First Danish Movie on Cartoons Crisis

"Some of the scenes will be shot in the Middle East in cooperation with Arab filmmakers," said Clausen. (IOL)

"I presently write the scenario and plot for a movie about the cartoon crisis," Clausen told IslamOnline.net Sunday, February 4, in an interview.

"The movie will tackle the cartoons crisis from a human perspective focusing on inter-cultural relations."

Clausen added that the movie would further touch on the political upheaval that followed the crisis.

"I would also raise the issue of free speech and limits of freedom of expression," said the 64-year-old awarded director.

The cartoon crisis erupted in September 2005 when Denmark's mass-circulation daily Jyllands-Posten commissioned and printed 12 cartoons including portrayals of a man the newspaper called the Prophet, wearing a bomb-shaped turban and another showing him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.

The cartoons, considered blasphemous under Islam, were later reprinted by European newspapers on claims of freedom of expression, straining Muslim-West ties and triggering massive and sometimes violent demonstrations across the Muslim world.

Clausen has not yet settled on the movie's caste.

"The movie, however, will feature all the main players (in the cartoons crisis), including an anxious editor-in-chief who are linked to many right-wing activities, a group of imams and ridiculous illustrators," noted the filmmaker.

Clausen said it will take him two years to finish the movie, which will be subtitled into Arabic.

"Some of the scenes will be shot in the Middle East in cooperation with Arab filmmakers," he said.

Blunder

On his personal viewpoint on the cartoons crisis, the Danish Director described the publication of the lampooning cartoons as a "blunder."

"Many were the blunders and imprudent acts that sparked off disasters worldwide," he said.

"I don't think that (late British comedian) Charlie Chaplin would have illustrate such caricatures or publish them as there are limits to the freedom of expression and satire," Clausen said.

Clausen warned that a single spark can start a prairie fire, drew similarities between the anti-Muslim campaigns in the West nowadays and the Nazi oppression of Jews in 1930s.

"The (Nazi) campaigns started with sarcastic cartoons that led to the Gas Chambers," he said.

He blamed media outlets for fanning anti-Muslim sentiments in the Scandinavian country.

"I live in a building that is also home to people of eight different nationalities, but we live in peace and respect one another. But the problems start when I read the papers everyday," he said.

The London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission said in a new study released last month that western media and film industry were perpetuating Islamophobia and prejudice by demonizing Muslims and Arabs as violent, dangerous and threatening people.

Famed US academic Stephen Schwartz had criticized the western media for failing to meet the challenge of reporting on Islam and Arab issues after the 9/11 attacks.

Muslims Welcome

"It is a new way to debate the cartoons crisis," said Pedersen.

Danish Imam Abdel Wahid Pedersen hailed the movie as a positive step that would dot the I's and cross the T's.

"It is a new way to debate the cartoons crisis," Pedersen told IOL. "I'm sure it will have a great impact on one of the worst foreign policy crises in modern Danish history."

Pedersen hailed Clausen as an objective and a creative director who would add to the cartoons debate.

"Clausen can see the Muslim viewpoint on the cartoons crisis," he said.

Muslim journalist Asmaa Abdel-Hamid also lauded Clausen's move.

"Clausen is a cleaver and creative director," she said. "It is really interesting that he would highlight the human aspects of the crisis."

Denmark is home to a Muslim minority of 200,000, making three percent of the country's 5.4 million population.

Following the cartoons crisis, Muslims in Denmark and worldwide have taken many initiatives to remove widely circulated stereotypes about Islam in the West and launched know-prophet campaigns.

Danish Muslim scholars established the European Committee for Honoring the Prophet, a grouping of 27 Danish Muslim organizations, to raise awareness about the merits and characteristics of the Prophet.

A galaxy of Muslim scholars established an international organization and a fund for defending Prophet Muhammad against defamatory attacks in the West.

IslamOnline.net launched a multi-lingual websiteto acquaint non-Muslims with the Prophet.

Also in November, a second Danish translation of the meanings of the Noble Qur'an and the first by a non-Muslim has seen the light in Denmark in a bid to tell Danes what Islam is all about.