I have come across an allegation I am unable to verify because I am a linguistic curmudgeon, unable to read (or even speak!) Swedish or Danish. Sorry, everyone. A late night trawling through a comments thread over at Tim Blair’s unearthed this very interesting comment from reader “TOGITV” :
I have just read that the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten is about to republish the Mohammed cartoons!
I can’t find any reference to it in any English language press. But here is the link to the article in the Swedish press
TOGITV later posts :
I just read the Swedish article a bit closer. It isn’t the same newspaper (Jyllands Posten) that will re-publish the cartoons, it will be another Danish newspaper called Politiken.
I can’t read Danish quite as well as Swedish, but I think the article in Politiken says that Harpers Magazine will also publish the cartoons in their June edition also accompanying an article on Art Spiegelman.
Interesting, if true. Perhaps someone versed in Swedish or Danish could enlighten the rest of us as to the articles’ content. If it is true, and the cartoons are published again in another Danish magazine, the seemingly obvious consequence would be another explosion of fundamentalist Islamic vitriol against Denmark, freedom of speech, the West and Western values, you name it. However, the furore over the Jyllands-Posten cartoons occurred several months after publishing, and was certainly incited by a few conspiring Islamic leaders, who provided the nexus between a liberal European paper and the protesting Middle Eastern mobs. On reflection, it is hard to see what good the rabble-rousing has done for the Islamic cause. In response to the disgusting behaviour of the Islamist mob, the silencing veil of political correctness was blown off various issues surrounding Islam in quite remarkable time. I’ve noticed that the educated middle class – possibly the social group most conscious of PC mores – are these days far more likely to openly discuss and criticise the ugly sides of Islam and its (in)compatibility with modern Western society. I’d go so far to say that, post cartoon-rage, even tracts of the left are less willing to defend Islam’s excesses.
I rather think that those who scurrilously incited the cartoon rage did not expect the mob to claw and bay with such intensity. Certainly, the hideous scenes we witnessed on our televisions at the time turned many erstwhile allies in the West away from the Islamic cause. More importantly, an enormous number who had no opinion one way or the other regarding Islam now see it in a negative light. It is most evident that the individuals who all-too-successfully activated the mob dealt themselves an almighty propaganda defeat – possibly one of the more spectacular tactical backfires we’ve seen in recent times. Surely, even the most benighted, zealous Islamic leader has the limited perspicacity required to concede that point. Hence, if the cartoons are soon published in another Danish newspaper, we may hear nothing more of it.
Thats the correct translation of the Swedish article – the cartoons, according to the story are to be republished accompanying a interview with Art Spiegelman, apparently because he is republishing them in the US.
The interesting bit is that the cheif editor of Politiken, who is republishing the cartoons, claims to oppose the original publication in Jyllandsposten.
Btw. Im not too familiar with the Danish newspaper market, but there is apparently a major war btw the major papers who are fighting for survival in a market where free newspapers are increasingly dominant. Perhaps this is a case of desperate measures in times of war…?
I’ve noticed that the educated middle class – possibly the social group most conscious of PC mores
You are blessed not to know the ghastly ‘educated’ middle class that I have to hang around with, but even my wife has stopped being embarrassed at dinner parties at my views on the incompatibility of Bedouin social mores with modernity.
Is prescience conceded?
Never.
ADE
The article reads (any spelling mistakes due to haste and tiredness 🙂 ;
American magazine prints the prophet drawings
————————————————
The American satirst -veteran Art Spiegelman defends the right to insult.
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The magazine Harpers Magazine in the USA has republished the 12 controversiary drawings of the prophet Mohammad, which was first published in the Jylland-Posten in September last year.
The drawings are to be seen in the magazine’s June edition which is available.
One commentary from Art Spiegelman, leading satirist and charicature artist, accompanying the drawings with so-called ‘Fatwa-o-meter’ where herates how dangerous each drawing is.
