mediawatchwatch.org.uk

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.

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.

Dutch News reports that anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders has once again been invited to the House of Lords to speak and to show his YouTube hit film Fitna. Presumably the invitation comes from the same two peers as before: Baroness Cox and Lord Pearson of Rannoch.

Last year the same invitation was made, prompting a formal letter to the Dutchman from the then home secretary Jacqui Smith telling him to stay away for reasons of maintaining public order. As a result, Wilders was turned away at Heathrow, only to have that decision ruled unlawful by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal last October.

It will be interesting to hear what the deplorable ex-con Lord Ahmed has to say about it this time.

Wilders is currently awaiting the formal start of a trial in the Netherlands, where he is accused of saying hurtful things about a certain desert-born monotheistic belief system and its accompanying holy book.

Pakistan’s Daily Mail carries a story claiming that the Norwegian ambassador to Pakistan has “strongly regretted” the re-publication of the Turbomb Motoon in the pages of Aftenposten.

Robert Kvile allegedly is of the view that the Norwegian government would “strive to reform understandings and to devise a strategy to stop such practices in future”.

Kvile was summoned to the office of the Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi, where he was informed that:

that people of Pakistan were very sensitive and love respect the last messenger of Almighty Allah, adding that their reactions were genuine and constructive. He added that Islam teaches tolerance and peace and discourages extremism.

According to the minister, re-publication of the image had

dented the feelings of the 1.5 billion Muslim community in the World

All of whom have subscriptions to Aftenposten, presumably. Who knew?

(Hat tip, The Freethinker)

A teenage media student has made a video to show her “love and support” for Motoonist Kurt Westergaard, resulting in a number of threats from the usual quarters.

17 year old Nikoline Astrid Nielsen’s “Danger Romance with Kurt Westergaard”, sung to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”, has gone viral in Denmark:

She says she was inspired when a Westergaard watercolour was rejected from a charity auction by a Danish auction house because they deemed it too risky (see below).

Copenhagen Post reports that a hate group was set up against her on Facebook, where threats were made and photos of accidents with her face superimposed upon the victims were published. That group seems to have disappeared, and all that remain are Fan Groups to the young infidel.

The police are investigating.

It is nice to hear that repeated attempts by the ridiculous Organisation of the Islamic Conference to push a blasphemy law at the UN are being stoutly resisted by the UK government.

Last week, Lord Patten raised the question of the government’s position in Parliament, and it was answered by Foreign Office Minister Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead:

The Government share the concern of the Organisation of Islamic Conference that individuals around the world are victimised because of their religion or belief. We all need to do more to eliminate religious intolerance and to ensure that those who incite hatred or violence against individuals because of their religious beliefs are dealt with by the law.
But the Government cannot agree with an approach that promotes the concept of “defamation of religions” as a response. This approach severely risks diminishing the right to freedom of expression. We believe that international human rights law already strikes the right balance between the individual’s right to express themselves freely and the need for the state to limit this right in certain circumstances. International human rights law provides that only where advocacy of religious hatred constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence should it be prohibited by law.

We believe that the concept of “defamation of religions” puts in danger the very openness and tolerance that allows people of different faiths to co-exist and to practise their faith without fear. It risks changing the focus of international human rights law from examining how countries promote and protect the right to freedom of expression to censoring what individuals say. If this happened, people might feel unable to speak out against human rights abuses or hold their government to account. It is also inconsistent with the international human rights legal framework which exists to protect individuals and not concepts or specific belief systems.

For this reason the UK, along with our EU Partners and other like-minded countries, voted against the resolution put forward by the Organisation of Islamic Conference at the 64th session of the UN General Assembly on Combating Defamation of Religions.

(Hat tip: The New Humanist)

A Danish art auctioneer has rejected a painting by Kurt Westergaard which was to be auctioned to fund the relief effort in Haiti. Lauritz.com had called for submissions for various celebrities for their charity campaign, but Westergaard’s innocuous painting was deemed too risky, simply because it was by him.

Spokesperson Mette Jessen:

We must recognise that the terror threat is still of such a character that we can’t predict the consequences of a sale. We value the safety of our employees quite highly, which is why an eventual risk assessment was used in our consideration.

The craven decision was condemned by Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen:

‘I won’t dictate which auction house sells what and who should cut someone’s hair but I want to warn against the stigmatisation it creates.

He added that people should not live their lives “in the shadow of fear.”

Fortunately a more principled gallery has stepped in and accepted Westergaard’s watercolour. Galleri Draupner, which has previously exhibited his work, are inviting bids on their website.

The current high bid stands at $22,000.

UPDATE: (21 Jan, 12:15) Latest bid: $75,000.

Here is the highly dangerous painting:

The recent attempt on Motoon creator Kurt Westergaard’s life by an axe-wielding Islamaniac has hit the headlines all over the world – with several newspapers even daring to publish the controversial cartoon which prompted Danish imams to stoke up the outrage in the first place.

