Something very important is happening in Denmark — a showdown over freedom, tolerance and wolfish menaces in religious clothing. So, please, turn off “American Idol,” put down the Game Boy for a moment, and pay attention. This does affect you.
Last October, a Danish newspaper called the Jyllands-Posten published a dozen cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The illustrations included various depictions of the prophet Muhammad, some innocuous (Muhammad walking in a pasture) and a few with provocative references to radical Islamic terrorism. One showed Muhammad with a bomb in his turban; another had Muhammad wielding a sword in front of two, wide-eyed Muslim women covered in black abayas; another featured a cartoonist hunched over his desk, sweating in fear, as he drew Muhammad in suicide bomb-like apparel.
The newspaper was making a vivid editorial point about European artists’ fear of retaliation for drawing any pictures of Muhammad at all. (Remember: It’s been little more than a year since Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by an Islamist gunman over his movie criticizing violence against women in Islamic societies.)
A Danish author had reported last fall he couldn’t find an illustrator for a book about Muhammad; the Jyllands-Posten editors rose to the challenge by calling on artists to send in their submissions and publishing the 12 entries received.
The reaction to the cartoons resoundingly confirmed fears those artists expressed about radical Islamic intolerance and violence. The Jyllands-Posten reported two illustrators received death threats and went into hiding. The Pakistani Jamaaat-e-Islami Party put a 5,000-kroner bounty on the cartoonists’ heads. A terrorist outfit called the “Glory Brigades” threatened suicide bombings in Denmark over the artwork.
Despite how relatively tame the pictures actually are (compared not only to Western standards, but also to the vicious, anti-Semitic propaganda regularly churned out by Arab cartoonists), the drawings have literally inflamed the radical Muslim world and its apologists.
Eleven Muslim ambassadors to Copenhagen immediately protested to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, demanding retractions by the newspaper. Turkey’s ambassador urged Mr. Rasmussen to call the Jyllands-Posten to account for “abusing Islam in the name of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression.” Mr. Rasmussen, in a rare show of European spine, steadfastly refused to appease the howlers.
As a result, anti-Denmark sentiment has simmered over the last four months, and it boiled over this past week. In Gaza City, masked Palestinian gunmen representing the so-called Religion of Peace raided a European Union office to protest the cartoons. Muslims burned Danish flags and banners depicting Mr. Rasmussen (U.S. and Norwegian flags, as well as portraits of President Bush, were thrown into the fire for good measure). A Danish company, Arla Foods, reported two employees in Saudi Arabia were beaten by angry customers. Danish aid workers are evacuating Gaza in fear for their lives.
Denmark now faces a boycott from Muslim nations whose fist-clenched protesters led chants this week of “War on Denmark, Death to Denmark” while firing bullets in the air.
Soft-on-terror mouthpieces blame the messenger for the conflagration. Former appeaser-in-chief Bill Clinton condemned the cartoons as “appalling” and “totally outrageous.” Where was Mr. Clinton’s condemnation of the gun-wielding, death-threat-issuing, flag-burning bullies of Islam who have targeted Denmark for jihad?
On the Internet, free-speech supporters launched a “Buy Danish” campaign in solidarity with the nation under siege.
But this isn’t just about Denmark. U.S.-based Muslim activists are angrily campaigning to stifle the speech of talk show hosts (most recently, KFI morning host Bill Handel in Los Angeles) who offend their sensibilities.
Tuesday afternoon, in advance of the State of the Union address, the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued an ultimatum warning Mr. Bush to “avoid the use of hot-button terms such as “Islamo-fascism,” “militant jihadism,” “Islamic radicalism” or “totalitarian Islamic empire” in his speech — in other words, advising Mr. Bush not to identify our enemies for the sake of tolerance and diversity.
First, they came for the cartoonists. Then, they came for the filmmakers and talk show hosts and namers of evil. Next, who knows?
Michelle Malkin is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of the new book “Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild.”
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