This will be interesting

Will this be the defining moment for people to realize just what we are up against?  For the people of the Netherlands it probably was the Van Gogh murder.  But this might “do it” for a lot more people.  I’m glad to see what the Danes are standing their ground:

THE Danish editor who brought the fury of the Muslim world on his country by printing pictures of the Prophet Muhammad defiantly declared yesterday: “We do not apologise for printing the cartoons. It was our right to do so.”

As protests continued for a second day in Gaza with shouts of “Death to Denmark”, Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the centre-right daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten, sat in his book-lined office declaring his surprise at the reaction.

He said that he had to stand his ground because, as in the Salman Rushdie affair, freedom of speech was being threatened. “There is a lot at stake. It would be very naive to think this is only about Jyllands-Posten and 12 cartoons and apologising or not apologising.

“This is about standing for fundamental values that have been the (foundation) for the development of Western democracies over several hundred years, and we are now in a situation where those values are being challenged,” he said.

“I think some of the Muslims who have reacted very strongly to these cartoons are being driven by totalitarian and authoritarian impulses, and the nature of these impulses is that if you give in once they will just put forward new requirements.”

A poll over the weekend showed that 80 per cent of Danes thought that the Government should not apologise and 62 per cent thought that the newspaper should not apologise. Jyllands-Posten tried to calm tempers on Monday by apologising for any offence caused, but stood firm on its decision to print the pictures.

Here is a collection of Muhammad pictures including the one of him with a bomb as a turban which was so offensive to the extremist Muslims.  I’m particular fond of the “What would Muhammad drive?” cartoon.  The more in your face types will appreciate the camel one.

Thanks to Ry for the link to the collection and for the basis of this post.

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2 thoughts on “This will be interesting

  1. Is there a way to email Mr. Rose and tell him how much we respect his stance?

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