Prophet Muhammad in Danish news
Prophet Muhammad in Danish news
by www.ifex.org
Cartoonists Rights International (CRI) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) have voiced concerns over a statement by the Jordanian parliament calling for the punishment of cartoonists who insulted the Prophet Muhammad by depicting him in a Danish newspaper.
On 24 January 2006, the parliament issued a statement saying the twelve cartoons, published in the Danish newspaper "Jyllands-Posten" last September and reprinted in the Norwegian publication "Magazinet" on 10 January 2006, constituted a "cowardly and reprehensible crime," reports RSF.
It urged the Norwegian and Danish authorities "to express their condemnation and disapproval of this hateful crime and to punish the perpetrators and instigators." The ambassadors of 11 Muslim countries have complained about the cartoons to Denmark’s prime minister, while Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador to Denmark. Danish goods have also been boycotted in several Middle Eastern countries, causing one company, Arla Foods, to lay off 100 staff. One of the cartoons shows a bomb hidden in Muhammad’s turban. Islam forbids any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad or Allah.
The editor of "Jyllands-Posten", Carsten Juste, and the cartoonists who did the 12 illustrations have received several death threats, say RSF and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Juste has hired bodyguards to protect his journalists, and the cartoonists have gone into hiding. Similar threats have been made against "Magazinet". According to the BBC, "Jyllands-Posten" published the cartoons after a writer complained that nobody dared illustrate his book about the Prophet Muhammad. The newspaper said, "We must quietly point out here that the drawings illustrated an article on the self-censorship which rules large parts of the Western world. Our right to say, write, photograph and draw what we want to within the framework of the law exists and must endure – unconditionally!"
On 30 January, the paper issued an apology.
added September 26th 2006:
The costs of the cartoon row to the Danish exports (BBC article)
Other articles on this site:
Israeli Anti-Semitic cartoons contest
Free Speech in Denmark
Seeking Censorship
In Vrijheid Getekend
Potloodcrisis kan tot iets goeds leiden
Visit these links:
- http://www.villamedia.nl/journalist/n/2006.03.chronologie.shtm
- http://muttawa.blogspot.com/2006/02/memo.html
- CRN: http://www.cartoon-crn.com/alert.htm
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16274
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/europe/denmark01feb06na.html
- The Offending Cartoons: http://tinyurl.com/bytku
- Jyllands-Posten Apologises: http://www.jp.dk/meninger/artikel:aid=3527646/
- BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4159220.stm
- Index on Censorship: http://tinyurl.com/8wqyo
- Free Expression vs. Religious Offence:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/world_have_your_say/
- Depictions of Mohammed Throughout History
http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/
[The poster depicting Mohammed was bought on the street in Iran in 1999 by the Norwegian scientist Ingvild Flaskerud.]
ALERT: Cartoonists Rights Network, International
January 20, 2006
The Cartoonists Rights Network is the world’s only freedom of expression and human rights organization dedicated exclusively to the support and protection of editorial and social cartoonists around the world.
In September, 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed 12 cartoons depicting the cartoonist’s ideas on what the Prophet Muhammad might have looked like. Immediately, there was an unprecedented outcry against the paper and the cartoonists from many in the Muslim world, both in Denmark and in other Islamic states.
The charges were cultural and religious insensitivity towards the Islamic injunction prohibiting Muslims from creating images if the Prophet Mohammad, which is intended to discourage idolatry. Some web sites called for the death of the 12 cartoonists.
Jyllands-Posten Cultural Editor, Mr. Fleming Rose, in an interview with CRN said that he had asked the cartoonists to draw the cartoons in an effort to make a public commentary on the fear the paper had encountered on the part of illustrators who had chosen not to draw illustrations for a children’s book on the Prophet Mohammad.
Cartoonists Rights Network:
1. Strongly supports the Jylands-Posten and the cartoonists who drew these images and defends their right of peaceful freedom of expression.
2. We find it ironic that the critics are protected by exactly the same freedom of expression rights that the cartoonists exercised in drawing the cartoons in the first place.
3. The critics seem to prove the paper’s suspicion that cartoonists do in fact have something to fear in exercising their freedom of expression rights.
Cartoonists Rights Network calls on all parties to step back and use this opportunity to learn about and from each other rather than using the cartoons as devices that increase cultural and religious misunderstandings. .
Robert Russell
Executive Director
Concern about Jordanian parliament’s call for Danish cartoonists to be punished
by Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about the Jordanian parliament’s call yesterday for the punishment of the cartoonist who drew 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten on 30 September and were reprinted in the Norwegian publication Magazinet on 10 January.
"Islam forbids any representation of the Prophet and we realize that these cartoons may upset some people, but it is not acceptable for the parliament of a supposedly democratic country to call for the cartoonists to be punished," the press freedom organisation said.
"Those who so desire may bring a complaint against the newspaper, but politicians should under no circumstances should call for direct reprisals against journalists," Reporters Without Borders continued. "The cartoonists have already received death threats and these new statements put them in further danger."
In a statement yesterday, the Jordanian parliament said the cartoons "constitute a cowardly and reprehensible crime" and urged the Norwegian and Danish authorities "to express their condemnation and disapproval of this hateful crime and to punish the perpetrators and instigators."
It also called on "parliaments, governments and civil society organisations in the Muslim world to take a firm position on this evil, which strikes at the sentiments of the Arabo-Muslim nation."
Jyllands-Posten editor Carsten Juste received several death threats after he published the cartoons last September and hired bodyguards to protect his journalists. The two threatened cartoonists were forced to go into hiding. Similar threats have been made against Magazinet since it republished them two weeks ago.
Leading Muslim clerics living in Denmark called the cartoons an insult to Islam and its Prophet and on 6 October asked Jyllands-Posten for a formal apology. Juste refused, saying "we live in a democracy where satire and caricature are generally well accepted and where religion should not pose any limits on this." Around 5,000 Muslims protested on the streets of Copenhagen on 14 October against the "provocative" and "arrogant" cartoons.
A total of 11 ambassadors from Muslim countries so far have requested an interview with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to discuss the issue, but he continues to refuse to receive them, stressing his country’s commitment to press freedom. In his New Year’s message, he described freedom of expression as "vital," as "absolute" and as "non-negotiable." But he also condemned "any form of expression, action or signs that tended to demonize a group of people on the basis of their religion."
An agreement was reached between Denmark and the Arab League on 5 January not to pursue the controversy any further.