Young’s Square – downtown Oslo].


The Observer also translated what Stang said at the rally, plus comments by a Norwegian bishop who attended the rally:

Stang’s statement
“Someone said that I really disagree with what you are saying, but I will defend with my life your right to say it. Unfortunately, there are some who abuse the freedom of expression to hurt the feelings of others. Such abject abuse must be met with courage and solidarity. It is understandable to react with anger and rage when what we hold dearest is mocked and humiliated. But we will never respond to such behavior with violence.”

Bishop Kvarme’s statement:

“Today we have gathered because we are upset, but also because we want to strengthen and protect the cohesion of our society. The filmmakers wanted to provoke and incite hatred, and unfortunately they have succeeded in doing that. Today, we stand together against such violations, but we also stand up against reactions that drag people into a spiral of violence and destruction,” he said.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I kind of understand Bishop Kvarme`s position. As a Christian he gonna need protection in future Norway.

Its just strange that he back-up the most likely perpetrator.

Anonymous said...

if muslims don't like being reminded that their prophet was a violent pervert maybe they should develop thicker skins. Or change religion.

Paris Claims

Aizeta said...

The true goal of the socialists is
the annihilation of the western
societies as we know them,
no secrets here. Just a bit of history:
- First they joined forces with
the rapidly growing nationalism
which led to World War II,
- then they joined democrats and
brought about the moral vacuum
inciting the consumption of drugs
among youths, inhibiting reproduction,
and dropping birth rate
as a consequence.

Now they join the islamic cause,
arguably the most dangerous
of them all and the definitive blow.
Native Europeans are being
replaced sistematically.
No massive and messy deportations
this time. Simple and plain substitution.
Genetic Assisted Suicide.
K.O. this time

That being established
the question presented to ourselves is,
What is the sinister
common factor in the last
century´s pitfalls feeding on
resentment? THE SOCIALISTS.

Now you can´t say you don´t know.

Ladies and gentlemen the worst enemy right now,
is not the newly come as we may think.
they are old fellows.

May be a relative of yours,
or someone gone to school with you...
and they keep plotting nonstop.
Tough this time they hold the political power in
the United Nations, the European Union,
National Goverments, Regional and
Local Councils, you name it.

This is going to turn ugly.

Anonymous said...

"[W]e will never respond to such behavior with violence." I wonder to whom does that "we" refer. Let’s see… not the goverrnments who are more likely to turn the police repression against its own citizens (cf. English Defense League) and I mean “citizens” as in "indigenous/autochtonous populations"; Certainly not the muslims (I'm not even going to use the deceiving definition of "islamist", lest I suffer the death of the thousand euphemisms) who work themselves into a lather at the drop of a hat.
The "we" can only refer to the Westerners because we're civilized and reject displays of violence in most circumstances (except for self-defense) and would take putative insults as these with the silence and ignorance they deserve. This is only a problem because they made it one. The film they refer to (which let’s be honest, was not the reason for the riots but merely its “excuse”) came out 6 months ago and none of those savages even saw it, just like they never read “The Satanic Verses” or the Danish cartoons. Don’t you get it you bearded buffoons? If you want something to go away, don’t raise awareness of it; just let it slip into forgetfulness. Now you’re going to have people all over the world making their own “Mo” films. Brilliant!
Muslims involved in these protests throughout the world must think (if thinking is a licit term when applied to them) that the World owes them anything. Well, it does, but it's not respect or deference for their "hurt" feelings. One doesn't ask or demand respect: respect is freely given when it is deserved. Those who demand it resort to violence because they have nothing else to peg it on.
This only goes to show how pernicious the capitulation of the MSM is when they ignore muslim atrocities for the sake of preventing that fabled "backlash" against muslims that, somehow(!), never seems to comes true. The intelligentsia and muslims don't get to lecture us on freedom of speech, thank you very much!
It's an insult to project the lowest expectations of muslims on us, to pretend we are just as barbaric and intolerant as they are.
All we have to do is cough in their general direction and... poof, off they go on a killing spree. Any wonder why the culture that substantiates that kind of society is incapable of producing prosperity, Human development, inovation and harness its Human potential?

Any takers?

RUJV

Anonymous said...

Brighton, redolent with liberal connections as being the gay capital of Britain, has just hosted the Liberal Democrats' conference.

I think that all the LibDem mps and virtually all the delegates were white but on the stage they had a neat row of black children. This is just to show we are not racist as we are another bunch of international socialists like the Labour Party and that one day our party will not be all white but virtually all non-white we hope.

I am sure if they had spoken to any white person in the room they would have eulogised about how marvellous this was. These are typical middle class white-hating liberals who obviously don't look too far into the future. I think they would have a bit of nasty shock if they woke up tomorrow and discovered that whites were in a minority in England. Oh dear, we didn;t think that would happen they would say. Could it be that it is because they are rather stupid and live in the pot-induced haze of their student days.

Incidentally, their leader Nick Clegg is talking of a wealth tax, soaking the rich to help with cutting the deficit caused by the bankers. Good idea Nick as long as you include yourself, a multi-millionaire.

Anonymous said...

The obvious, crystal-clear way to protect cultural diversity in Norway
or anywhere else for that matter, is to get rid of the only obstacle to
culture,free movement of people and
peaceful co-existence: ISLAM.Without
this cancer,which has caused untold
suffering for 1400 years, Europe and most of the World would be great
places to live.