A Danish newspaper apologised yesterday [Feb. 26th 2010] for offending Muslims by reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed with a bomb-shaped turban, rekindling a heated debate about the limits of freedom of speech.
The Danish daily Politiken said its apology was part of a settlement with a Saudi lawyer representing eight Muslim groups in the Middle East and Australia. It drew strong criticism from the Danish media, which had stood united in rejecting calls to apologise for 12 cartoons that sparked fierce protests in the Muslim world four years ago. [...]
Politiken said it did not mean to offend Muslims in Denmark or elsewhere when it reprinted one of the most controversial cartoons, showing Mohamed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse. Islamic law opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favourable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
[...]. In a statement, Politiken said it "recognises and deplores" the fact that Muslims were offended by the caricature.
"We apologise to anyone who was offended by our decision to reprint the cartoon drawing," it said.
Tøger Seidenfaden, Politiken's editor-in-chief, said that the paper was apologising for the offence caused by the cartoon – not the decision to reprint it.
"We have the right to print Kurt Westergaard's drawings, we have the right to print the original 12 drawings, we have the right to print all the caricatures in the world," he told AP. "We apologise for the offence which the reprint has caused. That is what we apologise for." [...]
"Politiken's pathetic prostrating before a Saudi lawyer takes the first prize in stupidity," said Jørn Mikkelsen, editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, which first printed the 12 cartoons. Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, the head of the Danish Union of Journalists, said Politiken was "kneeling before opponents of the freedom of press."
Source: The Independent
Reference: The Huffington Post
Something is rotten in Denmark. This is a blog about my thoughts, feelings, pictures about Denmark. I was there for one and a half year.I was impressed and disappointed at the same time. Denmark looks very well from outside but very bad from inside.
Denmark has stolen children from their foreigner parents
Showing posts with label Kurt Westergaard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kurt Westergaard. Show all posts
Monday, March 01, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Danes Study Immigrants
As part of the prolonged national headache caused by a Danish newspaper’s decision to publish 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, last weekend’s attack on one of the cartoonists responsible had a certain awful inevitability about it. [...]
“I’m sorry to say, but it’s déjà vu — every time we experience an episode, then in 10 minutes we have them saying we have to have a new law,” said Naser Khader, a member of Parliament and the spokesman on foreign affairs and immigration for the Conservative People’s Party. He was speaking of the increasingly powerful Danish People’s Party, whose votes the government relies on to pass legislation and whose populist, anti-immigrant rhetoric has informed and inflamed debate in recent years.
After the attack, the People’s Party leader, Pia Kjaersgaard, said that it should be easier to deport Danes linked to terrorists. “It must be crystal clear to everyone in this country that we cannot accept having Islamists who associate with terror being more or less tolerated in this country,” she said.
Mr. Khader is just as hostile toward Islamists as anyone in Danish politics; he recently proposed banning burqas. But he said the latest comments had gone too far. “You have to be responsible when such incidents happen, and not let emotions take over,” he said.
New details about the suspect in the attack on the cartoonist, 74-year-old Kurt Westergaard, have increased complaints that the security service has been lax in monitoring people suspected of being terrorist sympathizers.
Read more at NYT
“I’m sorry to say, but it’s déjà vu — every time we experience an episode, then in 10 minutes we have them saying we have to have a new law,” said Naser Khader, a member of Parliament and the spokesman on foreign affairs and immigration for the Conservative People’s Party. He was speaking of the increasingly powerful Danish People’s Party, whose votes the government relies on to pass legislation and whose populist, anti-immigrant rhetoric has informed and inflamed debate in recent years.
After the attack, the People’s Party leader, Pia Kjaersgaard, said that it should be easier to deport Danes linked to terrorists. “It must be crystal clear to everyone in this country that we cannot accept having Islamists who associate with terror being more or less tolerated in this country,” she said.
Mr. Khader is just as hostile toward Islamists as anyone in Danish politics; he recently proposed banning burqas. But he said the latest comments had gone too far. “You have to be responsible when such incidents happen, and not let emotions take over,” he said.
New details about the suspect in the attack on the cartoonist, 74-year-old Kurt Westergaard, have increased complaints that the security service has been lax in monitoring people suspected of being terrorist sympathizers.
Read more at NYT
Friday, January 08, 2010
It was a setup
The sister of the Somali accused of attempting to kill Kurt Westergaard maintains that the Danish PET (security police) coerced her brother into attacking the cartoonist in his home: “The police made him do it”.
