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There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. If everyone who stands up to Islamic fanaticism must either die or hide, then the West will become an armed camp of prisoners and guards, no one else remaining. Theo van Gogh dead; Ayaan Hirsi Ali in hiding; Geert Wilders in a poice compound every night; Salman Rushdee scurrying around furtively; Fleming Rose in America; the Danish Cartoonists under guard; and the long list of others underground goes on. When do we stop running to run nowhere, stop hiding when there is nowhere to hide? Well, today is a good day.
The Times
February 13, 2008
Newspapers defy Muslim fanatics to support Kurt Westergaard
David Charter in Brussels and Marcus Oscarsson in Stockholm
Denmark's three main newspapers will take the provocative step today of reprinting a cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb instead of a turban after the arrest yesterday of three suspected Islamic terrorists for plotting to murder the artist.
The cartoon by Kurt Westergaard was one of 12 depicting the prophet which triggered riots around the world
leading to dozens of deaths when they first appeared in 2005. The violent backlash demonstrated starkly the incendiary interface between Islam and the boundaries of freedom of expression in Europe. Mr Westergaard, who has spent three months moving between secret addresses while security services tracked the alleged plotters, was back at work yesterday to draw a self-portrait for today's editions. It shows him still clutching his pen and a Danish flag, but he is obscured by a dark and bloody cloud featuring Arabic script which declares: "Glorious Koran."
[....]
Mr Westergaard's image of Muhammad, which he intended to show how Islam was being used by terrorists, was regarded by some Muslims as one of the most offensive of the cartoons published in his Jyllands-Posten newspaper in September 2005.
[....]
What if a newspaper in another country, Islamic or not, print the headline "All Danish People are no better than Dogs"�, is that ok in the name of free speech? I bet you the Danish government would be up in arms. There is NO such thing as free speech WITHOUT responsibility.
The newspapers in Denmark knew exactly what they were doing, making the inference that all Muslims are terrorist.
Waqar, Walsall, UK
would these papers print anti semetic or racist cartoons? thsi shows that the argument of Freedom of speech is nonsense, it has always been so. There are laws in every country to deny freedom of speech and discriminate on gender or race.
The Iranian newspapers challeng to print anti semetic cartoons was not taken up by the danes as they didn't seem to to relate this to freedom of speech.
The Danes seem to have learnt nothing from the affair, if you insult and disrespect someone, don't be surprised when they show you the same contempt.
Akram, London,
[....]
Mr Westergaard revealed yesterday that he and his wife, Gitte, 66, had been living at various secret locations since death threats were first made three months ago.
[....]
"Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me," he said in a statement. "However, I have turned fear into anger and indignation. It has made me angry that a perfectly normal everyday activity which I used to do by the thousand was abused to set off such madness. I have attended to my work and I still do. I could not possibly know for how long I have to live under police protection.
He added: "I think, however, that the impact of the insane response to my cartoon will last for the rest of my life. It is sad indeed, but it has become a fact of my life."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
The joke is on those of us in the West who think the impact of fascism as it emanates from both Islam and the Left is not important and visceral in our personal lives. Too bad, but try sitting on the tube train or a double-decker bus in London, or sit in an office tower in New York City, or go to school in Belsan, Russia, or take a subway in Madrid, and then think how little this affects you. Or read a paper at Tivoli, do any usual or ordinary thing, like write a column at Maclean's Magazine, then ask yourself if your life is what it was and what you think it should be. Do nothing, go to the aeroport at Glasgow. Go disco dancing in Bali. Go to the beach at Cronula. There's nowhere to run. Not to the shopping mall in Colorado, not to work in Texas or Kansas. There's nowhere to hide. Ignore it all you will, if you do nothing about the spread of fascism in the hope it won't find you, play dhimmi and hope the fascists will ignore you, none of that will work because there is no hope for the fearful or the ignorant. It's time to stand up and post your cartoon. Show it off. Let the world see. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
