In a free society, you have to be willing to accept criticism — or you don’t have a free society. More prophet cartoon fallout. If only Dick Tracy or Steve Canyon were here to save the day. Or better yet, Mr. Winston S. Churchill. From IslamOnline, with thanks to Panos:
CAIRO, December 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) — Arab foreign ministers on Thursday, December 29, lambasted the Danish government’s reaction to the controversial anti-Prophet cartoons published by the country’s mass-circulation daily.
“The ministers have expressed their surprise and indignation at the reaction of the Danish government, which was disappointing despite its political, economic and cultural ties with the Muslim world,” they said in a statement cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Gathered at the Arab League, the ministers decided that Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa would pursue the matter with the Danish authorities.
Twenty-two former Danish ambassadors, including many who have served in Muslim countries, on Tuesday, December 20, bashed the government over its handling of the crisis.
Liberal Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has refused to meet eleven Copenhagen-based ambassadors from Muslim countries who wanted to complain about the cartoons and demand an official apology….
The Arab foreign ministers also criticized “European human rights organizations who did not adopt a clear-cut stance on the issue.”
Al-Azhar, the highest seat of religious learning in the Sunni world, has vowed to raise the issue of the provocative caricatures with the UN and international human rights organizations.
A five-member delegation representing 21 Islamic centers and organizations in Denmark has recently met Moussa, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit.
“Support from Arab and Muslim countries will help our demand for an official apology from the Danish government and a promise such violations would not be repeated,” Mohamed al-Khalid Samha, the delegation’s spokesman, told IOL then.
Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, a prominent Muslim figure in Denmark, told IOL on Friday, November 18, that the Muslim minority in Denmark wants to “internationalize” the issue.
Denmark wants to internationalize the issue? My goodness, the chutzpah of all this never ceases to amaze me. It is the Muslim ambassadors who took this matter to the OIC and the UN. And now even that they blame on the Danes.