International Day of (PC) Anger
By Jim Lynch on Feb 3, 2006 in The Old Media, War on Terrorism
The Telegraph has this story:
A leading Islamic cleric called for an “international day of anger” today over publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, and a Danish activist predicted that deadly violence could break out in Europe “at any minute”.
[...]
Jihad al-Momani, the editor of the Jordanian newspaper al-Shihan, was sacked for trying to publish three of the 12 caricatures. He said that he was aiming “to show his readers “the extent of the Danish offence”.
A leading hard-line Muslim cleric, Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi, called for the day of anger to protest against the printing of the cartoons - first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September - in other European papers.
“Let Friday be an international day of anger for God and his prophet,” said the sheikh, who is the head of the International Association of Muslim Scholars. He is one of the Arab world’s most popular television preachers and made a controversial visit to London in July 2004 as a guest of the mayor, Ken Livingstone.
[...]
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark, told the Danish newspaper Politiken that the issue had gone beyond a row between Copenhagen and the Muslim world and now centred on western free speech versus taboos in Islam. He said: “We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work.”
Ahmad Sheikh, the president of the Muslim Association of Britain, called on the British media not to publish the cartoons.
He said: “Society has to debate the issue but printing an image of the Prophet is offensive to the Muslim community. It is idolatrous. What benefit is there? It will damage community relations. Free speech ends when it starts hurting other people.”
I wrote a post on Tuesday suggesting support for Denmark. Checking Sitemeter I see that It has been viewed by quite a number of Danes. One commenter on that post, who used the name “A Dane”, had this to say.
Just a question, specially for usa. why are the americans newspapers and networks afraid to show the 12 cartoons?
The answer is both simple and sad. They agree with Ahmad Sheikh that, “Free speech ends when it starts hurting other people.” Politisk rettende (I am unsure if this is the correct translation. Various online translation sites don’t have the word “correctness”, but this appears to be close. Any Danish visitors, please feel free to provide the proper word) In english — Political Correctness. American newspapers and networks practice political correctness in favor of all but a few groups (Christians, The Military, and Conservatives are the only three exceptions that I can think of).
Free speech is one of the most cheerished rights of Americans and democracies around the world. The biggest threat to our free speech is the idea that people have the right not to be offended. That’s not to say that anyone who is offended has to just ignore the offense. The issue is the response. Many people have been offended by the Tom Tole’s cartoon and it’s depiction of the military and the war. (See Michelle Malkin). But there is a key difference in how people have responded to this cartoon and calling for “A Day of Anger” as described. As Michelle put it,
So, there you have it. Another example of liberal math:
Writing a letter and posting blog entries = issuing fatwas, threatening suicide bombings, and conducting armed raids.
I don’t have time to download, upload, and post the cartoons here. Michelle also has more on this story and the images on this post. I will add them here when I return from work.
Now I have to get the børn ready for skole.
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