Cartoon issue: even a ‘liberal’ or ‘moderate’ (?) Muslim writes

What was most surprising about the entire affair was the fact that there appeared to have been no reason to trigger this in Denmark – unlike US Denmark had witnessed no 9/11, no bombing in the streets of Copenhagen, nothing that should suddenly cause the Danish press to publish such ridiculous and provocative caricatures of the prophet (peace be upon him).

It is argued that the publication of these cartoons was an instance of the press and freedom of opinion. However both these concepts by definition do not include transgressing the religious emotions of others, since the freedom of one individual ends where the freedom of the other begins.

I talked to a Pakistani friend who had been living there for over two decades. He complained that Muslims had been unable to obtain permission to construct a mosque in Copenhagen for over two years although, as in other Scandinavian countries, there was an increasing number of Muslims in the city. According to him, the Muslim population in Copenhagen had doubled over the last decade to over 50,000.

I might have refrained from expressing this view if I had not read “Denmark’s problem with the Muslims” by Martin Burcharth, a Dane, published in the New York Times. He writes, “Are not Danes supposed to be unusually tolerant and respectful of others? Not entirely Denmark’s reputation as a nation with a long tradition of tolerance towards others – one solidified by its rescue of Danish Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps in 1943 and by the high levels of humanitarian aid it provides today – is something of a myth.

“We Danes have grown increasingly xenophobic over the years. The publication of the cartoons had little to do with generating a debate about self-censorship and freedom of expression. It can be seen only in the context of a climate of pervasive hostility toward anything Muslim in Denmark.

“There are more than 200,000 Muslims in Denmark, a country with a population of 5.4 million. A few decades ago, Denmark had no Muslims at all. Not surprisingly, Islam has come to be viewed by many as a threat to the survival of Danish culture.

“For 20 years Muslims have been denied permission to build mosques in Copenhagen. And there are no Muslim cemeteries in Denmark, so that the bodies of Muslims have to be flown back to their home countries for proper burial.”

I am, by no standards, a devout Muslim, but this incident has left even moderate people like myself closer to those who prepared to take up cudgels against ‘liberal’ Danes and their ilk. It saddens me that the entire world seems to be regressing towards intolerance, the very antithesis of progress.

(Extracted from “Cartoon issue: one more perspective”

By Shaukat Qadir, a retired brigadier.

Daily Times, Lahore, Saturday, February 18, 2006, p. A7)