Norway’s Aftenposten (link to Googlish translation) is one of them. It lists the countries in which other newspapers have chosen to illustrate the story with the relevant drawing. They include Portugal, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Suriname.

Aftenposten editor Hilde Haugsgjerd has no doubts about showing the cartoons:

we think it is natural and appropriate to republish the artistic and journalistic work which probably prompted this violent action.

UPDATE: Add Norway’s Dagbladet to the list. In a leading article they create their own version of Westergaard’s “Turbomb” as well as reprinting a facsimile of the original Jyllands-Posten page with all 12 Motoons.

UPDATE: (Jan 10) Pakistan’s Foreign Office has predictably condemned the reprinting of the cartoons by Aftenposten, urging the Norwegian government to “ensure that the people who committed this blasphemous act were appropriately reprimanded.”

UPDATE: (Jan 15) The Iranian goverment, that paragon of virtue and purity, has now joined Pakistan in condemnation of Norway.

You cannot use the excuse of freedom of expression to justify insulting the beliefs of 1.5 billion Muslim.

Can. Do.

Heartening news from Norway, where a group of liberal Muslims is calling on the Islamic Council of Norway to demonstrate in support of the Motoon artist Kurt Westergaard.

Shakil Rehman of the liberal Muslim network LIM (Equality, integration, multiculturalism) told the Klassekampen newspaper:

It wasn’t a mistake that the caricatures of Muhammed were printed, and in any case it doesn’t justify violence. Muslims have just a great interest in protecting freedom of expression as all others. Therefore Muslims should also support Kurt Westergaard.

Rehman has called on the Islamic Council to support the demo, but will organise the event himself if they do not.

I’m afraid they won’t rise to the challenge, because they don’t want to lose face in the Muslim world. But if they support freedom of speech, they should also be able to show that they mean it in practice.

Muhammed didn’t want to be depicted because he didn’t want to be worshipped like an idol. When Muslism think the prophet is insulted by being depicted, then they make him into precisely such an idol. Therefore there shouldn’t be any problem to make a caricature of him. I will go so far to say that Muslim leaders are unqualified

He is joined by Norweigan-Somali SV politician Hamsa Mohamed who was originally against the Motoons:

For me it’s completely fine now. I don’t respond as vigorously as before. Afterward I saw that people responded unnecessarily vigorously from the Muslim side. Caricatures are drawn all over the world.

Many say that the Prophet himself had a lot of tolerance, but that it was his followers who did the opposite of what the Prophet stood for. I agree with the interpretations. Many Somalis I speak to are discussing this now, and think that the reaction to the caricatures was an over-reaction.

Good luck to them. Moderate Muslim voices such as these are woefully under-reported.

Swedish artist Lars Vilks is the latest cartoonist to receive a threat from jihad group al-Shabaab (“The Lads”).

The phlegmatic creator of the Modog series of cartoons got a couple phone calls from someone claiming to represent the Somalian Islamothugs. Vilks told his local newspaper:

The man, who spoke accented Swedish, asked me if I knew about what happened in Denmark and to the artist Kurt Westergaard. I said I certainly did.

The man then explained that they were out after more and that they would soon come for me. I told them they were welcome.

Sigh.

We are tired of pointing out how ironic it is that these morons react with violence at any suggestion that their religion is violent, so here instead is a nice poem by The Digital Cuttlefish, written especially for this occasion:

Danish Cartoonist: 1–Muhammad: 0
It must, at times, be really hard
To be cartoonist Westergaard*.
To be a controversial Dane,
Targeted by religious insane.
Trying to live their normal life,
A normal man and normal wife,
But with a price put on his head—
A million bucks to see him dead.

His drawing was a mortal sin
(To those who need a thicker skin):
The Prophet (praise be unto him)
Portrayed in features rather grim,
With bomb in turban, fuse alight,
Offensive to a Muslim’s sight!
Since such an insult could not stand,
“The man must die.” the cold command.

Islam’s Qur’an, the central text,
Has poor cartoonists quite perplexed—
It calls for peace, or that’s the claim,
While breeding martyrs in its name.
But should one choose to illustrate
This problem, well, we know the fate:
The peaceful clerics draw a breath
And send the artist to his death.

Kurt Westergaard is still alive
His freedom, also, will survive—
He will not bow to terrorists
Although his name is on their lists;
He chooses still, by all accords,
To set his pen against their swords
To freely live, as best he can—
So, fuck Muhammad—Kurt’s the man!

*I have been corrected; my pronunciation of Westergaard is incorrect (thanks for nothing, ITN News!) My apologies!

UPDATE: If that poem cheered you up, this will depress you. It’s the fair and balanced BBC claiming that Westergaard’s cartoon “sparked” outrage (in fact it only “sparked” a couple of imams to stoke outrage) and helpfully pointing out that “some independent religious scholars argue the cartoonists were wrong to offend Muslims and say the drawings made dialogue impossible.” (Thanks to Ophelia B in the comments)