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October 18, 2006

Islam: A Danish Blogger's Perspective

We wrote on October 6 that Denmark's Tv2 station aired footage of members of the youth wing of the Danish People's Party (DPP) making cartoons of Mohammed. The appearance on TV was brief, but it led to recriminations. Lars Bennike, editor-in-chief of Tv2 said: "Our decision to broadcast this sequence was only due to the fact that the president of the youth branch of the party had distanced himself from this gathering."

Elements in the Muslim world tried to raise the temperature to fever pitch, akin to that which happened globally in February as a reaction to Danish paper Jyllands-Posten's publication of cartoons of the so-called prophet, Mohammed. As a result of Muslim over-reaction, 50 people died in various locations.

The Muslim world tried its best to incite protest. According to Arab News on October 9, Jordan's religious affairs minister said: "Muslims must be rational in their reaction to these offenses. Muslims must react to the international political and diplomatic fronts to put an end to such offenses against Islam and Muslim symbols. The best answer to such offenses is to be more attached to our religion."

In Iran, the reactions were predictable. Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said that Iran would "convey our protest to Denmark" via diplomatic channels. The Iranian Embassy in Copenhagen stated: "It is deplorable that the extremist elements in the Danish society have attempted to sabotage Denmark's relations with the Islamic countries once again."

Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen denounced the actions of the DPP youth, but did not denounce the TV reporting of the event. On the same day, according to CNN, the Washington Post and IOL, the Danish foreign ministry warned citizens against traveling to Muslim nations, or to Israel, stating that "we urge Danes to use caution as the matter could possibly lead to negative reactions. The atmosphere and reactions can vary dependent on time and place and Danes should be aware of the local mood."

According to Arutz Sheva the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt urged a boycott against Denmark and its products. The Kuwaiti News Agency reported that Egypt's foreign ministry said the DDP youths' actions were "insolent".

The top Shi'ite Muslim cleric in Lebanon, Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlalla said in a statement: "This nonchalance toward the continued insults against Islam could set the stage for negative responses due to inflamed emotions. We affirm that Muslims should respect Westerners and not insult them. We affirm that Westerners should respect Islam and refrain from insulting Muslim sanctities so this doesn't turn into a hot or bloody (issue) with reactions that harm the relationship between Muslims and Westerners in one way or another."

According to the Guardian, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) announced: "Muslims have noted with concern that the values of tolerance are eroding and there is now shrinking space for others' religious, social and cultural values in the west." A strange statement, considering that in Saudi Arabia, a leading player in the OIC, no Christians can practice their faith, nor bring a crucifix or Bible into the country. Muslims always demand rights, but never deal in reciprocity.

The semi-insane leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said: "If someone enjoys an iota of humanity and wisdom then he will not insult and offend the shining holy presence of Mohammed." Let us not forget that this "shining holy presence" had sex with a nine-year old girl.

On October 12, protesters in Tehran pelted the Danish embassy with stones and petrol bombs. Riot police guarded the embassy. Such displays of anger are never spontaneous. Almost always they are organized by the government of Iran, and carried out by members of the student vigilante force, the Bassij.

According to the Copenhagen Post, starting on October 11, various Danish websites were hacked into. The University of Copenhagen website was the first to be attacked, followed by the site of the ministry of the interior and health, and the Central Office of Civil Registration. Other websites belonging to Danish private citizens were also hacked into and altered.

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The above serves as the background to what we present below. It is a commentary from a Danish blogsite http://ullanoertoftthomsen.blogspot.com/, by Ulla Nørtoft Thomsen. The article has been translated by our occasional contributor, Wiking, and has been approved and edited by Ulla herself. She has granted us permission to reproduce the translation here, and we offer her our gratitude.

Ridiculing Mohammed

It is not a secret anymore. Mohammed is not highly regarded in the west. It is not only boozing kids from the Danish Peoples Party who ridicule Mohammed by drawing him. The youth members of the left liberal party have amused themselves with exactly the same party event, even though their party really keeps the flag flying for tolerance and sympathy towards Islam. One dares not think what the rest of us might come up with.

We do not make the ancient Greeks or the Vikings subjects of our ridicule, even when there is plenty to make fun of. Aristotle did write ridiculous things at times. The ferocious Vikings were not exactly intellectual high jumpers. We smile at the memory of them, shake our heads disapprovingly, but we do not ridicule them. We recognize them for what they were, and we let their place in history be an excuse for what they were not.

Why do we ridicule Mohammed then?

We laugh because we are expected to show reverence for Mohammed. A reverence we simply cannot honour. Newly globalized Muslims insist on dragging a historical person 1400 years forward in time, demanding in a voice of thunder that the rest of the world respect and honour him. We are given only one option: Mohammed is the best and wisest man in history. He is right in everything he says. Nobody has the right to criticize him.

Even mild and meek personalities like Jesus or Gandhi would appear ridiculous if an ignorant posteriority exalted them to tyrants. How ridiculous does not a conqueror from the 7th century look, when he is set up as an infallible leader of the entire modern world? A leader who morally, intellectually and theologically can not compare favourably, simply because the world has evolved since his time.

It is the Muslims who make Mohammed look ridiculous.

Ridiculousness can be described by a simple formula: A relative historic concept that claims to be absolute is ridiculous.

"If a dancer could jump really high, one would admire him. But if he, even when he could jump higher than any, claimed to be flying, then let the laughter pull him back down again."(Søren Kierkegaard in Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift).

Irony is a acid bath that frees religion from ridiculousness. Irony is only a threat if ones religion is so ridiculous that irony can consume it completely.

But then it is the religion that is the problem, not the irony.

by Ulla Nørtoft Thomsen
(translation by Wiking)

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 18, 2006 3:00 PM

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