Danish Mohammed Cartoons

Fogh Rasmussen by Lars Refn

The big news story in Denmark for the last few weeks has been whether or not our prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, would get the job as NATO's new secretary general.

All 26 countries agreed on Fogh Rasmussen except for Turkey. Apparently the Turks were still mad over -- wait for it -- the Mohammed Crisis. Yes, the Turks have never been able to forgive Fogh for telling them back in 2006 that a prime minister in a free country does not have the right to throw "blasphemous" cartoonists in jail.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan from the Muslim party AKP told how he had received phone calls from leaders of Muslim countries who had urged Turkey, Europe's only country with a predominantly Muslim population, to veto against Anders Fogh Rasmussen for the post as NATO's secretary general.

In return for allowing a staunch defender of free speech to become secretary general, Turkey has made an unspecified number of counter-demands, like having a Turkish vice-secretary general, closing down the local Kurdish ROJ-station in Denmark and, oh yes, apologizing to the "Islamic world" for the cartoons, which may in fact happen today in Istanbul.

Lars Refn, no fan of Fogh Rasmussen himself, made this drawing of Fogh with a Turkish fez: