Denmark and Islam. Prophetic insults

Date: 07/01/06

Free speech clashes with religious sensitivity

FOR much of last year, various squabbles have simmered over several prominent Danes' rude comments about Islam. Now a schoolboy prank by a newspaper has landed the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in the biggest diplomatic dispute of his tenure in office.

The latest spat started some months ago when Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's biggest-selling broadsheet, published a dozen cartoons depicting Muhammad. Visual representations of the prophet are frowned upon by the faithful. And Jyllands-Posten's cartoons were undeniably strong stuff: one showed Muhammad in a bomb-shaped turban, another depicted him wielding a cutlass and a third had him saying that paradise was running short of virgins for suicide-bombers. The paper insists that it meant no offence: it was merely protesting against the self-censorship of some cartoonists who had refused to illustrate a children's book about Muhammad for fear of reprisals. But the result has been a row that has spread far beyond Denmark's borders.

Louise Arbour, the United Nations human-rights commissioner, said she was "alarmed" by such an "unacceptable disregard for the beliefs of others". Similar condemnations came from the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the Arab League. The affair has led to protest marches in Copenhagen and Karachi, and a wave of disapproving e-mails to Danish embassies. The cartoons were even condemned by many in Denmark's liberal-minded intelligentsia, not because they favour censorship but because they see the drawings as part of an increasingly xenophobic tone that has infected all Danish dealings with foreigners.

In a country where a member of parliament can liken Muslims to "cancer tumours" and still not lose her seat, unfettered public debate is seen as normal. Danes, like most people, cherish their freedom of speech. But their secular society may have blinded them to some people's religious sensitivities. Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, a former foreign minister, laments his country's lack of manners. "We have a right to speak our minds, not an obligation to do so," he says.

Mr Fogh Rasmussen has tried to defuse the row mostly by ignoring it. After he had rejected a request for a meeting with 11 ambassadors from Islamic countries to Copenhagen, he was lashed by 22 former Danish ambassadors to the Muslim world, who deplored his ignorance of diplomatic niceties. After several more weeks of dithering, the prime minister at last tackled the matter in his new year's speech, condemning any attempts "to demonise groups of people on the basis of their religion or ethnic background". But although he alluded to "a few unacceptably offensive" instances, he did not mention Jyllands-Posten by name. And he also insisted that the general tone of the Danish debate was "civilised and fair".

For many Muslims, this is too little, too late. Ahmed Said Kassem, a leading Copenhagen Muslim, has called on Jyllands-Posten to apologise and on the government to dissociate itself from the cartoons. In a sign that the row may have some time still to run, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, a 57-strong group of countries, has also announced a boycott of "Images of the Middle East", an exhibition due to be held in Denmark this summer. What should have been a celebration of Denmark's cultural links with the Islamic world now looks like falling victim to Danish free speech.

A diplomatic dispute between Denmark and the Islamic world means that the principle of free speech clashes with religious sensitivity.