"They had been trying to promote a "dialogue of civilisations." And if you buy that one, they may have a bridge or two to sell you also. From the Telegraph, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
As world leaders pleaded for calm in the Mohammed cartoon row yesterday, the Danish Muslim leaders who set the crisis in motion insisted that they had been trying to promote a "dialogue of civilisations".They also angrily denied allegations from moderate Muslims and European intelligence services that hidden "masterminds" triggered the sudden explosion of protests, a full four months after 12 cartoons of the Prophet were first published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
Ahmed Abu Laban is the most prominent of a group of Danish imams and activists who toured the Middle East late last year, seeking to "internationalise" their campaign of protest at the cartoons, after deciding their complaints were falling on deaf ears back home.Speaking from his office at the Waqfs mosque in Copenhagen, Mr Abu Laban said that the sudden explosion of anger at the end of last month was due to the rapid success of a "grass-roots" consumer boycott against Danish dairy goods and other exports.
Mr Abu Laban, a 60-year-old imam of Palestinian origin, also credited the hardline "Salafist" television stations based in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, such as al-Majd and Iqra, with a "big influence" in fomenting the trade boycott.
"It was the swift and decisive sanctions of the boycott. Keen Muslims responded, and found it was a good chance to show their love of the Prophet. And the amount of Danish trade [in the region] is so large that the echo was quickly heard in Denmark. It was a grass-roots thing, though nobody is denying the role of the mosques. They have loudspeakers, and the people listen."...
Mr Abu Laban was keen to stress his moderation yesterday. Danish Muslims were not looking for a victory or confrontation over the government, or the press, he said. "The whole story is about dialogue of civilizations."
Sure it is.
I wonder if the "outraged" realize that by boycotting goods produced in those countries where the Jyllens-Posten cartoons were reproduced, they are only cutting revenues in some of the most generous donors of foreign aid to the underdeveloped and largely Muslim world? How do they think the infidels are going to be able to pay the jizyeh?
Further to the post above, also, the same countries are going to find it that much more difficult to fund social programs at home, much of which goes to supporting dependent immigrant populations, a large part of which is, er, Muslim.
And I wonder if Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia will stop importing Muslims?
Really that would be best. Wouldn't want their
feelings hurt...
Remember the picture of Mullah Omar in Afganistan where he is holding up what is believed to be a blanket thet belonged to the prophet? Well, I wonder if that blanket still has semen stains from the ol prophet. If so then 6 year old Aisha must not have used enuff Tide to clean it.
It has been too easy for those willing to make excuses for frenzied Muslim mobs, and their smooth defenders of the Tariq Ramadan) variety, to explain it all away, and to make the newspaper in Denmark, and the government in Denmark, and the other newspapers in Europe (according to the silly H. D. S. Greenway in The Boston Globe today, merely "fanning the flames" or "throwing gas on the fire" or some such -- when in fact they were behaving, those other newspapers in Europe, exactly as they should have behaved, and exactly as American newspapers should be behaving, but are not), feel that they are somehow guilty.
They are guilty of nothing. When a Danish newspaper writeen for Danes in Denmark decides to publish the most anodyne (by Western standards) of cartoons about Muhammd, it has every right to do so. It has the right, and it also has the duty, as it turns out, for it is important for the Western world to see the attitude of everyone toward those cartoons.
We know have our answer. Danish Muslims, not content with whipping up hatred toward the country they have been permitted to live in (but from which they should be expelled if non-citizens (there is no god-given right to live wherever one chooses, no matter how one behaves or what one's attitudes are toward the people, and polity, among whom one has been permitted to live), and measures taken to insure that they, and others who essentially work to endanger the lives of Danish people, and the enforcement of Danish freedoms, and the continued existence of the Danish state, are required to demonstrate loyalty to the basic freedoms that undergird the Danish nation-state, and if they cannot offer such a loyalty, it is neither absurd nor unjust, for the safety of the Danish peole and state, for citizenship -- which is not a right but a privilege -- to be taken away, and for such people to find their natural home among others, where Islam rules and Islam dominates, rather than permit them to undercut Western freedoms, laws, customs, understandings.
No, not content with the anodyne cartoons, they had three other cartoons made up, designed deliberately to inflame the primitive passions of Muslim mobs. They toured the Middle East, whipping up support wherever they could. They not only knew of the result, but they worked as hard as they could to obtain that result -- a result which has led to the removal of Arab ambassadors, to an economic boycott, to attacks on Danish missions across the Muslim world, and to a situation where Danes themselves, tourists or diplomats, must now fear for their lives wherever they travel in the Muslim world.
The test has taken place. The Danish Muslims have shown themselves to be traitors, in the complete sense. The world's Muslims, including the smootheset talkers, or the supposed "moderates" -- like Hamid Karzai -- have revealed to the Infidels the very severe limits on their moderation, their complete inabiliity to grasp the concepts of individual rights, their failure to understand how truly awful those Muslim mobs are, and are seen to be by hundreds of millions of Infidels who are having the scales ripped from their eyes not by anything they are told by their largely timid or in some cases appeasement-minded leaders (what other description of Jack Straw would fit?), but by the acts of the Muslims themselves?
