COPENHAGEN/WASHINGTON,
February 16, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The
editor-in-chief of the Danish daily embroiled in the cartoons row
claimed on Wednesday, February 15, that the press was giving Muslims a
special treatment, as his cultural editor defended the decision to
commission the lampooning drawings of Prophet Muhammad (peace and
blessings be upon him).
"It
turned out that the freedom of the press crumbled much more quickly than
I thought," Jyllands-Posten Editor-in-Chief Carsten Juste
told the Danish Christian daily Kristelig Dagbladet, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"It
seems to me that the freedom of the press the world over is being
limited as Muslims are being given special treatment," he argued.
Last
September, Jyllands-Posten ran 12 cartoons including portrayals
of the Prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban and another showing him as a
knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.
Many
European newspapers reprinted the drawings on the ground of freedom of
expression, triggering an outcry across the Muslim world.
Jyllands-Posten
has recently said the cartoons "were not in violation of Danish law
but have irrefutably offended many Muslims, and for that we
apologize."
Privileges
The
editor-in-chief said that he was "very ill at ease with what is
happening at the moment".
He
argued that the result of the current crisis would only be that Muslim
"privileges are going to be extended even further."
"Now
we have to be careful about things we never thought we would have to be
careful about, such as writing about the oppression of women in Muslim
societies," he claimed.
Juste
has sent his cultural editor Flemming Rose, who commissioned the Prophet
cartoons, on an "indefinite leave" only one day after he told
CNN he would consider publishing Holocaust cartoons.
Britain's
the Guardian also revealed recently that Jyllands-Posten refused
three years ago to publish cartoon of Jesus Christ on the ground it was
"offensive" to its readers.
Self-censorship!
 |
|
"My intention was to … go against this tendency to self-censorship," Rose said. (IOL)
|
Echoing
a similar argument, Rose said he had commissioned the drawings to
trigger a debate on what he called a self-censorship in Denmark and
elsewhere over issues of Islam and Muslims.
"There
was a legitimate news story we had to cover and we chose to cover it in
a not very ordinary way," he said, referring to a letter he sent in
September to 40 cartoonists asking them to draw the prophet.
"My
intention was to have them appear under their own name and go against
this tendency to self-censorship," Rose told a panel discussion at
the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
"I
did not ask them to make (the prophet) a laughing stock or to mock him
or to make fun of him."
Rose
claimed the caricatures were no different than similar drawings his
daily has published over the years mocking Jesus Christ, the Danish
royal family or politicians.
"So
in fact the cartoonists were just treating Islam and Muslims in the same
way they would treat everybody else," he argued.
Rose
acknowledged that his paper had rejected the Jesus drawings, but said
the current situation was not comparable.
Hostage
The
47-year-old editor said the caricature portraying the Prophet wearing a
bomb-shaped turban aimed at showing that "some individuals have
taken the religion of Islam hostage in order to commit terrorist
acts."
When
asked if he regretted the publication of the cartoons, Rose said it was
like asking a rape victim whether she regretted wearing a short skirt.
"What
I did did not transcend normal practice," he maintained.
Rose
said that one positive outcome of the cartoon row was that it had
stirred a debate in Denmark about freedom of speech and Muslim
immigration.
"These
cartoons were just casting light on problems that were already there and
maybe they served as a vehicle to see things more clearly.
"I
think the jury is still out whether this (the controversy) will work in
favor of integration or against integration."
Easing
Tension
Seeking
to ease tension over the cartoons, a Danish church delegation was
expected to arrive in Egypt on Thursday, February 16.
"The
aim of our journey is to say that Danes don't hate Muslims and that
Christians want to live in peace with Muslims in Denmark and in the rest
of the world," the bishop of Viborg, Karsten Nissen, told AFP.
He,
however, said that the visit was not meant to apologize on behalf of the
Danish government or Jyllands-Posten.
"That's
not the point of our visit," he said.
The
Danish delegation will meet with Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed
Sayyed Tantawi, Egyptian Mufti Ali Gomaa, the Orthodox bishop of Cairo,
the bishop of the Anglican church in Cairo as well as officials of the
Arab League and Egyptian ministry of Awkaf (religious affairs).
Danish
Foreign Minister Stig Moeller was also expected to hold talks in Vienna
with Syrian Mufti Sheikh Badreddine Hassun and Grand Mufti of
Bosnia-Hercegovina. Mustafa Ceric.
The
meeting, organized by Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, will
also be attended by leader of the Muslim minority in Austria Anas
Shakfeh.
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