The extent of Arab-Muslim anger over the Danish cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has shocked Europe. The loss resulting from the boycott of products from Denmark and other European countries runs into billions of dollars. It made the West reconsider and rethink the actions that can invite the Muslim Ummah’s anger. There were many attempts from European thinkers and writers to lessen the pressure by saying that Muslims are violent by nature and that such violence serves the ends of their religion.
But these attempts failed and the Danish Church started taking steps to defuse the situation. Last week Cairo hosted a delegation from the Danish Church and held a dialogue of cultures. The dialogue was organized by the Biblical Coptic Egyptian Committee. The Egyptian president’s political consultant attended the event. Also present were a number of Muslim and Coptic scholars from Egypt and Denmark’s ambassador in Cairo. They all denounced the cartoons, some urging swift punishment for those responsible.
The Danish ambassador thinks that Muslims are unaware of the Danish law governing blasphemy and related issues. He condemned the boycott of Danish products. “In my country there are rules that prevent people from using freedom of speech to ridicule others,” the ambassador said. “We have laws and rules against heresy and blasphemy, a law against racism and discrimination and a third law against libel. But the government can’t accuse or punish anyone over these matters and whoever wants action in such situations should move the courts,” he added.
I would like to remind Mr. Ambassador here how the whole thing started. In September 2005, the Jylland-Posten published a number of caricatures ridiculing the Prophet. It agitated the Muslim world and they decided to employ legal methods to get the criminals punished.
On Oct. 27, 2005, a number of Muslim organizations filed a complaint with the Danish police claiming that Jyllands-Posten had committed an offence under section 140 and 266b of the Danish Criminal Code.
Section 140 of the code prohibits disturbing public order by publicly ridiculing or insulting the dogmas of worship of any lawfully existing religious community in Denmark. Section 266b criminalizes insult, threat or degradation of natural persons, by publicly and with ill-intent attacking their race, color of skin, national or ethnical roots, or sexual orientation. Danish police began their investigation of these complaints on Oct. 27, 2005. But on Jan. 6, 2006, the regional public prosecutor in Viborg discontinued the investigation as he found no basis for concluding that the cartoons constituted a criminal offense. He stated that, in assessing what constitutes an offense, the right to freedom of speech must be taken into consideration. That while the right to freedom of speech must be exercised with the necessary respect for other human rights, including the right to protection against discrimination, insult and degradation, no apparent violation of the law had occurred.
The regional public prosecutor’s racist decision drove a wide section of Danish educators and media establishments to siding with the offending newspaper. And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I pose this question to every Danish ambassador and the regional public prosecutor: What would you have done if these cartoons ridiculed the Holocaust or Israel? Surely you would wish to condemn the criminals.
As for the regional public prosecutor’s decision that was based on freedom of speech and human rights, I say: Yes, I agree but as long as they don’t offend others. There are two facts that support my argument. First, the English historian David Irving was dragged to an Austrian court for denying the Holocaust and he was sentenced to three years in jail. Second, there is the case of a Turkish publisher who was fined by the Turkish government for printing an article about the Prophet that the government didn’t like. He approached the European court of law for redress but the court threw out the suit field by the Turkish publisher against his government. Instead of wasting time in long arguments, I think it’s time for the United Nations to launch an international law that compels people to respect religions and beliefs and never ridicule them either by criticism or cartoons or any means of expression.
