Danish Mohammed Cartoons

"The Muslim religion forbids the representation of Mohammed" Strangely, as The Mohammed Archive shows, Mohammed has in fact often been drawn with a veil

This Danish page, Ejour, lists all re-publications of one or more of Jyllands-Posten's cartoons - country by country. So far they have been reproduced in 143 papers in 56 countries. The page is in Danish but is has links to most of its sources.

Other lists are less complete. Wikipedia's list fails to distinguish between Jyllands-Posten's drawings and new ones. Editors weblog is smaller and far from complete - but regularly updated. Face of Mohammed features a map, but you have to read the hundreds of comments to understand it.


Muslims 'must accept' free speech

At last something good comes from the BBC:

Muslims must accept that freedom of speech is central to Britishness and should be preserved even if it offends people, says Sir Trevor Phillips.

The chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) said we should "allow people to offend each other".

And he suggested that Muslims who wanted a system of Islamic Shariah law should leave the UK.

Not this is not Mohammed. I got a little tired of one religion hogging all the attention, so here is Thor disguised as Freya about to marry Thrym.

His comments follow angry protests against cartoons satirising the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

'Absurd or unpopular'

Sir Trevor told ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme: "What some minorities have to accept is that there are certain central things we all agree about, which are about the way we treat each other.

"That we have an attachment to democracy, that we sort things out by voting not by violence and intimidation, that we tolerate things that we don't like."

And that commitment to freedom of expression should also allow Muslim preachers to make comments about homosexuality that are offensive to broad segments of the British population, he said.

"One point of Britishness is that people can say what they like about the way we should live, however absurd, however unpopular it is," said Sir Trevor.

He also rejected the idea of Shariah law in Muslim communities in the UK.

"We have one set of laws. They are decided on by one group of people, members of Parliament, and that's the end of the story.

"Anybody who lives here has to accept that's the way we do it. If you want to have laws decided in another way, you have to live somewhere else," he said.

"

Jyllands-Posten has an interview with the artist who drew the (in)famous portrait of Mohammad with a bomb in his turban (Danish text):

The drawing of the prophet Muhammed with a bomb in his turban has in the last months travelled around the world. Famous and at the same time hated. Because the combination of Islam and terrorism has offended millions of Muslims, who have seen the satirical line as an expression of the West's contempt for Muslims and their religion. But this is an misunderstanding, says the artist behind the controversial depiction.

Have you seen the funny cartoons? By Metter Dreyer (not yet on the death list)

[Journalist:] »What was the message in your drawing of the prophet Muhammed with a bomb in his turban?"«

[Artist:] »The drawing doesn't aim at Islam in general, but on the part that apparently can inspire to violence, terrorism, death and destruction. And thus the fundamentalist part of Islam. I wanted to point out that terrorists get their spiritual ammunition from Islam.«

[Journalist:] »Why was it important to you to get this message out?«

[Artist:] »If a religion deteriorates into religious Fascism, we are facing totalitarian tendencies, like we used to have Fascism and Nazism. It's the same situation, where people have to bend their heads and do what the regimen wants. I think we must oppose this - and an artists weapon is this here pen or pencil, and a certain indignation.«

[Journalist:] »Do you feel that your drawing has been misunderstood?«

[Artist:] »There are interpretations of it that aren't correct. There's the common perception among Muslims that it aims at Islam in general. It doesn't. It aims at some particular fundamentalist traits, which are of course not shared by everybody.«

»But the fuel to the acts of the terrorists comes from interpretations of Islam. I think there's no denying it. This doesn't mean that all Muslims are responsible for terror. It's about pointing out a connection from where the spiritual fuel comes. There are some interpretations of Islam, where you become a martyr if you die for Islam, and where you calmly can kill the Infidels and then you will be rewarded in the hereafter.«

[. . .]

[Journalist:] »Why was it necessary?«

[Artist:] »We were obliged to defend our view on free speech because a religion - or people practicing a religion and maybe professing to the more fundamentalist sides of it - have started to demand a privilege or an exceptional position in the public space. Take for instance the case of the author who couldn't get his book illustrated. We have to preserve our traditions for free speech, and I believe that if we hadn't made the drawings now, then the clash would have come anyway, sooner or later. Then it would have been a film, a theater play or a book. It's something we have to go through, but naturally we have to talk to each other and understand each other.«

[Journalist:] »You are an Atheist yourself, and at the same time known for having a hard line on religions. Is your cartoon a showdown with religion in general?

[Artist:] »I have nothing whatsoever against religions, but I think one should be skeptical towards the fundamentalist versions. A waxing religiousness means more intolerance and restrictions. It becomes troublesome when the whole existence is defined in a religious way. Both for those who become seized by it, and even more for all the others who don't. We are living in a time, where the religious obscurantism is spreading, apparently religion matters more and more. This then means that I, as an old Atheist, has become stronger in my faith.«

The artists name is deliberately left out, since the Security Intelligence Service out of security concerns advices him to to remain anonymous in the debate about the drawing of the prophet. Several death threats have been made against the artists.

Added: Jyllandsposten has made their own translation of the article:
The Cartoonist: The reason for the bomb in the turban.

Added: Updated the addresses of the articles.

"Revealed" The man behind the fake Mohammed cartoons

To many people, Ahmad Akkari, spokesman for The Danish Islamic Community is only known as "that guy with the fake snout cartoon". This time we'll look behind the snout.

It's often stated that Akkari came to Denmark in 1992, but this is only half the story - since he actually immigrated to Denmark twice!

Ahmed Akkari was born in Lebanon in 1978, and in 1985 the Akkari family - parents and 5 children - came to Denmark as refugees. The family obtained a humanitarian residence and moved to Hurup in Thy (Jutland).

Little Ahmed became the model of a super-integrated immigrant - popular in school and with the local soccer team. But in 1990 the father got ill, and preferred to be treated in Lebanon - the country from which the family had ostensibly fled. Akkari's soccer-mates bought a football and wrote all their names on it - and the family moved to Lebanon.

Aalborg Stiftstidende, February 1994 "15-year Ahmed would rather leave his family than go to Lebanon." "I am a Dane."

One year later the family returned to Denmark - the reason being that the children didn't like to live in Lebanon. This second time they didn't qualify as refugees. Ekstra Bladet writes (my translation):

But now they couldn't obtain asylum.

This resulted in Ahmed Akkari and the family often appearing in North-Jutlandic media as a family, who didn't want to return to the - one was led to believe - terrible native country, which in the mean time had become peaceful after 15 years of civil war.

Two tongues

As an example, Aalborg Stiftstidende printed an article February 1994 about the Akkari family with the title "I am a Dane".

The "Dane" was Ahmed Akkari, then 15 years old.

The curious part is that the "Dane" at this time had lived as much time in his native country Lebanon as in Denmark - and yet Akkari said:

- I don't want to go back to Lebanon; it's not my country anymore. I am a Dane now - it's only when I see myself in the mirror, I remember that I'm a foreigner.
He claimed that he didn't understand the language in Lebanon at all - in that case he must have learned Arabic after the article was printed in the Jutlandic paper.

Today Akkari's Lebanese-born wife and little daughter live in Lebanon, while he is in the process of qualifying as an imam in that country.

Humanitarian residence

In the article, the journalist described how the family had hung up paintings of Danish farmhouses and Danish pixies on the walls. On the Walkman they played "Oles nye autobil", "Jeg en gård mig bygge vil" and "Jeg ved en lærkerede".

It wasn't only Aalborg Stiftstidende that swallowed the tear-jerking story. Birthe Weiss, at that time Minister for the Interior, subsequently gave the Akkari family a humanitarian residence permit.

When the permit was secured, it was suddenly a totally different Akkari, who appeared.

Wouldn't shake hand with a woman

So tells headmaster of the Sønderbro School in Aalborg, Karen-Grethe Lodberg, who one day experienced that Ahmed Akkari wouldn't shake her hand, when she was about to hand him his exam papers.

- I have never experienced that - neither before nor later.
- Religion was nothing he displayed before he got his residence permit. But when he got it, he became orthodox, she says to Ekstra Bladet.

15-years old Ahmed Akkari: "I'm scared - and - worried. In fact we all are, because it's no fun to, like, feel persecuted, right. And there is someone who, like, is coming after you and wants to grab you. That's not funny. "

Akkari also appeared in Danish television, where he with a trembling voice would tell how scared he was. Exactly whom he was scared of remained unspecified. Just as today when "somebody" has taken him out of context, and "someone" is trying to put the blame on him.

At 22 years Akkari became Denmark's youngest imam - the same year he also became a violent offender.

Akkari worked at a Muslim free school as a trainee teacher, when he heard that a boy from Qatar, during play, had happened to tear the head scarf off Akkari's little sister. Akkari ran over to the boy, took hold of his ears so they started bleeding, pushed him over, and kicked and beat the boy.

For this he received a suspended sentence in 2001, which is the reason why Akkari wasn't able to obtain Danish citizenship before 2005. The judge was lenient on Akkari, because Akkari was a first time offender and was studying to become a teacher. If the sentence hadn't been suspended, Akkari couldn't have obtained citizenship before 2009. Needless to say, Akkari claimed to be innocent.

Ahmed Akkari is also infamous for his violent thoughts on Muslim women who don't cover their heads. Ekstra Bladet writes (my translation):

Before he in 1999 began his four-year education as teacher on Århus Seminary, he was a high school pupil at Aalborg Studenterkursus. At that time he eagerly participated in the debate about veiling of women.

In a contribution to the Muslim youth magazine "Point of View" he wrote about an episode in high school where he in vain had urged a girl on the school to wear a scarf

22-year Akkari commenting a rape case: "One knows immediately that it's going to damage the image of immigrants in Denmark, and that Danes will get a - maybe - a more negative attitude, and that it maybe will strengthen some of those who already are against immigrants and refugees."

Okay to kick women without veil

'At the same moment a long-haired boy walked by, put his hands on her shoulders and 'gave her a powerful kick from behind. Akkari writes on:

'It hurt deep inside me to see a young Muslim girl being treated like that by a rude and insensitive person, but on second thought it served her right.

Yes, I don't say this to deride her, but because it's the natural result for her kind. I am fully convinced that if she had been wearing a scarf and shown herself as a decent, proud Muslim, this would never have happened.

If - and this is only a hypothesis - if it had happened, something quite different would have come out of it. For I wouldn't just have sat there and gaped.'

The above is based on these articles from Ekstra Bladet (in Danish): Akkari: I don't speak to Ekstra Bladet , Akkari's double dealing, Fired for reporting violence-imam and Akkari stood to prison.

For a more complete translation of the articles, check out NeanderNews: Akkari the Soccer Brat, Akkari the Punk and Akkari the Punk (Cont'd)

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You too, can become a French clown. Organize boycotts, incite riots, burn down embassies, issue death threats and appear on television. Wow!!

(Thanks to www.polemiken.net)

The Netherlands have been critical of Solana's apologetic behaviour: Netherlands blasts Solana on alleged cartoon apologies

The Netherlands has sharply criticised EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana for the allegedly apologetic tone he has used when facing muslim countries in the row over Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed.

Dutch foreign minister Bernard Bot has put in a protest to Mr Solana objecting to remarks he made last week during his tour around muslim countries, a Dutch spokesman confirmed.

Among other things, the EU's top foreign policy official said after meeting the leader of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIS), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu "I expressed our sincere regret that religious feelings have been hurt", vowing "to reach out...to make sure that people’s hearts and minds are not hurt again." [. . .]

Now the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Per Stig Møller, asks Holland to be quiet (Danish article, my translation):

The Danish government has taken an unusual diplomatic step and asked Holland's government to change their tune and subdue themselves in the high tension strife about the Mohammed drawings in order to avoid further escalating the conflict.

So says Holland's minister of foreign affairs, Bernard Bot. He informed the Dutch parliament yesterday that the foreign minister Per Stig Møller has called him and asked him not to »rummage about in the case anymore.«

The Danish application comes in the wake of Bernhard Bot this week having sharply criticized EU's Foreign Policy Coordinator Javier Solana, for using a far too apologetic tone when facing the Muslim leaders, whom Solana met during his conciliatory tour in the Middle East last week.

A majority of the Dutch parliament has subsequently asked Bernard Bot to repeat the criticism of Solana on a foreign ministers' meeting Monday in Brussels, where the 25 EU-countries are to adopt a difficult declaration in relation to the strife about the 12 prophet drawings from Jyllands-Posten.

But following the application from Copenhagen, Bernhard Bot will no longer raise any criticism. He told the Dutch parliament, that »it would be unwise,« wrote the national Dutch news bureau yesterday evening.

So much for our current minister of foreign affairs - and if you think that's bad, you should see our previous minister of foreign affairs, Niels Helveg Petersen. He had a private meeting with imam Ahmed Akkari and Helveg criticized Denmark during imam meeting (Danish text)

A few days later Helveg Petersen was quoted in the Saudi newspaper, Al Watan, as saying that »in the last five years there has been an ill-natured attack against Muslims« (5 years - because Helveg Petersen was foreign minister until 21. December 2000) and that »these ignominious cartoons against Islam are a part of this attack«.

Niels Helveg Petersen is also quoted for a sharp criticism against Jyllands-Posten for having brought the drawings. At the same time he charges the imams with having brought the conflict outside Denmark, but he is quoted as saying »that he understood their behaviour and anger«.

The enemy has long ears. How can a former minister of foreign affairs act so irresponsibly?

Editor of Finnish magazine gets the sack for refusing to remove Muhammad cartoon

The board of Finnish culture magazine Kaltio decided Friday to sack its editor, Jussi Vilkuna, after he refused to remove a cartoon featuring a masked prophet Muhammad from the magazine's website.

Harri Kynnös, the chairman, told the Finnish News Agency (STT) that letting Mr Vilkuna go after eight years as editor of Kaltio had been a difficult one.

Mr Vilkuna said the board's decision illustrated that it had not grasped the nature of a culture magazine.

"The task of a culture magazine is to arouse debate on important issues. What a grand way to interpret freedom of speech," Mr Vilkuna added ironically.

In the cartoon, the prophet Muhammad is depicted debating the meaning of free speech with a cartoonist.

On Thursday, Tapiola, Sampo and Pohjola withdrew their advertisements from the Kaltio website. Olavi Nieminen, the chief lawyer of Pohjola, a non-life insurance firm owned by OKO Bank, said the posting of the cartoon had been irresponsible and a wrong way to defend free speech.

Kaltio has about 2,000 print subscribers in Finland.

