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The War is On
From the desk of Hjörtur Gudmundsson on Fri, 2006-02-03 01:54
Mullah_Krekar.jpg
Mullah Krekar
Yesterday (Thursday) Mullah Krekar, the alleged leader of the Islamist group Ansar al-Islam who has been living in Norway as a refugee since 1991, said that the publication of the Muhammad cartoons was a declaration of war. The war has begun, he told Norwegian journalists. Mr Krekar said Muslims in Norway are preparing to fight. It does not matter if the governments of Norway and Denmark apologize, the war is on.
Islamist organizations all over the world are issuing threats towards Europeans. The Islamist terrorist group Hizbollah announced that it is preparing suicide attacks in Denmark and Norway. A senior imam in Kuwait, Nazem al-Masbah, said that those who have published cartoons of Muhammad should be murdered. He also threatened all citizens of the countries where the twelve Danish cartoons [see them all here, halfway down the page] have been published with death.
It is important, however, to stress again that there are Muslims of great courage. While it is risky to publish the Muhammad cartoons in Europe, it is even riskier to do so in the Middle East. Yet the Jordanian independent tabloid al-Shihan published three of the twelve Muhammad cartoons yesterday. The editor of al-Shihan, Jihad al-Momani, said he decided to publish the cartoons to show what the issue was all about. In an editorial under the headline Muslims of the world, be reasonable he pointed out that Jyllands-Posten had apologized for offending Muslims. He deplored that few in the Islamic world seem to be willing to listen to this. What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman? the editor asked.
The spokesman of the Jordanian government, however, said that the editor had done a great mistake by publishing the cartoons and announced that the government is considering suing the newspaper. Before the day was over the papers owners had sacked Mr Momani.
Peter Mandelson, the EU Trade Commissioner, has criticized those papers which publish or republish Muhammad cartoons. According to Mr Mandelson they are throwing petrol onto the flames of the original issue and the original offence that was taken. The Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned that the decision by newspapers to republish the cartoons could encourage terrorists. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he is worried about the cartoon issue. His spokesman said that Mr Annan believes freedom of expression should always be used with respect for religion.
This is not, however, the opinion of the French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy. He said that the reactions of extremist Muslims towards the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published the original cartoons, and towards Denmark are shocking. Mr Sarkozy praised the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for his determination and defense of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is not an issue for negotiation and I see no reason to give one religion a special treatment, Mr Sarkozy said.
Meanwhile the Muhammad cartoons have been published in a number of newspapers in various European countries. The BBC broadcast them in the news so that its audience would understand what the fuss is all about. The French newspaper Le Monde published its own cartoon of Muhammad [see it here] on yesterdays front page. On Wednesday the editor of the French daily France Soir, Jacques Lefranc, was fired because he had republished the Muhammad cartoons. Journalists at France Soir defended Mr Lefrancs decision yesterday by publishing a front page and an editorial defending freedom of speech. In Tunesia and Morocco, however, the sale of France Soir has been prohibited.
Yesterday morning armed Palestinians again surrounded the offices of the European Union in Gaza City, demanding its closure and an apology for the cartoons within 24 hours. They threatened attacks on all Danes, Norwegians and Frenchmen in Palestine. We suggest that all offices and embassies of the three countries will be closed, otherwise we will not hesitate to eliminate them, their statement said. Norway at once closed its consulate on the West Bank for the public, but has not yet decided to withdraw its staff. On Thursday evening Palestinian gunmen also entered a number of hotels to threaten foreigners. Many Europeans are leaving Palestine before the Cartoon War really starts.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
The cartoon crisis continues
More developments on the Mohammed cartoon crisis.
Muhammad cartoon editor is sacked
'No one will draw the Prophet'
London Islamists target Israel, Denmark
Muslim Cartoon Fury Spreads
Anger as papers reprint cartoons of Muhammad
European papers ignore Muslim fury over Danish cartoons
Danish news editor: Dark dictatorships have won
And from the Financial Times, the first warning that this cartoon will lead to more terrorism.
President Hosni Mubarak said the reprinting of the cartoons originally published by Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, they were reproduced this week in newspapers across Europe would lead to serious repercussions, inflaming sentiment in the Muslim world and among European Muslim communities. Insensitive handling of the issue, he said, would give more pretexts to extremists and terrorists to carry out attacks.
In Saudi Arabia, Prince Nayef, the interior minister and staunch conservative, said the cartoons were an insult to all Muslims, and suggested the Vatican should intervene to put an end to the spread of the cartoons.
Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister of Turkey, a European Union candidate country, deemed the cartoons an attack on our spiritual values, and called for a limit on press freedom.
Commentary
The statements of Hosni Mubarak and Tayyip Erdogan indicate how deep this cultural division is. At the same time many Europeans -- not most, but many -- are suddenly aware they stand on the edge. If they let Islamic clerics determine what Europeans can and cannot print in their own press through a process of intimidation and force, the Old Continent will have surrendered a large part of its independence and sovereignty. The holy grail of every agitator is to find an issue on which both sides are unalterably opposed. Radical Islam has found it the blasphemy of Mohammed and ironically gave those who would rouse the West a mirror issue of their own: the blasphemy of censorship and the extinction of freedom of speech.
Both sides now are in too deep to climb down without damage. For the European press the path to this confrontation has been imperceptible, absentminded and catastrophic. Yet all so terribly familiar. The old warnings come naturally to mind.
... descending incontinently, fecklessly the stairway that leads to a dark gulf.
It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends.
A little farther on there are only flagstones, and a little farther on still these break beneath your feet.
The fine, broad highway to Hell that is political correctness which has achieved the opposite of its intent: not the universal chorus of harmony but religious conflict at its most primitive level.
And do not suppose this is the end.
This is the beginning of the reckoning.
This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of the bitter cup,
which will be proffered to us year by year,
unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour,
we rise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.
But the words are only memories. The men who said them are gone and their heirs are not yet found.
posted by wretchard at 11:56 AM
