DENMARK: Danish people speak about the cartoon controversy

Record ID: 226428

  • Title: DENMARK: Danish people speak about the cartoon controversy
  • Date: 10th February 2006
  • Summary: WIDE SHOT STREET WITH PEOPLE WALKING IN RAIN (SOUNDBITE) (English) JETTE JOERGENSON, VOX POP, SAYING: "They (Muslims) are poor and (have) corrupt governments and they don't have freedom and therefore they find a cause to get angry but I also believe that the majority of the people don't think like the rebels." (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHELLE NOLTE, VOX POP, SAYING: "Peopl
  • Embargoed: 25th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Denmark
  • Country: Denmark
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVABHG74N4V3MKJWHLTTZMNW5BV2
  • Story Text: As controversy over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad continued around the world on Thursday (February 9, 2006), people in Denmark pondered where the anger came from.
    The caricatures, first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten daily newspaper in September and then reprinted across Europe, have unleashed fury among Muslims who view any portrayal of their Prophet as blasphemous, let alone one showing him as a terrorist.
    The cartoons were reprinted across Europe and in other parts of the world, but Jyllands-Posten has insisted it were just exercising their right to free speech.
    At Politiken, another Danish newspaper, Executive Editor-in-Chief Toeger Seidenfaden stood behind that argument, but added the move was careless.
    "We are showing solidarity with their right to be stupid, their right to make mistakes. They have made a very grave mistake in my view and it has led to serious consequences - far beyond what they imagined," Seidenfaden said. "Nevertheless, freedom of speech involves the right to make blunders and the right to make mistakes and it also involves the right not to be threatened."
    The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana is to travel to Muslim countries to try to calm some of the anger and the 25-member EU has called for the media to adopt a voluntary code of conduct to avoid a repeat of the furore.
    On the streets of Copenhagen, opinions were divided on where the fury first started.
    "They are poor and have corrupt governments and they don't have freedom and therefore they find a cause to get angry," said Jette Joergenson of Muslim communities around the world.
    "You know, if you have a cup of, let's say benzene and you put a match in it, it's like that. It was something expected for some time," said Sevgin Tamer.
    The United States accused some Muslim countries of fuelling the crisis.
    But a Syrian-born member of Denmark's parliament said the protests and anger did not accurately portray the vast majority of moderate Muslims.
    Naser Khader advised extremists who were fanning the flames to direct their anger elsewhere.
    "If you really care for Islam you should go to Iraq and say to Zarqawi - what you do in Islam's name, slaughter innocent hostages, that's more bad for Islam than the cartoons," he said, before adding that ordinary Muslims and Arabs are frustrated with what they see as a Western double standard in the Middle East.
    The cartoons have appeared in publications in Australia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Fiji, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, Ukraine and Yemen.
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