Letter To Danish PM Promised "Reactions" If Legal Steps Were Not Taken To Punish Cartoon-Publisher

And, gee whiz, it seems there were such reactions. A warning of likely consequences? Or a naked threat? And-- is there really much of a distinction anymore, when those doing the warning are also the same doing the incitement to violence?

Nice civilization you have here. It'd be a shame if anything were to happen to it.

That was the sinister subtext of a letter addressed to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, asking him to “take all those responsible to task under law� for the infamous Mohammed cartoons. The letter is remarkable for when it was sent and for who sent it.

The letter was signed by the eleven ambassadors of Islamic or heavily-Islamic countries. Libya, Algeria, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Palestine, Indonesia, Morocco, and Bosnia-Herzegovina complained about the Jyllands-Posten cartoons on October 12, long before the current round of protests.

...

The surprise is the implied extortion at the end of this paragraph:

We strongly feel that casting aspersions on Islam as a religion and publishing demeaning caricatures of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) goes against the spirit of Danish values of tolerance and civil society. This is on the whole a very discriminatory tendency and does not bode well with [sic] the high human rights standards of Denmark. We may underline that it can also cause reactions in Muslim countries and among Muslim communities in Europe.

“Reactions?� Whatever could they mean by that?

Probably some strongly-worded letters to the editor, I'm certain.

posted by Ace at 03:30 PM

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