Monday, January 30, 2006

Something's Rotten in Denmark

That it should come to this. It looks like your people have some rotten leadership. Will you dither? Will you act? We have to sit in our seats and await your decision, come what may. Goodnight, sweet prince.


Honourable Fellow Citizens of the Muslim World

Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten is a strong proponent of democracy and freedom of religion. The newspaper respects the right of any human being to practise his or her religion. Serious misunderstandings in respect of some drawings of the Prophet Mohammed have led to much anger and, lately, also boycott of Danish goods in Muslim countries.

Please allow me to correct these misunderstandings.

On 30 September last year, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten published 12 different cartoonists' idea of what the Prophet Mohammed might have looked like. The initiative was taken as part of an ongoing public debate on freedom of expression, a freedom much cherished in Denmark.

In our opinion, the 12 drawings were sober. They were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims for which we apologize.

Since then a number of offensive drawings have circulated in The Middle East which have never been published in Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten and which we would never have published, had they been offered to us. We would have refused to publish them on the grounds that they violated our ethical code.

Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten attaches importance to upholding the highest ethical standards based upon the respect of our fundamental values. It is so much more deplorable, therefore, that these drawings were presented as if they had anything to do with Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten.

Maybe because of culturally based misunderstandings, the initiative to publish the 12 drawings has been interpreted as a campaign against Muslims in Denmark and the rest of the world.

I must categorically dismiss such an interpretation. Because of the very fact that we are strong proponents of the freedom of religion and because we respect the right of any human being to practise his or her religion, offending anybody on the grounds of their religious beliefs is unthinkable to us.

That this happened was, consequently, unintentional.

As a result of the debate that has been going on about the drawings, we have met with representatives of Danish Muslims, and these meetings were held in a positive and constructive spirit. We have also sought in other ways to initiate a fruitful dialogue with Danish Muslims.

It is the wish of Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten that various ethnic groups should live in peace and harmony with each other and that the debates and disagreements which will always exist in a dynamic society should do so in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

For that reason, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten has published many articles describing the positive aspects of integration, for example in a special supplement entitled The Contributors. It portrayed a number of Muslims who have had success in Denmark. The supplement was rewarded by the EU Commission.

Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten takes exception to symbolic acts suited to demonise specific nationalities, religions and ethnic groups.

Sincerely yours

Carsten Juste
Editor-in-Chief
http://www.jp.dk/meninger/artikel:aid=3527646/

Frailty, thy name is Juste.


Graphic above thanks to Eyesallaround;
http://eyesallaround.blogspot.com/
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mr Carsten Juste
With people like you one dousn't have trouble of misunderstanding!

Moslems are deprived of lots of rights in their own countries and in exile.

Offensives and aggressions amount up to a reaction as such.

Your justification is sound, but the Moslems corelate the arrogance of western press and media with western military and political dominance on them.

Not all of them react to caricature of the Prophet (sas) they react to the hostile imperial and aggressive attitude of freedom to attack others' values once attacking their other fortresses fails!

Denmark has no right whatsoever to interfere in Iraq. We moslems need our freedom to we want to rid our selves of all the traitors the west support. We resent manipulating our politics and culture we're fed up.
You won't give me the right to destroy your mac PC so as to use you to buy microsoft hard and software.
The history of the Mid east is too long to explain to you but:

We are certain and determined to hit hard if you don't sit at home and take care of your own business!

5:30 AM

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