See also Editor of Finnish magazine fired for new Mohammed cartoons , Finnish culture magazine posts Muhammad cartoon and bottom of this page

I received this from a Finnish reader in the comments section:

The three companies in question are all big and powerful insurance and banking corporations. What is not written in the English version of the news is that this traitor Harri Kynnös commented that "we think this is socially such a serious matter that a thing showing such a strong opinion shouldn't have been made public at all"

I'M SICK OF THIS!!! First it's our PM apologizing for a marginal far right group publishing the Danish cartoons on their website, now it's the editor-in-chief of a cultural magazine sacked for publishing a commentary on the issue on the web, no, not even in the magazine itself.

What's happening here is a lot more horrible than what's going on in Denmark.

Some hours ago, the pictures were still visible at www.kaltio.fi. Now, the page is but blank.

Is this the Finland which was according to Reporters Withour Borders one of the countries that shared with Denmark the no. 1 position in the freedom of press in the world?

Your reader from Finland

Added: I found the drawings via Brussels Journal. You can get them here in Finnish or English.

While the lying imams from the Danish Islamic Community were agitating the Middle East with their fake Mohammed cartoons - Danish Muslims at home were beginning to voice their disagreement.

As Tariq Sundoo, chairman for the Danish Pakistani Friendship Union, said, "It's also our flag that's being burned". Very soon Danish Muslims were requesting a new imam action (Danish article from January 30, my translation).

This has gone out of control, and they have clearly misinformed about the case - among other things in connecting Jyllands-Posten with Denmark as a nation. Now, several Danish enterprises are severely affected by the boycott, even if the companies have nothing to do with the case. The imams must travel down and urge them to stop the action against Denmark,« says Ben Haddou, job consultant and former member of Copenhagen's city council.

[. . .]

»Now Abu Laban must step forward and tell the truth, for instance on the TV-station Al Jazeera. It's his people who has been sent out and has triggered this. If you are truly a Muslim, your will not be interested in your country having troubles. The prophet Mohammed would never want this« says Ben Haddou.

[. . .]

Mustafa Gezen, deputy chairman for the union Dialog Forum, which tries to establish a dialog between religions and cultures, also believes that the delegations should show their true colours.

»Naturally they should travel on the same route and tell not to boycott Danish goods, because the enterprises have nothing to do with the case« says Mustafa Gezen. He emphasizes that all sides - including the government, Jyllands-Posten and Muslims - ought to initiate a dialog to stop the boycott.

Hadi Khan, who participates in member of the parliament Naser Khader's network, which tries to establish an alternate voice to the imams, thinks that the delegations ought to be »just as proactive as they were with the pictures.«

»I don't now how great the effect would be, but they have taken part in damaging the country, so let us see, whether they are also able to benefit us,« he says.

Zubair Butt Hussain, spokesman for the union Muslims in Dialog, which tries to activate Danish Muslims, says that he personally is prepared to go to the Middle East to settle the strife.

»The present situation is in no way beneficial for any of the parties, neither for the Danish Muslims. If I should be asked, I'm prepared to travel no matter the consequences, because the issue is so important. But it will take a precise coordination with an umbrella organisation for Danish enterprises.«

Zubair Butt Hussain is skeptical when it comes to sending the same delegations off:

»Maybe it's an idea with fresh blood, because there may be a distrust among the population towards those, who already has gone abroad. Whether this is well-founded is not for me to decide.«

Muharrem Aydas, leader of the web portal etnic.dk, and Uzma Andresen, chairman for the Union of Ethnic Minorities, do not think that the imams have the competence to solve such a task.

So there was a growing dissatisfaction among Muslims with Laban's handiwork. But Abu Laban could not find fault with himself (same article):

Imam Abu Laban says, that if one sends the same delegations off, they'll travel »empty handed«.

»We are prepared to do everything, but first we have to know the problem precisely. If they appear again, they will be asked what has changed. Nothing. But why travel then?«

Abu Laban denies that his men has a responsibility for the escalating boycott.

»The fault lies with ministries, universities, embassies and the newspapers. Not just Jyllands-Posten, but all great institutions in Denmark should have explained the case better. Nobody shall accuse us« says he.

Khader has "Democracy" in Arabic tattooed on his upper arm

Several Muslims have started making new networks (Moderate Muslims say stop Danish text). One of these are Naser Khader, member of the Danish 'folketing' (parliament) who created a new network called Demokratiske Muslimer.

Syrian born Khader calls himself "Muslim light" and has never been popular with Abu Laban. In fact Laban considers Khader an apostate and Laban - the welfare recipient - is too proud to shake hands with Khader - the member of the parliament. Khader has spent 100,000 kroner (16,000 USD) on home security - and is presently accompanied by two officers from PET (The Danish Security Intelligence Service)

It's not Khader's intention to make an "al-Khader network". Once it's on a going concern, he'll step into the background. So far the network has 700 Muslim members and 2,500 non-Muslim supporters. The government has dropped all talks with Abu Laban, who in return has called Khader and Ayan Hirsi for "rats in the hole".

Read Naser Khader's ten commandments of Democracy.

Added: Read more about Naser Khader here: A Prize Immigrant. Note: This article has recently been retitled (and thus has a new URL).

I must apologize for not having reported about the Danish situation before.

In most of Europe we have seen how soon free speech has crumbled away. In Norway, the editor of the Christian periodical Magazinet received death threats against his family and he quickly apologized to the local mob imams. As Bruce Bawer writes: "It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom: the dhimmi prostrating himself before the Muslim leader".

British Muslims, February 3, 2006.

In Sweden, the authorities have taken down a web site for showing the twelve cartoons - not just once, but twice. The Finnish Prime Minister has apologized publicly because an "extreme patriotic" site showed the twelve cartoons

In England neither television nor newspapers have showed the cartoons, but BBC has shown the fake cartoons and falsely attributed them to Jyllands-Posten. The streets of London, Paris and Antwerp have been full of hateful demonstrators shouting death threats against the Western World - with the police watching passively

In Belgium, Holland and Spain, centuries old carnival traditions are cancelled. In Italy, a minister was fired because of his choice of underwear.

Friday, October 14, 2005. Prayer in connection with a demonstration in front of city hall, Copenhagen

In the USA, a single magazine, no newspapers and no television channels have showed the twelve cartoons. In Canada a single magazine has showed some of the cartoons. Editors have been fired in France, Jordan, Russia and other countries too numerous to mention.

In contrast, Denmark has been the proverbial eye of the hurricane. Danish Islamic Society were only able to get 17.000 signatures on their complaint (out of an estimated 200,000 Danish Muslims) and demonstrations have been peaceful and quiet.

Once the double-tongued imam had been exposed with their picture of a French pig caller, all their support fell away - and lots of Muslims who were tired of being represented by the imams let their own voices be heard.

This is a story I have neglected to tell - so I will hurry up and make amends.

Mona Omar: Together we can prophet from this case (Notice the fake pig snout in Akkari's hand)

While Danish embassies are being attacked in the Middle East, our Prime Minister, Fogh Rasmussen, is being attacked by the political opposition in Denmark.

The subject is a letter, which Fogh Rasmussen and the Minister of Foreign Affairs received October 12th 2005 from 11 ambassadors - including Egyptian Mona Omar Attia. Fogh refused to meet them - saying that he had no control over the media. This reaction was in retrospect neither polite, nor smart, since Mona Omar seems to have played an instrumental role in creating the Cartoon Jihad.