Three bombs to the turban drawing
—-
The fatwa-o-meter has a maximum of four bombs, and one of the most know drawings where the prophet has a bomb in his turban is rated a three.
One drawing that shows five female moslem handkerchiefs and moslem symbols as a half-moon, gets four bombs because Spiegelman says it tries to say “we cannot suffer moslems”, he states to Reuters.
Spiegelman criticises basically all sides of the debacle, especially the brunt of american newspapers who chose not to print the drawings.
He says he “believes in the right to insult.”
The paper (Jyllands-posten) has an immigrations hostile history, he says, and thinks that the paper er dishonest when it invites artists to make caricatures of Mohammad based on the freedom of speach.
If you serach LGF for Harpers there are a few posts about it.
The issue there was that it seems a US book store chain that previously banned an edition of a conservative magazine for publishing the cartoons on the basis of “Staff Safety” seems quite happy to stock Harpers (Which is described as leftist)…
Yes indeed Harper’s has the cartoons and Heather Reisman CEO of Canada’s largest book chains, Indigo, Chapters and Coles, has already issued an edict that this issue of the magazine should be removed from her stores.
The Western Standard a weekly out of oil rich Alberta, stomping ground of the present PM, is already fighting in the courts because a government human rights tribunal is suing on behalf of affronted muslims whose feelings were crushed after the magazine published the cartoons. The Standard – circulation under 100K was the only Canadian publication to show some spine.
Millie,
…a government human rights tribunal is suing on behalf of affronted muslims whose feelings were crushed after the magazine published the cartoons.
You’re kidding! Well, as they sing in South Park “Blame Canada!”
As far as the republication of the cartoons is concerned, I’m a bit at a loss as to what the point of it is. Couldn’t they do something more original to bate the muzzies – a deluxe edition of the Koran bound in pig-skin or something?
Seriously though, the point has been made. The real point being the insane backlash it provoked showed the world (once more) the true face of intolerance.
Nick – the critical point is that a Danish publication is reprinting the cartoons. If hotheaded elements of the Arab street found out about that, I am quite sure you’d see a redux of the violence that swept over many parts of the world earlier this year. However, I think the Muslim strategists who make such decisions might be a little more wary about energising their uncontrollable brothers again.
That appears to be true, if the Euston Manifesto is any barometer of what’s happening on the left.
Alas, Nick M I am not kidding.
The complaint was made to the human rights council of Alberta and Western Standard which knows the case will be thrown out of court still has to rustle up about 75K to cover legal costs which in cases such as this are not retrievable from the complainant if the case is lost or thrown out.
The tactic used here by a government body is similar to that used in the USA by CAIR (council on American Islamic relations); the intention is to intimidate those with limited financial resources from criticising Islam or pointing out inconvenient truths such as that most of the members of these Islamic citizen groups have a lot of criminality in their CVs which they would prefer to have hidden.
Fortunately an American group recently threatened with silence by court action by CAIR proceeded with their case and CAIR withdrew its complaint and settled out of court.
Millie,
I suspected it was something along the lines of bringing a malicious case in order to inconvenience as opposed to setting out to win.
This is ridiculous and I’m stunned the Canadians don’t have more common sense.
So, if England go out of the World-Cup because of a bad referree can I sue FIFA, because I’m upset?
Hey! I’m a referee. (Rowing, not soccer.) You can protest on the water, have the Jury consider your case at the regatta, rule on it. If you are dissatisfied, you can file a grievance with the US Rowing Referee Commission. Of course, I am buddies with the referee commission. *grin* But they would nail my butt if it were required. We’re an accountable group.
Hey! Sort of reminds me of that whole “rule of law” business that makes western civilization really cool, and prosperous and free to boot.
None of us feel like we’re under threat of protesting mobs burning referee flags and blue shirts and threatening death to infidel referees.
But mostly, I am out on the water, safely away from hostile rowers, coaches, and parents. It’s not like they can storm the water. LOL