In an excellent recent article by Bruce Bawer, author of While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within, he wrote about what happened during and shortly after the "cartoon riots." The riots were caused by some cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. The drawing to your right is one of them.Because Islam forbids the artistic representation of people, and because the cartoon implied that Muslims might be violent, Muslims across Europe rioted violently to protest. When it was all over, 187 people were dead. Over cartoons.
Newspapers in Britain, Sweden, Norway, and the United States almost universally failed to reprint these relatively mild cartoons. But not everyone cowered in fear. As Bawer writes:
My book came out in the midst of the Danish cartoon crisis. And during that crisis I saw things in Europe that — quite frankly — surprised and impressed me. I saw the editors of a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, stand up for freedom of expression in the face of worldwide rioting, vandalism, and murder by Muslims and contempt on the part of foolish Westerners. I saw a Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in defiance of the UN, the EU, and most of the “international community,” stand by that newspaper and refuse to meet with Muslim ambassadors who were out to intimidate his country and to force Sharia-like restrictions on Western liberties. I saw the people of Denmark, in overwhelming numbers, stand behind their prime minister in his refusal to yield to jihad. And I saw major newspapers across Europe reprinting the Jyllands-Posten cartoons in acts of free-speech solidarity.
The Danish are a brave, freedom-loving people who are a shining example to the free world. Read the whole article: Who's Sleeping More Deeply — Europe or America? Print this post
3 comments:
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Europe should stand together with "the other free democracies of the world in the global defense of these rights," he said, adding that "the freedom of expression is the most important of all freedoms. Freedom to speak, write and draw what one thinks is democracy's vital nerve."
Read the whole article.
In actual fact, Denmark like many others (namely Netherlands and others), after those cartoons found all possible ways to stop publication of those images. And the man who made them was threatened of death because muslims considered it an attack to Islam. The point about Europe is they are tendencially prone to forgive too much and don't seem (or pretend not to) to understand this is a plain invasion. The fact that a Prime Minister and a few others stood up againts them doesn't mean anything, until western countries find a proper way to force these people out of our countries, including the so called "moderate", which i personally consider the most dangerous and subtle. They are there....their kids will soon infiltrate our public system, courts, public offices etc. They will get powerful positions and will begin to gain power. In front of all this, it's necessary to enforce proper laws, to prevent those from even thinking of complaining for a cartoon because Europe is reaching the point where people are afraid to speak about muslims because anything can be a good excuse to be killed, like it happened to movie director Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands, killed by an apparently perfectly integrated muslim who couldn't stand the "offense" of a movie made by Van Gogh to show the condition of women in Islam.
Thanks Rick. I appreciate and respect your opinion, having heard from you in the past.
There are brave people and expedient people, courageous people and appeasers all over Europe. May the brave win out over the long haul!
Post a Comment