The political opposition is now using the mistake in a vendetta against the government, saying that Fogh Rasmussen should have told about this letter much earlier.

This is a bit silly, since the letter has never been a secret. There's a PDF-file here. The letter, Fogh's rejection and Mona Omar's rage has been published several times, so it's hard to see why the opposition suddenly claim not to be informed. As Berlingske Tidende writes: Everybody knew about the Egyptian threats (Danish text, my translation):

[...] one has been able to read about the Egyptian threats in the newspapers. In the October-days after the famous letter was submitted by the 11 ambassadors, the media was full of statements from the Egyptian ambassador, Mona Omar Attia, who threatened with a »next step« (Berlingske Tidende, 22. October), warned that »this case is now on an international level« (Berlingske Tidende, 27. October), notified about »a reaction from The Arab League« (Information, 27. October), and informed that »many international organisations now know what has happened« (Politiken, 27. October).

The rough draft published by Politiken

The climax was a debate-contribution written by the ambassador herself, in which she »fears that this problem can take other dimensions«. This quite prophetic warning could be read in Berlingske Tidende 29. October, i.e. only four days after the Danish ambassador had been verbally abused in Cairo.

Thus anybody, who was able to read, knew about it. And any politician in the opposition, who thought that this was a case for the Foreign Policy Committee, could have asked the government to assemble the Committee, but apparently everybody at that time regarded the threats as empty rhetorics.

Nevertheless, Politiken has asked some "experts" to look at the letter to see if the government has acted prudently. For instance what exactly does the phrase "take all those responsible to task under law of the land" mean?

Politiken Sunday uses several pages to announce that their experts don't think the government has reacted appropriately. But the curious part is that the letter which Politiken reproduces is not the official letter.

Politiken's excuse is that they had an old draft of the letter - "a rough which had circulated between the embassies in Copenhagen, a short time before they sent the official letter". Politiken has posted a huge PDF-file, which highlights the difference.

Some points seem to have been softened in the final version - in particular the phrase, "We may underline, that it can also cause unrest in Denmark as welll as abroad, in particular Muslim countries" became "We may underline that it can also cause reactions in Muslim countries and among Muslim communities in Europe" in the official letter - thus taking away much of Politiken's ammunition

Still, it raises a question: While Mona Omar and the other embassies were plotting against Denmark - how did Politiken obtain a draft?

Hans Skov Christensen. Director General of The Confederation of Danish Industries (DI)

We Danes are still confused about whom to support and whom to boycott. First we were told to boycott big Danish-Swedish mega-corporation Arla because of the brutal ways in which it has oppressed the smaller dairies. Then we were told to support Arla in order to re-compensate what they lost, when their Saudi masters found themselves an easy target.

Today, confusion is world-wide. It turns out that European companies - including Danish Industries like Arla - have made a pact with the Devil

Many of these companies have been required to sign a contract, promising to boycott Israel. Spokesperson for Arla, Astrid Gade Nielsen, confirms to Jyllands-Posten (in Danish) that to this day they routinely put their signature to demands neither to transport goods via Israeli ports nor to use Israeli raw materials.

And who are you going to forsake??? Today's cartoon by Rasmus Sand Høyer.

When we are an international enterprise, dealing across country borders, religions and different cultures, we have to show a capaciousness.

However many of the companies claim they in practice still maintain an export to Israel. From Arla's home page:

Several media have incorrectly reported that Arla is boycotting Israel. In fact, Arla exports milk powder, cheese and butter to Israel to the value of DKK 200 million each year.

“We have never boycotted Israel, and we have never agreed to do so,” says Deputy Managing Director Andreas Lundby, Arla Foods. “On the contrary, our trade with Israel is growing.”

With regard to exports to Saudi Arabia, Arla declares that its products are Danish and not produced in Israel or contain ingredients from Israel in a so-called certificate of origin.

On another page Arla name their contact in Israel: "R.A.M. International Ltd., Beit Ofer 5, Nahum Hafzadi Street, P.O.B. 34414, Jerusalem 91342, Israel"

Confused? Well it is confusing to make contracts with the Devil - or with religious zealots. CBS, one of the American media, who are too scared to show the 12 cartoons, made a special about Denmark.

Michelle Malkin calls it a "blame-the-victim smear attack" and published a letter from Denmark. For this once, Malkin temporarily opened her blog for comments.

Several Saudi newspapers feature an apology from Jyllands-Posten: Danish editor apologizes for cartoons.

The apologies were dated Feb. 5, but an advertising spokesman at al-Riyadh told Reuters it may have taken time for the papers to approve the announcement. From the apology:

It is extremely important to point out that the aim behind these cartoons was not to attack the Prophet at all or devalue him, but as an opening to dialogue on freedom of expression," the Danish editor said in his apology. "We did not realize at the time how sensitive this issue was for Muslims in Denmark or millions of Muslims around the world.

The only problem is that the apologies are not posted by Jyllands-Posten. Private enterprises have - without Jyllands-Posten's knowledge or cooperation - run these advertisements, which are identical in content to the apology that for a long time has been posted on Jyllands-Posten's home page (Arabic PDF-file).

In a weird way it makes sense. First the imams produce their fake Mohammed cartoons - and then somebody else issues a fake apology.

The Washington Post features an essay by Flemming Rose Why I Published Those Cartoons where he explains (once more) his reasons for publishing the cartoons. The same article is available from Jyllands-Posten.

On occasion, Jyllands-Posten has refused to print satirical cartoons of Jesus, but not because it applies a double standard. In fact, the same cartoonist who drew the image of Muhammed with a bomb in his turban drew a cartoon with Jesus on the cross having dollar notes in his eyes and another with the star of David attached to a bomb fuse. There were, however, no embassy burnings or death threats when we published those.

Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn't intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.

This is similar to what Rose said a few days ago to Brookings Institution in Washington:

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.

But even though Rose doesn't mention it, Jyllands-Posten are not afraid to make fun of Christian dogma. Look at the front page from December 9th, 2000. This is much worse than any of the twelve "satanic cartoons". Mary's virginity is compared to Clinton's less-than-true statement, thus throwing doubt on Joseph's honesty, Mary's chastity, the immaculate conception, and by extension: Jesus' very claim to divinity. Just look at her eyes - these eyes would never lie. No more than Bill Clinton would.

The drawing is signed "Rasmus Sand Høyer".

The Italian minister, Roberto Calderoli, who had his own T-shirts printed with Mohammed cartoons, was fired for his efforts.

Today's riots, which took place outside the Italian consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, led to at least 10 deaths - and Silvio Berlusconi put the blame on Calderoli.

Most media report that Calderoli had printed one of the Danish cartoons - but I disagree. It looks more like the Mohammed cartoons from France Soir. See picture to the left. See links at the top, right corner of this page for all the Danish cartoons.

So from now on, foreign dictators not only decide what we are allowed to draw and write - they also decide what clothes we wear. Burqas anyone?

No, not burqas. We're not allowed to wear burqas. According to Brussels Journal, future carnivals wil be allowed make fun of everybody else than Muslims:

the organizers of the traditional carnival (mardi gras) parade of Aalst hope that the participants in this year’s parade will be sensible enough not to offend Muslims by dressing up in burqas or posing as Muhammad. But not only the Belgian authorities are worried. The neighbouring Netherlands have a tradition of dressing up at carnival as well.

