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The right to blasphemy | 138 comments (138 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: The right to blasphemy (4.00 / 2)
I have said elsewhere that, if someone gets killed over the cartoons and the murderer ends up in jail, at least Jyllandsposten can find solace in the fact that the jailing of the murderer vindicates their right to free speech.

I still haven't seen anything that leads me to believe that JP did not intend the cartoons to be a pure and simple provocation of the people who are now closing down  the EU's offices in Gaza at gunpoint.

I agree the governments of muslim countries have no reason to expect state action against these newspapers, but Anders Fogh Rasmussen had every reason to expect that refusing to even meet 11 ambassadors was going to lead to a diplomatic mess.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Feb 3rd, 2006 at 04:07:19 PM EST
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Re: The right to blasphemy (none / 0)
Well, then that's a mess worth having. Though he should have sent them a confidential letter explaining why he was refusing to receive them and why it would be a bad idea to further press the matter in public.
by Francois in Paris on Fri Feb 3rd, 2006 at 04:30:24 PM EST
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Re: The right to blasphemy (none / 0)
You and Rasmussen can enjoy your mess, then because I have no interest in suffering the consequences.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Feb 3rd, 2006 at 04:33:12 PM EST
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Re: The right to blasphemy (none / 0)
Yeah, you're correct. Thinking of it, Rasmussen shouldn't have gone on this Middle East tour to show how much he and the Danes really don't like Muslims, should he?
by Francois in Paris on Fri Feb 3rd, 2006 at 06:18:22 PM EST
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Re: The right to blasphemy (none / 1)
Thanks for the link, but I find no middle east tour by Rasmussen in the text. I do find this, though:
To Muslim leaders in Denmark like Akkari and fellow imam Abu Laban, the images provided evidence of an Islamophobia that they believe permeates Danish society. Worse yet, they felt their protests against racism had been ignored. Newspapers failed to publish their letters to the editor and politicians seemed unwilling to listen. "As a group in society, we've simply been ignored," Akkari told the Aarhus-based daily Stiftstidende earlier this month.


A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Feb 3rd, 2006 at 06:29:03 PM EST
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Re: The right to blasphemy (none / 1)
I think there's something to that.  If the majority of Muslims in Denmark felt that they had a political voice, we might well not be in this mess.
by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Fri Feb 3rd, 2006 at 06:40:52 PM EST
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Re: The right to blasphemy (none / 0)
Errrhhh, Migeru. It was like, errhh ... sarcasm :>
This affair has been spun of whole cloth by Akkari and Laban because they felt "ignored". Boo hoo hoo, poor little imams. No one in Denmark gives a shit about them. So they went on a tour to whip their coreligionists in a frenzy and hand over a ready-to-use "controversy" for Mid-Eastern governments to placate their own fundies. And now, you're telling me this is Ramussen's mess? Are you kidding me?

I can't remember the last time the Saudi embassy in Paris or Copenhagen was sieged because of an antisemitic cartoon in a Saudi newspaper. Can you?

Ramussen was 100% correct to tell those countries' ambassadors to fuck off.
by Francois in Paris on Fri Feb 3rd, 2006 at 07:03:35 PM EST
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Re: The right to blasphemy (none / 0)
He told them off 1 month before the tour of the middle east.

Let's just agree to disagree here.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Feb 3rd, 2006 at 07:06:25 PM EST
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The right to blasphemy | 138 comments (138 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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