Egypt: Cartoons Causes Egypt-Denmark Crisis

Ritzy says, Egypt is closing its dialogue with Denmark on Human Rights and discrimination because of a dispute over cartoons portraying the Prophet Mohamed that was published by a newspaper last month. The diplomatic snub comes after the Danish prime minister refused to meet Egypt’s ambassador, along with ten other ambassadors from Muslim states.

79 comments

  • Woody

    Denmark doesn’t owe anyone an apology, if they do, them Islam owes the west an apology for the invasions of Christian and Jewsih lands. I am sure that is not coming so get over it! As for not buying danish products, I just bought a whole bunch on the weekend.

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    A guy has a dog that only barks, a lot. So he got sick of it and decided to take it to a Pet Doctor.
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  • Adam

    For the record, I lived for four years in Saudi Arabia during the 1980’s. During this time, I experienced more racist, nationalist and religious discrimination than I am likely to experience for the rest of my life. Not only is it quite unthinkable that a christian church or jewish temple is going to be built in Saudi in the forseeable future, but I actually had a necklace with a cross confiscated upon my first arrival in the airport. Every year there, the power was cut on the 24 of december between 16:00 and 21:00 – christmas eve.

    These were small things, however, compared to the rape of phillipino nanny´s, beheading of pakistani labourers, second-rate-citizen treatment of all dark (african-descended) saudis, etc…

    To see a country so immersed in the ill treament of others, so used to neglect the feelings and beliefs of anyone else than muslims, complain that a private newspaper in a free, peace-loving country is allowed to question why it seems that nearly every unpleasant thing happening on this earth seems to be comitted in the name of Muhammed and Allah, is quite frankly astounding…!

    Please, do keep up your ban on danish products – all it does is open the eyes of the world to the bigotry and intolerance that seems to pervade the muslim world!

    All I can say is you seriously need your version of the reformation that christiabity underwent 300 years ago… You are living in a modern world and your culture and religion really needs to get up to date with the ideas of personal freedom and the respect for others freedom, including the freedom to insult or be insulted. Bans and restrictions may still exist in your countries, but here we´ve rid ourselves of them. For some odd reason, although muslims generally have lots of bad things to say about our societies, they still keep coming, litterally by the millions… Why?!

  • Karim

    let me add somkething here it may be a fact that nowadays some people belonging to some nations muslim and non-muslim ones practice many forms of racism and I believe that it’s so unfair to accuse muslim countries u’ve mentioned and forgetting the USA the symbol of “fake democracy” or maybe u believe that it’s not doing acts of racism maybe u’re right cuz what USA is doing has got no definition yet…
    Any way I just wanted to tell u that u gotto seperate Islam itself apart from countries and authority personnel as those people maybe totally away from Islam as a religion and a way of life ,as an example here in Egypt an ordinary muslim citizen may face all kinds of discrimination and racism that u may imagine let me tell u that the beared person is always treated as a second place citizen who faces discrimination everywhere at governmental institutes,work he may even find difficulties in obtaining work that’s an act of racism isn’t it?
    I think u have to know that the prophet Muhammad and his followers when they first entered the Medina and declared their state they wrote a document with the jews living their that guarantees all their rights as citizens equal to muslims ,isn’t that strange EQUAL and u say that islam invented racism. Someday when muslims were going out for a battle a muslim follower was owing some money to a jew and this jew went to the prophet who told the muslim not to join the battle unless the jew allows him to leave knowing that muslims then were extremely few and in great need to every single one ,is this racism?
    Also when muslims entered Jerusalem with the leader and follower Omar after the prophet’s death, and Omar refused to pray within the church borders so as the next generations wont claim to build any mosques at this area which belongs to the church…and u’re telling me that Islam has invented racism look how did we use to deal with non-muslims and their holy places and look what did the Christian Visigoths do when they recaptured Spain and destroyed every Islamic civilization left from the muslim era which was a golden era for Spain, and certainly u know that they’ve turned many mosques into churches for example the well known mosque of “Kortoba” which became a church after the Christian conquest…just think of it deeply and ask urself did really islam invent racism?
    I really donot know how did islam show any racism towards non believers after all what I’ve told u? I guess u guys should read some more about islam and not that look at iran or Pakistan or even Saudi Arabia and judge islam cuz islam isn’t muslims it’s even wider than that and unfortunately nowadays muslims are the last to reflect islam as a constitution of one’s life,so we have bin laden deforming islam’s picture over the globe and others in many Islamic states practicing some non-islamic attitudes. So just try to look at islam from a new view and forget what u’ve seen by muslim acts and just read about it as itself I’m sure u’re gonna change u’re ideas about it and about the prophet that really represents islam so if any one can reflect islam it will be him…and I think that’s why muslims felt so humiliated by these cartoons, and I guess we have that right to believe in whatever we want to and others also have the right to believe in whatever they want to but we should all respect our beliefs and that’s what islam told us to do as muslims and I don’t care what muslims really do nowadays but that’s what our prophet told us to do and I believe that trying to insult this symbolic great character was a terrible mistake that requires an appropriate reaction and it cannot be considered by all means as a right of free expressing or independent press as a person has a right to sew a publisher when something he sees offensive is published but what if this person is no longer a life, and what if that person really represents something in the life of millions al over the globe? I guess it’s different.

