Another Motoon scandal brews in Norway

Islam in Europe reports an odd story brewing in Norway.

The country’s Police Security Service (a bit like MI5), has a Facebook page which allows comments and links from anyone who joins. One link led to a cartoon which depicted Mohammed as a pig writing the Koran. This led to the story being reported in the newspaper Dagbladet, accompanied by a shot of the image as it appeared on screen.

The photo published in Dagbladet


It was this reprinting of the image which then led to a protest by 1000 taxi drivers, who in a spontaneous demonstration of outrage, arranged to stop their cars between 2am and 4am in downtown Oslo. The demonstration passed peacefully.

However, liberal party MP Abid Q. Raja, a self-confessed moderate Muslim, has been making the usual dark noises. He has called on the PST heads and the justice minister to apologise for the original publication on Facebook. He said he was “afraid of the consequences” if they do not – but that he would very kindly try to calm down the community.

Think when this reaches the closed communities. Think when the mullahs see this. They’ll tear out their beards.

The original cartoon was drawn by a Jewish woman living in Hebron. She was sentenced by an Israeli court to two years in prison for trying to affix it to an Arab-owned shop front.

UPDATE (14:30) Oslo cabbies are continuing their protest today. One said:

We live in 2010 and we ought to expect that people had learned to show more respect. Why provoke such reactions when you know what happened after the caricatures in Denmark.

The newspaper Dagbladet tried patiently – but no doubt vainly – to explain in today’s editorial:

The drawing was used in a news report to illustrate that the Facebook profile of the PST (Police Security Service) contains links to Mohamed cartoons. Therefore it’s meaningless to claim – as the protesters do – that this is a provocation against Muslims in Norway and all over the world.


Comments are closed.