DANISH CARTOONS MOTIVATION REVEALED

Lefty intellectual Mark Bahnisch:

Far from being a liberal nation where rights are respected, Denmark is home to xenophobic movements with significant political clout.

As anyone who regularly visits Bahnisch's blog will be aware, he's not a keen supporter of free of speech.

The Brussels Journal's Paul Belien sees things differently to Bahnisch:

The Danish cartoons were not published in a Muslim paper. They were printed in a privately-owned, regional newspaper in rural Denmark, addressing Danish subscribers, to illustrate an article about the freedom of expression in a multicultural society with a Muslim minority within its borders. The article and the cartoons were initiated by the complaint of a Danish author that he could not find an artist to illustrate a book about Muhammad. European media republishing the cartoons did so, not to insult Muslims but simply to inform their European readers and to allow them to make up their own minds about how “insulting” these drawings really are. The Brussels Journal, too, is not a website addressing the Muslim world, it is a European website, as its name indicates, about European (mostly EU) affairs. Saudis and other Muslims are welcome to read it, but not to tell us what to do or not to do. However, what did we receive in our mailbox during the past week from so-called adherents of “the religion of peace”? Death threats, pictures of burned bodies, and warnings to shut up about the cartoon case.

Europe may not be doomed but it does seem to be sleepwalking toward the abyss.