The authorities in Oldenzaal have decided that mocking Muhammad will not be tolerated. “We will be very strict,” they told the media. Similar prohibitions have also been imposed in the province of Limburg, where carnival (this year from 26 to 28 February) is a very old tradition. Participants can mock whomever they want, except Muslims. “Making allusions to the cartoon crisis will not be tolerated either,” the organizing committee of a carnival parade in Brabant said.

This time the dictators don't even have to express their displeasure - the Dhimmi authorities will do their work for them.

The Western Standard in Canada decided to re-print some of the cartoons, in order to show its readers what all the fuzz is about. The results were the usual: Boycotts and lawsuits, so Western Standard decided to send the following letter to all of its subscribers:

Dear Western Standard reader,

By now you have probably heard about our decision to publish the Danish cartoons -- those same cartoons that have been the excuse for riots around the world.

We believe that reprinting the cartoons is essential to properly telling that news story, which is why we did it. We also published them as a symbol of our freedom of the press, and in defiance of those around the world who would censor us through threats of violence.

I've never been more proud of our magazine.

Not everyone is happy with us, of course. A Calgary Muslim leader has reported us to the police, trying to get them to charge me with hate crimes. He has also filed a complaint against us with the human rights commission on the same grounds. Ironically, he has called our freedom of the press "intellectual terrorism".

Those are nuisance suits, of course. But the idea is to cost us money and time, break our spirit, erode our freedom of speech, and teach a lesson to all other media: that anyone who doesn't censor themselves will be made to wish they did.

The threats are working. Already, many Canadian magazine retailers who normally carry the Western Standard have caved in, announcing -- even before they see our new issue -- that they won't put us on their shelves. Again, the purpose of the censors is obvious: hurt our magazine economically, and make an example of us as a warning to all other media.

That's why I'm writing to you today: to ask for your help. Please do three things:

1. Let me know how you feel.

If you support our magazine's decision, let me know. Send me an e-mail to info [at] westernstandard.ca and I'll share it with the rest of our staff, to help buoy their spirits as we face this hurricane, to let them know we're not alone.

2. Encourage your local retailer to stock the Western Standard

Magazine retailers need to know that you value freedom of the press and your freedom to make up your own mind, and to not be censored by them or anyone else. Ask them to stock the magazine, or even to order it in just for you. You'll not only help us survive the boycott, but you'll put some steel in the spine of your local retailer.

3. Help us out directly.

If you're not yet a subscriber, now's the time to sign up -- a subscription is 37% cheaper than buying the magazine at the newsstand, and the money goes directly to us. If you're already a subscriber, consider renewing your subscription today, or extending your subscription, or even joining one of our clubs for enthusiasts by becoming a Sustaining Subscriber or a member of the Publisher's Circle.

You can find out more and do all of that right online, at http://www.westernstandard.ca/subscribe

It's fast, easy and secure -- and it helps us stay strong, and keep growing.

When we started the Western Standard nearly two years ago, I never imagined that we would have been at the center of a fight for our culture's basic freedoms -- or that the rest of Canada's media would be so silent, leaving us to fight this fight by ourselves.

But we're not all by ourselves. We have you.

Thank you for your help -- I look forward to your e-mails.

Yours truly,

Ezra Levant
Publisher

In the mean time, main stream media have dug of some old photos from Abu Ghraib. CNN who were too scared to show the innocent Danish cartoons have no problems showing the Abu Ghraib photos in all their naked, un-pixelated glory, even though the events happened years ago, and the guilty parties have been punished long ago.

You may also wonder why these old photos - along with a video from early 2004 of English soldiers beating an Iraqi boy - are suddenly being distributed now.

Said Judith Apter Klinghoffer: No, the MS [mainstream media] has not just surrendered to the Islamists, they have emerged as their best allies.

The Weekly Standard from Washington broke the ban by reproducing the original page from JyllandsPosten. After studying the 12 innocuous drawings they were forced to conclude The cartoon jihad is phony.

U.N., E.U. and Muslims link in call to curb protests," read the Financial Times headline last week. A "U.N.-brokered statement," the paper reported, was issued "in an effort to curb days of protests, some violent some peaceful, at the publication and republication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. 'The anguish in the Muslim world at the publication of the offensive caricatures is shared by all individuals and communities who recognise the sensitivity of deeply held religious belief,'" the statement said.

Oh, the anguish! And why not? You remember--don't you?--the wave of bloody pogroms against Muslims living in Denmark following the Jyllands-Posten's publication, on September 30, 2005, of 12 cartoons depicting (in most cases) the prophet Muhammad. (The newspaper was testing freedom of speech in Denmark, and challenging "the self-censorship which rules large parts of the Western world.")

In the mean time in Europe, people have braved the ban for a while. Italy's Reform Minister Roberto Calderoli has put Mohammad cartoon on T-shirts: "I have had T-shirts made with the cartoons that have upset Islam and I will start wearing them today, [. . .] We have to put an end to this story that we can talk to these people. They only want to humiliate people. Full stop. And what are we becoming? The civilization of melted butter?"

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has been interviewed by JyllandsPosten and he backs Denmark over cartoons:

It's better to publish too much than not to have freedom.

Denmark is a country that we respect and that has a long tradition of being an open, tolerant and a free country, and a country known for good dialogue with different civilisations and cultures," Barroso was quoted as saying.

Barroso expressed the EU Commission's full solidarity with Denmark and said he was "upset" by TV pictures showing angry mobs burning Danish flags.

Barroso is Portuguese, which means he grew up under a dictatorship. He had quite a bit more to say in the Danish interview:

We are in favour of dialog, but that doesn't mean that we should give up values that are not up for negotiation. Nothing justifies violence, and we must say to those who doesn't like the drawings, that free speech is not up for negotiation. It's a fundamental value in our open European society.

Courageous words, but they pale in comparison to the two men who, at a demonstration in Paris, appeared among angry Muslims - one wearing a large Danish flag, and the other holding a (fake) severed hand with a pen. See the video, where Islamic Protesters in Paris Come Face to Face with an Unexpected Counter-Protest

Mainstream media are slowly realizing what the blogosphere has reported for a month now. A search on Google News for Mohammed snout yields almost 500 results. Many of them are blogs and small local papers, but it's still an improvement.

One of these is the Chicago Sun Times (Media's cowardice pales next to politicians'):

Though the journalistic timidity is the lesser scandal, it has had two very serious effects.

First, by not showing readers (including Muslim readers) what all the fuss was about, it has fostered a highly exaggerated idea of just how offensive the cartoons were. Of those published in the Danish newspaper, the most offensive was that showing Muhammad's turban turning into a bomb. That was a harsh but fair comment on the policy of indiscriminate murder that radical Islamists claim to be justified by the religious concept of jihad.

Such a cartoon is leagues less offensive than those showing the prophet with a pig's snout or having sex with dogs. Millions of the rioters wrongly believe those grotesquely offensive images to be the cartoons the Danish paper published. If the mainstream media such as CNN had published the actual cartoons, those mistaken beliefs fueling the riots would at least have been diminished.

Second, because the mainstream media failed to publish the cartoons, they were very slow to discover that the most offensive and genuinely blasphemous cartoons had in fact been distributed -- and almost certainly created in the first place -- by the very Danish imams who were traveling around the Middle East seeking to stir up hatred against Danes and Christians.

