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I carry no brief for the Saudi government. I'm just saying... the Hajj stampede was two weeks before the boycott started. According to the wikipedia timeline, this event was much more proximate to the start of the boycott:
January 23: The Danish government delivers its offical response to the UN Special Rapporteurs' request of 24 November 2005.
That response was to this request:
November 24: The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief and Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance request the Permanent Danish Mission to the UN to deliver their observations of the case.
What did the Danish response say? Well, we can find it here (.pdf document). It's 10 pages long, and only the first page and a half deal with the cartoons, concluding with this:
Based on an overall assessment of the article in Jyllandsposten, including the twelve cartoons, the Regional Public Prosecutor does not find that there is a reasonable suspicion that a criminal offence indictable by the state has been committed. In his decision the Regional Public Prosecutor states that he attaches importance to the fact that the article in question concerns a subject of public interest, which means that there is an extended access to make statements without these statements constituting a criminal offence. Furthermore, according to the Danish case law f.i. journalists have extended editorial freedom, when it comes to subjects of public interest. For these reasons the Regional Public Prosecutor finds no basis for concluding that the content of the article constitutes an offence under section 140 or section 266b of the Criminal Code.
The other eight-and-a-half pages focus on religious tolerance and the integration of immigrants into Danish society, starting with this:
The Government is focusing strongly on ensuring a society with mutual respect and shared democratic values. The Danish democracy is by its very nature inclusive to all cultures and religions.
It paints a fairly positive picture of the Danish government's efforts to improve relations with the Muslim community and aid integration of Muslim immigrants. I haven't been to Denmark, so I have no idea how accurately the document portrays reality.
All I'm saying is that, since this response to a UN query over the cartoons was delivered three days before the boycott started, isn't it possible that the timing of the boycott has something to do with whether Muslim states found the response satisfactory?
Many commenters and diarists have said that there are many factors contributing to the mess we're all in now. I wish I could believe it were as simple as a big ol' Saudi conspiracy, but I just don't think it's that simple.
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