[lit-ideas] Re: Guardian Unlimited: Denmark's new values
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 08:19:46 -0800
As usual, I was not impressed with a Guardian article, but here is one from
Reuters which makes more sense:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15255121.htm
What is happening in Europe hasn't surprised those of us who have been
closely following Islamism. Islamism is essentially Fascist and in Europe
as elsewhere Islamists believe in Islam uber alles. If they are Islamists
then they don't believe in integrating into a European culture. They retain
practices normative for Islamists. This would apply to Islamists who
immigrated to Europe (and since they are regularly being chased from Middle
Eastern nations they antagonize, there are plenty of them looking for new
homes) and those who convert to Islamism while in Europe.
The liberal idea that we can all be just one big happy multicultural hymn to
joy was never achievable. The Islamists think they have the better culture,
better laws, better ideals, and they are firmly convinced that they have
free passes to paradise while the atheistic European infidel is destined for
hell. Why would any self-respecting Muslim want to follow him there?
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 3:34 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Guardian Unlimited: Denmark's new values
Omar spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited site and thought you should see
it.
-------
Note from Omar:
Comments welcome.
-------
To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go
to http://www.guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>
Denmark's new values
What was once a liberal country lurched to the far right while the world was
not looking
Kiku Day
Wednesday February 15 2006
The Guardian
Denmark has at last managed to catch the world's eye, after so many years of
failing to get credit for being at the cutting edge of liberalism. But the
inelegant handling of the controversy over the cartoons of the prophet
Muhammad is the result of a country that has been moving in the direction of
xenophobia and racism - especially towards its Muslim inhabitants.
The world needs to realise that the Denmark that helped Jews flee from Nazi
deportation is long gone. A new Denmark has appeared, a Denmark of
intolerance and a deep-seated belief in its cultural superiority.
We were a liberal and tolerant people until the 1990s, when we suddenly
awoke to find that for the first time in our history we had a significant
minority group living among us. Confronted with the terrifying novelty of
being a multicultural country, Denmark took a step not merely to the right
but to the far right. Now, politicians of most stripes have embraced
ignorance.
The Social Democrats, formerly Denmark's largest party and the force behind
its postwar social reforms, were forced to realise that the rhetoric of
solidarity and social reforms no longer impressed voters in an increasingly
prosperous economy. To win support mainstream politicians felt they needed
to bully the same scapegoat blamed by the far right for the social problems
arising in modern Danish society, in the form of the Muslim minority. The
rhetoric of politicians and media hardened and became offensive. Where else
could liberal politicians get away with saying that one of their party's
main aims is to stop Turkey joining the EU?
The discussion has focused on freedom of expression, but that is not what
Jyllands-Posten had in mind when it published the caricatures, nor is it the
prime mission of the rightwing Danish government. Denmark has embarked on a
self-declared crusade to tell others how to live. The prime minister, Anders
Fogh Rasmussen, is quoted as saying: "Freedom of speech should be used to
provoke and criticise political or religious authoritarians."
The Danish establishment weighed in on its leader's side. The rightwing
newspaper Weekendavisen - at one time Denmark's foremost intellectual
journal - justified Rasmussen's initial reaction of indifference to
complaints about the cartoons and his refusal to meet with 10 concerned
ambassadors from Muslim countries as "a desire for an activist foreign
policy which has clashed with the traditional diplomatic wish to smooth
things over". An MEP, Mogens Camre, declared: "It is 2005 and there is no
reason whatsoever to respect foolish superstition in any form."
Following the lead of the moderates, the founder of the ultra-rightwing
Danish People's party, Pia Kjærsgaard, felt emboldened to say that in
order to qualify for citizenship, immigrants must not only master the Danish
language but be examined on their respect for Danish society and its values.
The words "Danish values" are repeated reverentially, as if all Danes
possess a single mindset opposed to that held by Muslims. Kjærsgaard
tells her countrymen the issue is not one of cartoons, but concerns rather a
titanic struggle of values between totalitarian, dogmatic Islamic regimes
and the freedom and liberty beloved of western democracies. Meanwhile the
200,000 Muslims living in Denmark have been denied a permit to build a
mosque in Copenhagen. There is not a single Muslim cemetery in the country.
It is now obvious that Flemming Rose, the culture editor at Jyllands-Posten
who commissioned the cartoonists to satirise the prophet, exhibited a
striking lack of judgment. His subsequent decision to salvage things by
planning to publish anti-semitic and anti-Christian caricatures went beyond
the bounds of the permissible in Jyllands-Posten's and Denmark's crusade for
free speech. Chief editor Carsten Juste finally intervened and sent Rose on
indefinite leave.
An indefinite holiday is not enough. As the former foreign minister and
Venstre party leader Uffe Elleman-Jensen has suggested, we need editors who
realise that just bad judgment can have important consequences. Both Juste
and Rose need to step down.
And how have ordinary Danes reacted? The People's party reported that last
week it had received almost 17 times as many applications for membership as
normal. Is this the future for Denmark? These are the new "Danish values",
and the world needs to be aware of the dangers of a country that went off on
the wrong track while nobody noticed.
· Kiku Day is a Danish musician living in London
kikuday@xxxxxxxxxx
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
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