One blog that has covered the case from the very start is Brussel's Journal: The Betrayal of Denmark (and of Us All)

A local newspaper in Jutland (ever heard of Jutland before?), a rural area of Denmark (one of Europe’s smallest nations, with a language spoken by barely 5 million people) published twelve drawings. Some were simple portraits of a man with Arab features, some poked fun at the newspaper itself, and barely a handful were caricatures of Muhammad, the prophet of the Muslims – hardly offensive by Western standards.

[. . .]

Anyone who sees the twelve Danish pictures wonders what all the fuss is about. However, most people do not get to see them as they have been censored in the major information sources, from the BBC to CNN, from The Guardian to The New York Times. The drawings were so inoffensive that when they were originally published last September there was no outcry, not even in Egypt where they were republished in October. Only when fanatical imams travelled from Denmark to Arabia, with suitcases containing three grossly offensive bogus cartoons which they had added to the original twelve – and only when these imams told people that these were the offensive Danish cartoons, so offensive that no-one was allowed to see them – only then Islamic mobs went on a rampage. Four months after the original drawings had been published in Jutland.

Guess who immediately appeared on the scene, adding fuel to the fire by explicitly confirming that the three bogus cartoons were the original ones? The BBC! And guess who is still refusing to show the world the twelve, hardly offensive original drawings? The BBC! Meanwhile courageous local journalists and publishers who had reprinted the cartoons to show that they were hardly offensive are lingering in jail in countries such as Jordania and Yemen.

In the long run it does get tiresome to be pissed upon by two-tongued imams, spreading their own false Muhammed cartoons on BBC and al-Jazeera.

In Jyllands-Posten, Per Nymand, is also getting tired of the world pissing on Denmark. English translation here (same page as before - scroll down):

We are being pissed upon

I feel that currently my beloved country is being pissed upon rather too much. Denmark has not been neglecting its duties on the international stage. We have supported poor people with acts and advice, we have worked for peace, we have sent soldiers, policemen and experts to all the far flung corners of the world. We have democracy, a rule of law and a welfare state. Not all is perfect, but we harbor no malice towards our fellow men.

And yet Denmark is being pissed upon. The spokesman of the US State Department is pissing on Denmark, the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs is pissing on Denmark, the President of Afghanistan is pissing on Denmark, the Government of Iraq is pissing on Denmark, other Muslim regimes are pissing on Denmark. In Gaza, where Danes for years have provided humanitarian aid, crazed Imams encourage people to cut off the hands and heads of the cartoonists who made the drawings of Mohammed for the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

Excuse my choice of words, but all this pissing is pissing me off.

German Threatened with Death over Iran Soccer Team Caricature

A German political cartoonist has been threatened with death after publishing a caricature in which the Iranian national soccer team wear belts of explosives next to German soldiers.

Klaus Stuttmann, whose caricature was published in the Friday edition of the leading Tagesspiegel daily, says the cartoon came in response to politicians who called for soldiers guarding this summer's soccer World Cup in Germany.

While Iranians are complaining about being portrayed as violent, Danish Foreign Minister, Per Stig Møller, is criticising Iran and Syria for not doing enough to stop the riots (which is a polite way of saying that the Iranian and Syrian governments are organizing the riots).

(Conflict could last 100 years):

....While Møller praised Indonesia's leader for coming forward on national TV and rejecting extremists, the foreign minister was critical of Syrian and Iranian authorities for not being able to control demonstrators.

'In both countries, there was completely inadequate protection of the embassies. I don't want to draw hasty conclusions about what has happened, but I have informed Iran and Syria's government that no matter what the political motivation was on the streets, it is the governments' responsibility to protect the embassies. Even during World War II, embassies were left in peace,' said Møller.

Møller was particularly critical of Iran's leadership.

'Iran has to choose. If it wants to be a part of the world society, including the WTO, it will have to take steps toward us. Otherwise, it isolates itself. It's a choice the Iranians will have to make,' he said....,

And while we're speaking of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark: They have put up a page with Frequently Asked Questions about the cartoons: Drawings in a Danish Newspaper: Questions and Answers.

A Canadian magazine, Western Standard, has published 8 of the 12 cartoons. Publisher Editor Ezra Levant called the caricatures "innocuous," and said he's "ashamed" that more Canadian media outlets, including CTV, have chosen not to run them.

Canadian magazine reprints Mohammed cartoons

We're not publishing them for their editorial merits or because we share their views. They're actually boring compared to normal political cartoons, they're bland," he said.

"We're running them because we think the cartoons are the central artifact in the largest news story in the world this month, namely Muslim riots in response to them."

Levant claimed that most Canadian and US newspapers have not published the cartoons "out of fear", not out of respect for Islam.

In Canada, only one Francophone, one Jewish and one student newspaper published them. University officials quickly pulled the student tabloid off news stands.

Levant said that the continent's newspapers would not hesitate to print material offensive to Christians or Jews because they would only write letters to the editor to express their disapproval.

"They don't bomb embassies and behead journalists," he told the public broadcaster CBC, noting that security at the magazine's offices had been beefed up for the launch of this issue.

Most Canadian publications including The Globe and Mail have chosen not to print the cartoons, opting instead to describe the images.
A typical description is "One of the cartoons depicts the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a burning fuse".

Yes, one of the cartoons? How about the 11 others? What happened to "a picture says more than a 1,000 words"?

Results have been predictable: Muslims want magazine charged. Several bookstores said yesterday that it will not sell the current issue of Western Standard magazine. McNally Boschmann has two stores in Winnipeg and one in Saskatoon. None will carry the controversial Western Standard issue. Boschmann said "the Danish cartoons are readily available on the Internet for anyone who wants to look at them".

You are right, Mr. Boschmann. they are available on the Net. In fact I don't see any reason for buying newspapers and magazines these days.

"Revealed" Expect to see a "fatwa" against Ekstra Bladet soon

Ekstra Bladet was able to reveal the man behind one of the false Mohammed cartoons, namely Ahmed Akkari, spokesman for the Danish Islamic Society, who - as everybody except the mainstream media knows by now - used a photo from a pig festival.

There's an interesting observation that the "artist" behind another false Mohammed cartoon - that of the pedophile demon - might by someone who has learned Arabic before learning the Western alphabet. More at the Volokh Conspiracy.

In the mean time everybody's keeping low. The Danish Islamic Society still refuse to tell where they found the false Mohammed cartoons, mainstream media refuse to cover the case (except for showing endless tapes of riots and death threats) - and Danes are requested by the Foreign Ministry to keep a low profile when traveling in the Middle East (picture to the left)

At least The Boston Phoenix were honest in explaining why they wouldn't publish the cartoons - and didn't spout any BS about respecting the feelings of over-sensitive, Muslims:

Woman: "Hans Ole! Maybe we should have stayed at home" (Cartoon in Politiken).

out of fear of retaliation from the international brotherhood of radical and bloodthirsty Islamists who seek to impose their will on those who do not believe as they do. This is, frankly, our primary reason for not publishing any of the images in question. Simply stated, we are being terrorized, and as deeply as we believe in the principles of free speech and a free press, we could not in good conscience place the men and women who work at the Phoenix and its related companies in physical jeopardy.

