The Danes get it

They have a great Queen, their newspapers show that they have a pair - and you know what, they are pushing back. Brussels Journal has the scoop. Here is what started it all.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is shockedmisrepresenting at the way in which some Muslims are Denmark in the Islamic world. “I am speechless that those people, whom we have given the right to live in Denmark and where they freely have chosen to stay, are now touring Arab countries and inciting antipathy towards Denmark and the Danish people,” Rasmussen told journalists yesterday.

Rasmussen was responding to the recent visits by certain imams, Muslim intellectuals and representatives of Danish Muslim organizations who toured a number of Muslim countries to “explain” the Danish cartoon affair to local political and religious leaders and media. The affair started last September when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons of Muhammad.

First the politicians must lead; then the society and opinion leaders must follow.

Carsten Juste, the editor of Jyllands-Posten repeated late last week that the daily will not apologise for publishing the cartoons: “We will not apologise, because we live in Denmark under Danish law, and we have freedom of speech in this country. If we apologised, we would betray the generations who have fought for this right, and the moderate Muslims who are democratically minded.”

How do we get these guys to the NYT and WaPo?

“We cannot tolerate this in a democratic society,” said Selbekk. Asked if he was himself afraid of reprisals he said: “We have gone astray if we begin to concede on this issue out of fear. Many have already done much to prevent this problem from being hushed up. We hope that by publishing the cartoons we can do our bit.”

BTW, want to send a Bravo Zulu to the Danes? In GeopoliticalReview's Swansong, he give the points of contact.