The outrage which cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad have provoked among Muslims has prompted much self-righteous blather about the sanctity of free speech. Yet Muslims are not the only ones who seem to find blasphemy beyond the pale, and who believe that religion should take precedence over liberty. Here in the UK, Christians retain the protection of the law of 'blasphemous libel', a common law...
To see or not to see: that is now our question. For the past week and a half, the biggest global story has been the rioting, violence and murder that has exploded over a dozen cartoons in a Danish newspaper. Former president Bill Clinton has called the cartoons "totally outrageous". Many mainstream Muslims have claimed that they are indeed offended by them. The Archbishop of Canterbury has opined...
Until earlier this month most of us had never heard of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Most were blissfully unaware, too, that the 12 cartoons published in that newspaper on September 30 last year would eventually result in a wave of Muslim protest that would lead to embassies being set on fire, posters being paraded around London with messages inciting terror and several deaths across the...
The ringleaders behind the cartoon-row demonstration in London include a British-born radical who underwent military training in Afghanistan, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. This paper has learned that the protesters included Abdur Rahman Saleem, a former member of the now-disbanded Al-Muhajiroun sect, which has been linked with terror and intimidation. The 32-year-old from Ilford in Essex...
COPENHAGEN, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Denmark urged its citizens to leave Indonesia on Saturday, warning of "clear and present danger" from Muslim extremists seeking revenge for Danish newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. The foreign ministry said all Danes should leave the world's most populous Muslim country as soon as possible. "Concrete information indicates than an extremist group wishes to...
A redefinition of the freedom of expression that incorporates "standardized" universally accepted religious taboos is becoming increasingly necessary in the light of the enormous row triggered by the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, prominent academics and media experts suggested on Thursday. They contend that the caricatures, regarded throughout the Islamic world as...
Sequence and consequence do not always follow the same logic: The publication of the gratuitously offensive cartoons against the Prophet of Islam (you can translate that, literally, to the Prophet of Peace for Islam means peace) has already resonated through contemporary events. It will also echo far into the future. Any single day’s newspaper was sufficient to indicate that simmering resentment...
Respect is not a right. Almost anything one can think of these days is, supposedly, a right, and judging from the angry demands on all sides for respect, one might easily be bamboozled into thinking respect is somehow a right as well. Not so, rightly not. Yet all the terrifying Muslim uprisings across the world in response to the Danish cartoons have all been about a demand for respect, as of...
They came, the organisers said, to sound the "legitimate voice" of the Muslim community in Britain. After a week dominated by images of a hook-handed fanatic and placards in praise of the 7 July suicide bombers, it was a day for the moderate majority to stand up and be counted. The thousands who gathered in Trafalgar Square in London for yesterday's rally did so to protest against both the...
COPENHAGEN, Feb. 11, 2006 – For decades, the Christiania neighborhood here was an informal symbol of Danish tolerance – a leafy district dotted with hippie communes and stalls where people could openly buy and smoke marijuana despite nominal laws against it. But today the stalls are empty and the revelers have gone home. Many here see the change as indicative of a societywide shift that has also...