On the home-front, Danish-Swedish conglomerate Arla was fined 5,000,000 kroner (796,394.67 USD) over market abuse (Link to Arla's own explanation). Danish consumers are in a dilemma at the moment. First we were told to boycott Arla because of the brutal methods they apply when squeezing out their competition - and now we are told to buy from Arla to re-compensate the money they lost when their Saudi dictator-friends sacrificed them. Arla be praised!

Instead of showing the cartoons, the N.Y. Times showed a picture of the Virgin Mary in elephant dung. Catholics don't burn embassies.

Yet another day of burning embassies - and twelve Danish cartoons making the headlines all over the world.
With all these headlines you'd think mainstream media would be eager to show the 12 cartoons that supposedly have caused it all. The sad state of affairs is that neither newspaper nor television in neither the UK nor the USA allow their audience to see the drawings and make their own judgments.

If you're British or American - without access to the Internet - there's no way of knowing that Arne Sørensen has made a drawing of himself, that Bob Katzenelson has portrayed the author Kåre Bluitgen and that Claus Seidel has depicted a humble prophet.

Some papers and TV stations show a single cartoon - often pixilated - but when Michelle Malkin tried to show the cartoons on Fox News the network immediately cut to footage of Muslims rioters.

The height of stupidity must be N.Y. Times (registration required). They won't display the cartoons - out of respect for Muslims - but to show they are not afraid of censorship they illustrated their article with a piece of "art" from 1999 - of the Virgin Mary spattered with elephant dung!

Videos with hostages having their throats slit are ok. Innocent cartoons are not.

Hats off to the editorial staff at the NY Press who quit their jobs, when they were not allowed to publish the cartoons: NY Press Kills Cartoons; Staff Walks Out.

Suppose for a moment, that the BBC had had the balls to show the twelve genuine Danish drawings. In that case everybody would have known that the false cartoons shown by the Danish imams on BBC had nothing to do with JyllandsPosten.

English imams are allowed to spew out death sentences against all twelve artists on the BBC - but nobody tells the audience that half of the drawings don't even show Mohammed. Out of respect for Muslims.

Imams are allowed to portray 1,3 billion Muslims as murdering psychopaths. Out of respect for Muslims.

BBC's apology was weak and very hard to find (link - scroll down to the bottom) so let's re-publish it here:

(The propaganda factor - the "pig" picture One aspect that these governments might also want to examine is how they can counter false information. Comment: Maybe the BBC should also examine how to counter false information Twelve cartoons were originally published by Jyllands-Posten. None showed the Prophet with the face of a pig. Yet such a portrayal has circulated in the Middle East (The BBC was caught out and for a time showed film of this in Gaza without realizing it was not one of the 12). Comment: One of the reasons the BBC was caught out, is that BBC hasn't shown the genuine drawings. How are BBC's viewers supposed to know what the fakes look like. This cartoon - while being funny - highlights the problem. Not even Bokbluster knows what the genuine drawings look like This picture, a fuzzy grey photocopy, can now be traced back (suspicion having been confirmed by an admission) to a delegation of Danish Muslim leaders who went to the Middle East in November to publicise the cartoons. The visit was organised by Abu Laban, a leading Muslim figure in Denmark. According to the Danish paper Ekstra Bladet, the delegation took along a pamphlet showing the 12 drawings. But the delegation also showed a number of other pictures, including the "pig" one. The delegation claimed they had been sent to Danish Muslims and were the sort of insults that they had to endure. These also got into circulation. (Update: A reader has e-mailed to say that the original of the "pig" picture was from a "pig-squealing" competition held in France every summer. Some character dressed up like a pig. See the link to the neandernews.com site on the right for the details. Comment: Once again the footwork was done by a Blog: Pig or Prophet. Ekstra Bladet has also published a letter taken by the delegation on its mission. This gives the delegation's account of how the cartoons originated and what the reaction to them was. But it also mentions other pictures, which it said were "much more offending." These presumably included the "pig" picture, whose origin is now known. I have also been sent links to an Egyptian newspaper which published the 12 cartoons last October. The paper said that these were "racist" and would insult Muslims everywhere. See link at right) Comment: Once again the footwork was done by a Blog, while mainstream media were sleeping: Danish cartoons were published in Egypt. Western diplomats appear to have missed this entirely and seem to have made no attempt to counter some of the arguments in the pamphlet or to distinguish between the various portrayals. Comment: Western diplomats and the BBC appear to have missed this entirely..... The extra pictures might not have made much difference (though some of my readers argue that they must have) but it shows how rapidly propaganda can add to fuel to the fire. Comment: Yes, propaganda can rapidly add fuel to the fire when it's transmitted to millions of viewers on the BBC. I'm very reassured to hear that the picture of Mohammed as a pig "might not have made much difference". Not.

*sigh* and while nobody is allowed to see the genuine article, the fake cartoons can be spread through SMS and chat rooms.

There's a power struggle going on in Denmark: Various Muslim Communities are competing for the right to represent all Muslims in Denmark. The stakes are high: The man who can speak to the Danish government as "Mr. Islam" will have a tremendous influence; The organization that can present itself in the Middle East as the True Defenders of the Faith will be able to funnel millions of petro-dollars into the right pockets.

One of these organizations is "Islamisk Trossamfund", which I dutifully translate as "the Danish Islamic Society". This might lead an unsuspecting reader into wrongly assuming that they represent all 200,000 Danish Muslims.

Surely their spokesmen do nothing to correct this misunderstanding. For instance when Akmed Akkari speaks about Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen Danish article, my translation, "Let us see now if he has convinced the Arab world. I doubt that a little. But we Muslims in Denmark are satisfied says Ahmed Akkari" or as the previous spokesman Kasem Ahmad said about the "campaign" in this Danish article: "With the exception of a very few hypocrites everybody support us. Furthermore one has to remember, that this not only concerns the 200,000 Muslims in Denmark, but 1,3 billion Muslims world-wide".

They seem to have made their point in some of the countries they visited, while showing their own false Mohammed drawings. Take this article from the Saudi Gazette:

DANISH Muslim leaders are being threatened with prosecution and banishment while the Danish editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, refuses to apologize for printing blasphemous cartoons and defiantly says that he cannot promise not to reprint them or similar ones in the future.

Muslim leaders in Denmark are worried after the Danish People's Party announced that they are suggesting to the Danish government to prosecute the Muslim leaders who have been rallying Muslims around the world against the publication of 12 cartoons.

Yes, there has been talk about looking closer at the lying imams. The opposite would have been strange - with deaths in two digit figures and hundreds of millions in property damage. But in the state-controlled paper, the lying imams are equated with "Muslim leaders".

