The Danish Muslim War?
It’s become a huge issue in the news here in Denmark, the Middle East, Europe and I would be surprised if it hasn’t made some the news somewhere in the USA in between the State of the Union and the hostage issues in Iraq.
In October of last year one of Denmarks more popular newspapers Jyllands Posten printed an article about Mohammed, the Arab prophet that included 12 cartoons picturing Mohammed. Many Muslims have felt, do feel very offended by these drawings and that is where the issue has its origin.
There are a number of Muslim organizations in Denmark, so at the publishing of this article in the paper they demanded a meeting with the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Their agenda for this meeting was to get the PM to take action, asking the paper to apologise, to reprimand the newspaper. The Danish government did not meet with the leaders but instead sent them a letter explaining that the government can not interfere with a newspaper over such issues as it has its rights.
This group of Muslim community representatives then travelled to the Middle East to share these cartoons with the Muslim populations. There is a debate whether they did this to keep a greater crisis from happening at a later point or to make a point and force the Danish government to take a stance. It has now come out that in the packet they brought to show people in the Middle East, there were pictures included that were not in the newspaper including one with Mohammed pictured as a pig. It is now clear what the result of their travel was.
Their sharing of these pictures has caused a huge upset in the Middle East resulting in the boycotting of Danish goods, the pulling out of statesmen from Denmark and many serious threats. Officials in the Arab world have stated they would help to influence people to end such boycotts and threats if they receive an apology from the Danish prime minister as well as a punishment for the newspaper, the Danes would not dream of punishing the newspaper that has done nothing to break the law. The Danish prime minister, along with his people do not believe it is his place to apologise as it was the newspaper that printed the articles and the newspaper has the freedom and right to print such articles. The issues is now the freedoms Danes and many people in the “Western Word” hold so dearly versus the feelings of the many Muslims in regards to the disrespect towards them, their religion, their prophet.
On Tuesday the EU stood up and backed the actions of Denmark and on Wednesday many of Europe’s countries further backed Denmark and the newspaper by printing the same drawings of Mohammed along with more, arguing their right to do so. Will this create more tension between the Middle East and Europe, the western world?
Well here is a current and very real culture clash. Europeans feel it is odd that they are being told by people in Saudi Arabia that they don’t have proper human rights. Many Muslims in the European world trying to somewhat fit in feel offended. Entire nations in the Middle East feel offended. For the past couple weeks I’ve been using a lot of energy talking to people here in Denmark, a lot of the time defending Muslims, defending the idea of treating people and their beliefs with respect. There have already been many tensions in Denmark between the traditional Danes and the many new citizens from the Islamic world. This new issue is not helping the racial divide and only gives the two cultures more reasons to dislike each other.
What can we do to get people to start looking at our similarities? How do we get people to see past their differences and try to understand each others cultures? One of the best ways is through opening our minds, listening and learning from each other.
If we can’t be open to that which is different, then we will never change.
It’s become a huge issue in the news here in Denmark, the Middle East, Europe and I would be surprised if it hasn’t made some the news somewhere in the USA in between the State of the Union and the hostage issues in Iraq.
In October of last year one of Denmarks more popular newspapers Jyllands Posten printed an article about Mohammed, the Arab prophet that included 12 cartoons picturing Mohammed. Many Muslims have felt, do feel very offended by these drawings and that is where the issue has its origin.
There are a number of Muslim organizations in Denmark, so at the publishing of this article in the paper they demanded a meeting with the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Their agenda for this meeting was to get the PM to take action, asking the paper to apologise, to reprimand the newspaper. The Danish government did not meet with the leaders but instead sent them a letter explaining that the government can not interfere with a newspaper over such issues as it has its rights.
This group of Muslim community representatives then travelled to the Middle East to share these cartoons with the Muslim populations. There is a debate whether they did this to keep a greater crisis from happening at a later point or to make a point and force the Danish government to take a stance. It has now come out that in the packet they brought to show people in the Middle East, there were pictures included that were not in the newspaper including one with Mohammed pictured as a pig. It is now clear what the result of their travel was.
Their sharing of these pictures has caused a huge upset in the Middle East resulting in the boycotting of Danish goods, the pulling out of statesmen from Denmark and many serious threats. Officials in the Arab world have stated they would help to influence people to end such boycotts and threats if they receive an apology from the Danish prime minister as well as a punishment for the newspaper, the Danes would not dream of punishing the newspaper that has done nothing to break the law. The Danish prime minister, along with his people do not believe it is his place to apologise as it was the newspaper that printed the articles and the newspaper has the freedom and right to print such articles. The issues is now the freedoms Danes and many people in the “Western Word” hold so dearly versus the feelings of the many Muslims in regards to the disrespect towards them, their religion, their prophet.
On Tuesday the EU stood up and backed the actions of Denmark and on Wednesday many of Europe’s countries further backed Denmark and the newspaper by printing the same drawings of Mohammed along with more, arguing their right to do so. Will this create more tension between the Middle East and Europe, the western world?
Well here is a current and very real culture clash. Europeans feel it is odd that they are being told by people in Saudi Arabia that they don’t have proper human rights. Many Muslims in the European world trying to somewhat fit in feel offended. Entire nations in the Middle East feel offended. For the past couple weeks I’ve been using a lot of energy talking to people here in Denmark, a lot of the time defending Muslims, defending the idea of treating people and their beliefs with respect. There have already been many tensions in Denmark between the traditional Danes and the many new citizens from the Islamic world. This new issue is not helping the racial divide and only gives the two cultures more reasons to dislike each other.
What can we do to get people to start looking at our similarities? How do we get people to see past their differences and try to understand each others cultures? One of the best ways is through opening our minds, listening and learning from each other.
If we can’t be open to that which is different, then we will never change.