  • Karim

    By the way I totally understand that as non-muslims ofcourse u got all about islam from the acts of muslims that should be well representing islam..But i’m sorry to say that many muslims these days are even further from islam as a non-muslim and I just want to tel u that please try not to read all about islam from muslims try to look for other rsources if u really want to know why it’s the most growing..maybe it’s because it’s really not too bad,intolerable,violent racist as many people think…

  • Tyrone Roger Enright

    I think that people all over the world have forgotten what freedom of speech and freedom of expression is all about… It’s about the essential right of other people to: write, paint, sing, portray; ideas, concepts, representations, that I personally find odious, blasphemous, idolatrous, licentious, seditious, and downright contrary to what I think I know is right, as we all individually set ourselves to be arbritrars of what is correct and what is wrong… Freedom of expression is the necessary antithesis to the Thought Police, to Totalitarians and Despots.

    Freedom of speech is not the right to demand that you only will hear and see and read what you find agreeable, it is the right of another’s expression to offend you, and you need to understand that your willingness to fight for my right to assault your beliefs and sensibilities with my expression is what protects your freedom to have your own mind and your own beliefs.

    Islam seems antithetical to such civil liberty, that’s not racism, but what we are told by the Islamic world, and it has to be honestly questioned whether liberty and freedom of thought, fundamental Western philosophy and culture is at all miscible with Islam, which is a religion, a way of life, and a theocracy. There is no shame and nothing wrong with separate cultures and separate civilizations choosing and going down their own paths. It’s another kind of totalitarianism, that insists that Chuck, Gerhard, Aloise, Nyguen, and Ahmed must be forced to dwell together, and to dilute beyond meaning, their own individual beliefs. Respect means esteem, and truthfully I do not esteem the Khomeineys and their ways and they do not esteem me and mine. I am perfectly happy that they should run their own societies their own ways and adhere to their own beliefs in their own lands. I live where I live because I believe in my culture, and I have as much right to insist on the inviolabilty of the principles of my nation’s culture, government and liberties, as the Saudis have the right to do as they wish within Saudi Arabia.

  • Hans

    Guys, with all respect, the debate about what the Danish PM should or shouldn’t do is very wide off the mark. I have no doubt that, like 90% of the nation, he is deeply embarrassed by this affair and not at all into offending other people’s religion. However, from a legal (and to some extent political) perspective he has no room for manoeuvre.

    The Danish Constitution (from 1849) states that “Any opinion is entitled to a written expression. Censorship is abolished and can never be re-instituted.” Based on this provision, a couple of high-profile court cases just after WW2 essentially stuck down remaining Danish blasphemy legislation. Put simply, the courts found that defamation of the Christian (!!) faith is constitutionally protected free speech. (And since then we’ve had to put up with a few pornographic representations of Jesus Christ on public buildings, and other unpleasantries…) I simply do not see how now, 50 years later, the Danish government could claim that there’s a special rule for Islam. Nor am I sure that it should. To me, free speech means that if you insult someone, it comes on your own head. – Not that of the government.

  • Somebody

    I wonder what it is going to be like if it was cartoons about Judaism, zionism or state of terror of Israel. Would it still be considered freedom of speech? or then you will be charged in court under the anti-semetic law.
    Hmmmm Freedom of speech is it the joke of the day, or it depends which speech.

  • Hans

    Somebody, I can speak for Denmark. For decades our country has had tussles with such unequal bedfellows as Germany and Israel because our constitution is interpreted (by the courts again) as protecting both anti-Semitism and National Socialism under the freedom of speech clause. Luckily, (and I say this with a certain bitterness) both of these nations are civilised enough to shrug off such differences of opinion.

    On a somewhat related note… unnoticed by most people a Muslim funster in Belgium recently published a semi-pornographic representation of Virgin Mary. (Here it is: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/287.) Predictably it drew rebuke from the Vatican, but even the Bishops of his home country decided against getting drawn into a dispute.

    I wonder… does this demureness, this lack of willingness to meet insult with agression, make the Belgian Catholics “morally inferior” in the eyes of our Muslim friends?

  • Adam

    We don´t have an anti-semitic law, as you call it. Freedom of speech, and the unpleasentries that invariable come from it, are the same for all. Indeed, harsh anti-Israeli opinions are voiced in newspapers every week. The thing is, jews are not a problem in our society. They live happily by the rules and customs of our country keeping their own religion to themselves. Muslims, however, seem to be the cause of endless problems in every country they live in (and I´m generalizing heavily here, mind you!). This gives rise to much debate about muslims which, because of your complete refusal to accept critisicm of any kind, results in threats towards anyone voicing such critisicm. Subsecuently, people fear to let hear their opinion because of the fear of reprisals. The article in Jyllandposten wanted to put focus on this very un-westernly self-censoring. The reaction of muslims all over the world verified this theory beyond any doubt. Since no such reaction is to be expected from jews (or christians or hindus or anyone else), you will of course not see articles like this with them on the recieving end. It´s that simple…

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