The newspaper EkstraBladet has checked the organizations that the society claim support their "crusade" against the twelve drawings. The list will be boring and repetitious but sometimes repetition is the key to understanding:

Swindler's list:

Union for Solidarity and Upbringing (Århus) - cannot be located
The Somali Culture and Upbringing Union (Århus) - Between 100 and 200 due-paying members - 400-500 if you include children
The Islamic Society on Fyn (Odense) - the union won't report the number of members. They refer to spokesman Akmed Akkari, who as usual says, "no comments".
The Somali Culture Union in Odense - number unknown
Islamic Information Centre (Odense) - 30 due-paying members
The Islamic Council in Denmark (Copenhagen) - The union claims to be a charity but the chairman Jehad al Farra admits that this is not the case. Between 100 and 150 members.
The League of Muslim Immigration Unions - an umbrella organization for 42 Turkish immigration unions. The chairman does not know the number of members.
The Islamic Society on Fyn (Odense) - this is a duplicate listing.
Pakistan Study & Culture Center (Odense) - cannot be located
Idara Minhaj Ul Quran (Odense) - about 200 members.
The Arabic Culture Center (Copenhagen) - cannot be located
Youth and Culture Center (Copenhagen) - cannot be located
Danish Islamic Society (Copenhagen) - Abu Laban's own union has 500 due-paying members - but about 1,500 supporters.
The Arabic Culture Union (Århus) - 180 members, 60 are between 5 and 17 years, the rest are younger than 25 years.
Equality and Brotherhood Union (Århus) - The union won't report the number of members, but a source from the union says that between 200 and 300 people visit the mosque.
Islamic Culture Center (Århus) - between 250 and 300 members
Multi Activity Union (Århus) - cannot be located
Al-Nour Youth Union (Århus) - has 150 members between 5 and 17 years. Does not want to appear on the list.
Al Helal Union (Århus) - cannot be located
The Family Activity House (Haderslev) - 92 members younger than 25. Including parents and other members: 140-150
The Somali Culture Union in Esbjerg - closed three years ago
Cultural Union for Children and Young (Aalborg) - According to the city: 618 members - 165 of these are older than 25 years.
The Eastern Union (Aalborg) - According to the city: 280 members - 68 of these are older than 25 years.
VUKF (Vejle) - 150-200 members. Does not want to appear on the list.
The Arabic Culture Union (Vejle) - cannot be located.
The Somali Culture Union (Vejle) - cannot be located.
The Arabic Friendship Union (Skive) - the union won't report the number of members. They refer to spokesman Akmed Akkari, who as usual says, "no comments".
Muslim Youth in Denmark (MUNIDA) - Won't report the number of members. According to the Net it's 41. Same address as Danish Islamic Society.

So the result is: Duplicates (1), cannot be located (9), closed (1), unwilling to be on the list (2). You will also note how often the words "culture" and "youth" are mentioned. This is no coincidence - religion (except for the official Lutheran church) is not funded - but culture and youth is. The Danish state will support unions who teach their young ones about Muslim culture, Arabic language, Quran-singing etc. etc.

I have already quoted Yakub Ekici, chairman of the Youth and Culture Union (Vejle) for saying, "I have never asked to be added on that list. As a matter of fact I don't think the delegation should have gone to the Middle East to discuss these here Prophet-drawings. We can easily discuss it openly here in Denmark."

The chairman for Al-Nour (Århus), Khaled Mansour, says the same, "We didn't want to be on the list. It's a mistake, that I'll demand be corrected. We only represent children and young, and therefore i don't think we belong on the list".

And just in case you think the reason EkstraBladet weren't able to locate 9 of unions, was that they were too lazy, they actually paid imam Abu Laban a visit. Imam Laban admitted that many of the names were added because he personally knew the chairmen. After some bargaining with the reporters, he admits that 15.000 would probably be a more correct number. EkstraBladet's guess is 5,000 - including small children. The double-tongued imam explains, "One could say that the list shows the truth plus sales tax".

Imam Abu Bashar showing a false Mohammed drawing on BBC

How often have we heard, "If you reprint the cartoons it will just fuel the attacks". Actually the opposite is true: If everybody, including the BBC, had reprinted the cartoons, then everybody, including the BBC, would know what the genuine Danish drawings looked like. In that case BBC and Australian SBS would never have told their viewers that the picture of Mohammed with pig-snout, was produced by JyllandsPosten - when in fact it was made in France and has nothing whatsoever to do with Mohammed.

From the Brussels Journal, BBC Admits Fatal Negligence:

One wonders why the BBC did not check with Jyllands-Posten, and ask them for copies of the original cartoons, before broadcasting the news to a worldwide Muslim audience. One wonders also whether BBC journalists ever consult blogs. The twelve cartoons have been available on the internet for months. Moreover, if the BBC had published the cartoons on its own website – instead of pondering whether or not to show them – and fulfilled its duty as information provider this would not have happened. Perhaps extreme violence and some fatalities could have been avoided.

So-called Danish drawing was French photo

BBC updated their homepage to make Jack Straw appear less cowardly. Instead of Straw condemning the European press for reprinting the Danish Drawings, an updated headline quoted a Muslim leader, Bukhari, for saying the police ought to have stopped the demonstrations.

BBC did make an apology, but this was hid away at the bottom of another page and very weak: BBC fanned flames of Muhammed cartoon fiasco.

Michelle Malkin has video clips and transcripts from an interview with Imam Akkari in Danish television. The video clip shows a Danish imam (Abu Bashar?) displaying the famous pig-snout saying, "This is one of the worst picture that anyone ever imagine.[. . .] The hands of a man praying and the face of a pig".

February 7th, Ekstra Bladet approached Akkari at a press center to confront him with the newly discovered picture of the French pig-caller. The problem is that Akkari refuses to speak with Ekstra Bladet and B.T.

Akkari having his ego stroked by the press, while mistaking a French pig-squealer for his prophet

This may sound odd - after all Islamisk Trossamfund (Islamic Society of Denmark) has constantly claimed they "internationalized" the "issue", because they couldn't get their point across in Denmark. But the truth is that Islamisk Trossamfund only speaks through Akkari - and Akkari is "punishing" two out of a handful Danish papers by not speaking to them.

After having waited for an hour, a reporter from Danish Television is about to "jump the queue", but Akkari reassures him, "One moment, Ekstra Bladet just has something to show me, but he won't get any comments" and then says to Ekstra Bladet, "show me what you've got". Ekstra Bladet shows Akkari the image of the pig-caller, but Akkari refuses to apologize or make a comment. Akkari goes back to the reporter from Danish Television for more ego stroking

Added: Akkari remains unapologetic and states cryptically, "There are no wrong drawings" (Danish article, my translation):

It is not a case of misunderstanding or mistake, when the drawing of the prophet Mohammed with pig-snout and pig-ear is shown in Arab media in connection with the debate about Jyllands-Posten's drawings, as was the case Monday on the TV-channel al-Jazeera.

So says imam Ahmed Akkari, who is spokesman for the 29 Muslim unions who have protested against the Mohammed-drawings and who in December sent a delegation to Arab countries in the Middle East.

- There are no wrong drawings. We have said so an incredible lot of times, says Ahmed Akkari to Ritzau news bureau.

It was the Danish Muslim delegation, who brought along the drawing of Mohammed with pig-snout and pig-ear, along with other drawings of similar nature. The drawings have not been published in Jyllands-Posten nor in other media.

Even if they are drawings, which anonymous individuals have mailed to Muslim individuals, Ahmed Akkari doesn't see a problem in their having found their way to the Arab media.

- This is nothing, which has been connected with Jyllands-Posten, and one knows that. We believe this case is over and done with. If somebody has a problem with it, they must bring a lawsuit, says Ahmed Akkari.

Turn on your speakers and sing along, as the Danish imams launch their successful world tour with their mega-hit, Taqiyya: http://media.putfile.com/Taqiyya78.

Strictly speaking Taqiyya only means that a Muslim may temporarily renounce his faith to save his life - or for the preservation of the faith. But it's well known that religious zealots will twist their religion to any purpose. Why else would imams produce and distribute their own blasphemous Mohammed drawings?