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February 17, 2006
The Danish PM Comes Through
The Danish President stands up to Muslim extremists who have used the cartoon issue in an attempt to intimidate Europeans into clamping down on free speech(hat tip NRO). In an interview with Der Spiegel, a German newspaper, Danish Minister President Anders Fogh Rasmussen explains what is really going on:
SPIEGEL: For the first time, your government is at the center of an unimaginable international crisis that spans from northern Africa to southern Asia.Fogh Rasmussen:These protests are no longer about the 12 caricatures that were published by a free and independent Danish newspaper. Many groups with a vested interest in the Islamic world are now exploiting the situation for their own purposes.
Read the whole thing.
Meanwhile, Others Continue their Appeasement
The Brussels Journal (hat tip again to NRO) has a story about how some European leaders are kowtowing to the Muslim extremists.
Javier Solana, High Representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Secretary-General of both the Council of the European Union (EU) and the Western European Union (WEU), is one of the worst appeasers, and has come under fire recently. The Brussels Journal provides details:
Mr Solana continues his appeasement visit to the Middle East. On Wednesday he met Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. The EU Foreign Policy Coordinator told the press that they discussed measures to ensure that “religious symbols can be protected.” He said: “Such steps could materialise through various mechanisms, maybe inside the new human rights commission created in the UN.
If he's so concerned with protecting religious symbols, he can start with the Star of David, which is regularly trashed by Muslims. The most vile anti-Jewish cartoons are a staple of Arab Middle East propaganda.
It's not just Solana, either
The Socialist MEP and former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen [not to be confused with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the present Prime Minister] said that the cartoons “lack respect for and knowledge of Islam.” Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the leader of the European Greens, criticized Denmark and Germany for their lack of respect for Islam. Hans Winkler, the Secretary of State for European Affairs in Austria, the current chairman of the EU Council, said that freedom of the press is not absolute and that “religious feelings should not be offended.” Mr Winkler also said Turkey could play an important role in establishing “a positive dialogue with Islam.” Austria is now defending Turkey's EU admission, while it opposed it in the past.
But the reason why we have freedom of speech is so that we can say anything we want, whether it offends anyone else or not, as long as it is not slanderous or libelous. We do not have a First Amendment in this country so that we can discuss how to fund Social Security. We have it so that we can say whatever we want (above caveats apply).
I warned the other day about a "press code of conduct" that was being floated as a trial balloon in Europe. While some, like the Danish President, understand the threat and how to face it, others clearly do not.
Posted by Tom at February 17, 2006 8:13 AM
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