{"id":485,"date":"2008-02-13T17:21:52","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T17:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont.php"},"modified":"2008-02-13T17:21:52","modified_gmt":"2008-02-13T17:21:52","slug":"danish-newspapers-reprint-cont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont","title":{"rendered":"Danish Newspapers Reprint Controversial Prophet Muhammad Cartoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associated Press – February 13, 2008 <\/strong>
\nCOPENHAGEN, Denmark – Leading Danish newspapers reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a gesture of solidarity Wednesday after police revealed a plot to kill the creator of the caricature that sparked deadly riots across the Muslim world.
\nDanish Muslims said they would seek to avoid a repeat of the violence two years ago – but with a rightwing Dutch lawmaker planning to air a movie that condemns Islam as fascist, Europe pondered the possibility of a new cycle of ethnic and religious turmoil.
\n“I just don’t want go through this again,” said Mohammed Shafiq, of the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim educational group in London. Shafiq said he had already written a protest letter to the Danish ambassador in London.
\nOther Muslim groups echoed his sentiments, saying they believed the Danish papers were seeking, unnecessarily, to rekindle the fiery debate over free speech and Islam that engulfed Europe during the cartoon uproar in 2006.
\nSome experts said that discussion never went away – it just drifted off the editorial pages of Europe’s dailies.
\n“This conflict will remain as long as there are people who believe religion should have a greater role in society,” said Magnus Norell, a Middle East expert at the Swedish Defense Research Agency.
\nMore than a dozen papers in Denmark reprinted what was arguably the most controversial of the 12 Muhammad cartoons that enraged Muslims in early 2006 when they appeared in a range of Western newspapers.
\nThe drawing, by newspaper cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, depicts Islam’s prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.
\nThe papers said they wanted to show their firm commitment to freedom of speech after Tuesday’s arrest in western Denmark of three people accused of plotting to kill Westergaard.
\n“We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper will always defend,” said the Copenhagen-based Berlingske Tidende.
\nIslamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
\nAt least three European newspapers – in Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain – also reprinted the cartoon as part of their coverage of the Danish arrests.
\nThe debate had already resurfaced recently in the Netherlands with right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders’ plans to make an anti-Quran film portraying the religion as fascist and prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.
\nIn Denmark, all eyes turned toward the Islamic Faith Community, a network of Muslim groups that many Danes say provoked the riots of 2006 by embarking on a Middle East tour seeking support for their fight against the paper that first published the cartoons, Jyllands-Posten.
\nGroup spokesman Kasem Ahmad said even though printing the cartoons “was like a knife in our hearts,” the group would not take any action this time.
\n“We have no plans to travel abroad or export this problem,” he told reporters at a mosque in Copenhagen. “Now we have decided to neglect and ignore any possible provocation.”
\nIn January and February of 2006, angry mobs burned the Danish flag and attacked Danish and other Western embassies in Muslim countries including Syria, Iran and Lebanon. Danish products were boycotted by many Muslim consumers. Protesters were killed in Libya and Afghanistan.
\nThe Danish Foreign Ministry said its diplomatic missions worldwide were monitoring the situation for any signs of unrest related to the cartoon. It had not observed any strong reactions Wednesday, said Uffe Wolffhechel of the ministry’s consular department.
\nIn Egypt, one observer said there was no guarantee that violence would not break out again – and suggested Europe might be a possible stage.
\n“I’m against any violent reaction, but how can you control or expect to control the 15-20 million Muslims living in Europe, how can you prevent a Muslim youth there not to try to take revenge while his religion and Prophet are being insulted?” said Fahmi Howeidy, a prominent Egyptian Islamic writer.
\nOther experts said they didn’t expect the resurgence of Westergaard’s cartoon to provoke massive protests this time, partly because many of the Danish imams that solicited support from the Mideast in 2006 were no longer around.
\n“Many have learned lessons of what happened two years ago. Some of the key players in Denmark have disappeared, they are either dead, have left the country or have been demoted,” said Helle Lykke Nielsen, of the Center for Contemporary Middle East Studies at the University of Southern Denmark.
\nThe decision by the Danish papers to reprint Westergaard’s cartoon came in response to Tuesday’s news that intelligence police had arrested two Tunisians and a Danish citizen of Moroccan origin for plotting to kill Westergaard.
\nThe Danish suspect was released Tuesday after questioning, his lawyer, Henning Lyngsbo, said. He added that “It doesn’t seem that the evidence is very strong.”
\nIntelligence service chief Jakob Scharf had indicated the man could still face charges of violating a Danish terror law. The two Tunisians are to be expelled from Denmark because they are considered threats to national security, Scharf said.
\nSome critics claimed the Danish papers were using the arrests as an excuse to provoke Muslims.
\nThe British Muslim Initiative, a group devoted to fighting what it calls Islamophobia worldwide, said the republication showed the West’s double standards.
\n“It shows the apparent disregard to Islam and Muslims in some of these liberal society,” said Ihtisham Hibatullah, the group’s spokesman.
\n“Every time they say: ‘We have the right to offend,’ and then they tell you don’t have the right to be offended.”
\n
\nAssociated Press Writers Raphael Satter in London and Karl Ritter in Stockholm, Sweden, and Nadia Abou el-Magd in Cairo contributed to this report.
\nCopyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associated Press – February 13, 2008 COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Leading Danish newspapers reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a gesture of solidarity Wednesday after police revealed a plot to kill the creator of the caricature that sparked deadly riots across the Muslim world. Danish Muslims said they would seek to avoid a repeat of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDanish Newspapers Reprint Controversial Prophet Muhammad Cartoon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Danish Newspapers Reprint Controversial Prophet Muhammad Cartoon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Associated Press – February 13, 2008 COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Leading Danish newspapers reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a gesture of solidarity Wednesday after police revealed a plot to kill the creator of the caricature that sparked deadly riots across the Muslim world. Danish Muslims said they would seek to avoid a repeat of…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-13T17:21:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Danish Newspapers Reprint Controversial Prophet Muhammad Cartoon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Danish Newspapers Reprint Controversial Prophet Muhammad Cartoon","og_description":"Associated Press – February 13, 2008 COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Leading Danish newspapers reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a gesture of solidarity Wednesday after police revealed a plot to kill the creator of the caricature that sparked deadly riots across the Muslim world. Danish Muslims said they would seek to avoid a repeat of…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2008-02-13T17:21:52+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont","name":"Danish Newspapers Reprint Controversial Prophet Muhammad Cartoon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-02-13T17:21:52+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-13T17:21:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/02\/danish-newspapers-reprint-cont#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Danish Newspapers Reprint Controversial Prophet Muhammad Cartoon"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. From fashion to faith and the journey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/nsymmonds"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}