References:
Danish neocons stage phony terrorist plot
References:
Danish neocons stage phony terrorist plot
Friday, October 02, 2009
Muslims Not 'Free of Being Mocked'
Muslims need to develop a sense of humor and an appreciation of satire — and they need to understand that they are not "free of being mocked or being offended," says the Danish caricaturist whose cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad incited rage throughout the Muslim world four years ago.
Kurt Westergaard told roughly a dozen listeners Wednesday night that he will "always" be ready to defend an individual's right to religious freedom.
"As the Danish tradition is for satire, we say you can speak freely, you can vote, you can speak out anytime, but there's only one thing you can't do — you can't be free of being mocked or being offended," Westergaard said. "That's the conditions in Denmark and so many countries."
Westergaard spoke at a private residence in midtown Manhattan in conjunction with the Hudson New York Briefing Council. It was just his second appearance in the U.S. since the 2005 publication of his notorious cartoon, which depicted Muhammad wearing a turban resembling a lit bomb. In Islam, any depiction of Muhammad is forbidden and considered blasphemy. [...]
Asked whether his depiction of the Prophet Muhammad originated from his personal politics or as part of his job as a cartoonist, Westergaard replied: "I am fighting for a just cause. And so you have a moral alibi, which is good, and then I have only worked according to our traditions in Denmark.
"And, of course, there's been a lot of support from the man which I meet in the street, the ethnic Dane who pats my shoulder and says, 'Well done.' Then there's also been the Muslims who have threatened me and cursed me … but I think the most reactions I have received, they are very positive."
Diana West, vice president of The International Free Press Society, which organized and promoted Westergaard's visit to the U.S., said, "It was a sheet of cartoons in a very small newspaper in a very small country that kicked off this now extremely significant event."
"And as a result, Westergaard has lived the last four years under death threats and in heightened security. It was a cartoon that he drew — this is his job."
She went on to criticize the decision by the Yale University Press not to publish Westergaard's image in a book released earlier this month, saying it reeked of "cowardice" and "appeasement."
"The question becomes whether we in the West submit to Islamic law regarding free speech and free expression," she said. "This is supposed to be a free country."
Read more at Fox News
Kurt Westergaard told roughly a dozen listeners Wednesday night that he will "always" be ready to defend an individual's right to religious freedom.
"As the Danish tradition is for satire, we say you can speak freely, you can vote, you can speak out anytime, but there's only one thing you can't do — you can't be free of being mocked or being offended," Westergaard said. "That's the conditions in Denmark and so many countries."
Westergaard spoke at a private residence in midtown Manhattan in conjunction with the Hudson New York Briefing Council. It was just his second appearance in the U.S. since the 2005 publication of his notorious cartoon, which depicted Muhammad wearing a turban resembling a lit bomb. In Islam, any depiction of Muhammad is forbidden and considered blasphemy. [...]
Asked whether his depiction of the Prophet Muhammad originated from his personal politics or as part of his job as a cartoonist, Westergaard replied: "I am fighting for a just cause. And so you have a moral alibi, which is good, and then I have only worked according to our traditions in Denmark.
"And, of course, there's been a lot of support from the man which I meet in the street, the ethnic Dane who pats my shoulder and says, 'Well done.' Then there's also been the Muslims who have threatened me and cursed me … but I think the most reactions I have received, they are very positive."
Diana West, vice president of The International Free Press Society, which organized and promoted Westergaard's visit to the U.S., said, "It was a sheet of cartoons in a very small newspaper in a very small country that kicked off this now extremely significant event."
"And as a result, Westergaard has lived the last four years under death threats and in heightened security. It was a cartoon that he drew — this is his job."
She went on to criticize the decision by the Yale University Press not to publish Westergaard's image in a book released earlier this month, saying it reeked of "cowardice" and "appeasement."
"The question becomes whether we in the West submit to Islamic law regarding free speech and free expression," she said. "This is supposed to be a free country."
Read more at Fox News
Saturday, March 01, 2008
An Interview with Kurt Westergaard
Kurt Westergaard is the cartoonist/illustrator who drew the most famous of the Mohammed cartoons. Because of death threats, he has moved around constantly under police protection. The German publication Der Spiegel has a very good profile of Westergaard. (in german) (in english).
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