Yes, those cartoons do constitute a testing of the freedom of an advanced, tolerant, Western people to not only have a right "in theory" -- which is what some apparently think they should do with that right, excercise it "responsibly" and never ever exercise it, that it, in a way that would offend Muslims -- for that would not be "responsible" give the Muslim response, would it?
The test has taken place. The Danish Muslims, and the world's Muslims, have failed utterly. And the Infidels -- those not in the Jack Straw line, but those who constitute the thinking proportion of the public not yet brainwashed by the counsellors of "responsible" use of a right, meaning don't arouse the enemies of Western rights, don't arouse the primitives or hint that they are primitive becuase otherwise, they will behave in primitive and dangerous fashion.
Meanwhile, the Western world has not exactly rallied around Denmark, as it ought to -- beginning with a meeting of NATO, at which its members should declare these attacks on one member state, Denmark, to be an attack on all the member states, and wherever there have been attempts to cut off economic or other relations with Denmark, the members of NATO will themselves sever ties. Don't want to buy Danish goods? Well, you won't be buying from any member of NATO, then.
There has to be a rallying round Denmark. It is not for Denmark alone. It is for the rights of the Western world. They need to be upheld, not partially, not merely "responsibly so that Muslims are not offended." They need to be upheld in a way that demonstrates that Muslims are not calling the shots all over the world.
When will NATO meet?
Hugh, Would you say that the cleric who trotted around with the 15 cartoons did so to gain recognition in the muslim world?
Quote - Speaking from his office at the Waqfs mosque in Copenhagen, Mr Abu Laban said that the sudden explosion of anger at the end of last month was due to the rapid success of a "grass-roots" consumer boycott against Danish dairy goods and other exports. Unquote.
After all the hatred he has stirred up and the resultant destruction of property, why is he still speaking from his office in Copenhagen? Why is he still free to roam the streets of that beautiful city? Why hasn't his office been closed?
Come on world, wake up! Those animals - because that is exactly what they look like on television, jumping up and down on burning flags and embassies - are destroying the world for everyone. It's time for all reasonable people to wake up and smell the stench of decay that is seeping out of the muslim world.
Appropriate t-shirt:
http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/products/a586/a586_a_01.jpg
Mr Abu Laban was keen to stress his moderation yesterday. Danish Muslims were not looking for a victory or confrontation over the government, or the press, he said. "The whole story is about dialogue of civilizations."
Well here's some more 'dialogue' for you. Muslims are rioting all over the place, getting killed, and being killed.
Iran is now going to sponsor a Holocaust cartoon contest, as an excercise in freedom of speach.
If they do that more Mohammad cartoons are in order. Then we can have bigger and better riots...oh what fun...
Yes, the muslim world is just chuck full of dialogue. Jibberish is more like it...
Dr. Walid Phares has written a detailed analysis of the "cartoon offensive," which he believes was carefully plotted and timed by European and Middle Eastern jihadists, taking into consideration the Palestinian "elections," the elections in Iraq and Iranian calculations in regards to their nuclear program. Thus, the lapse of time between the cartoon publication and the rage and riots is very well planned. Still, I am sure that millions of "moderate" Muslims are meeting in townhalls across the Middle East and planning an peaceful offensive to counter the cartoon offensive. I'm waiting; I'm waiting.
"The whole story is about dialogue of civilizations."
Yeah, Muslims spokesmen lie their asses off and the naive western news media gobbles it up. Dialogue? How about our media, for a change, does some truth-telling and some investigative journalism on Islam and how this whole controversy got started (1400 years ago when somebody called Mohammad a "mad poet").
maryrose: got any URLs?
Talking about "freedom of expression" how would a religious christian feel and react if someone draw cartoons of Marry (the virgin) trying to prove that she was'nt really virgin or was single mother like most of westren women and christ had same status as most of westren children who know nothing about their father or fathers...??? will it hurt anyone's feelings?...i won't hurt the non-religious prople and most of them visit this site...i guess it would only hurt the religious christians... but why...??? its "freedom of expression or speech" after all
Fedder,
NBC planned a TV sitcom this season (The Book of Daniel) featuring an Episcopal Bishop, his alcoholic wife, his gay son, and drug-addicted daughter. The bishop talked to Jesus every week on the show. It was written by someone who was not religious and probably despises Christianity.
Anyway, a letter-writing campaign was started and in the end, NBC cancelled the show before it aired. Nobody called for the death of anyone. Nobody set fire to anything.
The most powerful force in the world was used to kill this outrage: economics.
Much like the "artists" who put a crucifix in a jar of urine and depicted the Viring Mary covered in elephant shit and called it art. We found out they had been funded by tax dollars and cut that off. Again, nobody died, nothing was torched, but the mission was accomplished. You can produce that "art" all you want, but if you want funding, you're going to have to produce something the rest of us believe to be art.
Contrast this with what happened with these cartoons. The Muslims went berserk, burning and killing. The end result? The cartoons were published over and over, more widely circulated, probably the last thing they wanted to happen.
Laban should be charged with fraud, as three additional cartoons were added to better incite the muslim hordes when made his tour de dialogue in the Middle East. He should be prosecuted for insurrection, treason, fraud and conspiracy to incite violence and economic boycotts against Denmark.
Come on Denmark, do something about this criminal! Don't let him sit in his little office and blaber away with his filth.