The latest from the Danish government: The Western value of free speech trumps religious fanaticism:
PARIS, France (Reuters) — Denmark said on Friday it could not apologize for cartoons in a Danish newspaper depicting the Prophet Mohammad as outrage spread across the Muslim world from the Middle East to countries in Asia.
More European newspapers published the cartoons on Friday, arguing freedom of speech was sacred, but angry Muslims staged violent protests against jokes they consider blasphemous.
Depicting the picture of the prophet is prohibited under Sharia law.
“Neither the Danish government nor the Danish nation as such can be held responsible for drawings published in a Danish newspaper,” Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after meeting with Muslim envoys in Copenhagen.
“A Danish government can never apologize on behalf of a free and independent newspaper,” he said. “This is basically a dispute between some Muslims and a newspaper.”
Of course, this will enrage the Islamists even more.
I do believe a crisis is approaching.
However, CNN has decided that their Muslim market is more important than free speech.
Muslims consider it sacrilegious to produce a likeness of the Prophet Mohammad. CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons in respect for Islam. (Watch the furor caused by cartoons — 2:48)
Even in the video clip, CNN refuses to show the cartoons. Spinelessness, driven by market share. Gotta love the Corporate News Network.
And, as if on cue, our State Department comes down firmly on the wrong side:
http://instapundit.com/archives/028399.php
Go to http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/freespeech1 to sign a petition in support of Denmark.
CNN, one remembers, was whitewashing stories from its Iraq bureau in order to protect its people.
Same shit, different year.
Will be interesting to see whether the Islamist overreaction to the Danish cartoons will produce a substantial European acceptance of Meryl’s “The Jews are the world’s canary in a coal mine” thesis. (It certainly looks like a validation from these shores.) If not, it’s a near-certainty that there will be some further overreach — in the form of an attempt to impose Islamic sensibilities on a Western polity — within the next 12-18 months, so I’m confident that the proof of Meryl’s thesis is a matter of when, not if.
Will be interesting to see whether the Islamist overreaction to the Danish cartoons will produce a substantial European acceptance of Meryl’s “The Jews are the world’s canary in a coal mine” thesis. (It certainly looks like a validation from these shores.) If not, it’s a near-certainty that there will be some further overreach — in the form of an even more outrageous attempt to impose Islamic sensibilities on a Western polity — within the next 12-18 months, so I’m confident that the proof of Meryl’s thesis is a matter of when, not if.
The NY Times has a photo of Iranian women burning an =Israeli= flag in response to the Danish cartoons. Perhaps the Iranians have discovered evidence that the Danes are one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel?
Put Mohammad on the $1 dollar bill. Then see if the oil sheiks will still take our money.
I flatly predict this would reveal exactly how venerated Mohammed is in Middle Eastern society.
I’m going to have an essay up tomorrow on what I think the Muslim riots across Europe and the Middle East mean.
Meryl Yourish invokes the standard capitalist greed template:
Or is it Political Correctness?
Clue #1: Fox News Channel showed one of the cartoons (sufficient for a death sentence under Sharia). They are hardly indifferent to market share; however, they don’t subscribe to PC.
Clue #2: Dhimmi News Network (at one time owned by Jane Fonda’s squeeze) having had its lunch eaten by Fox because of its left-wing bias, now relies heavily on viewership outside the USA, where Bush Derangement Syndrome reigns. In other words, it panders to the smugly anti-corporate.
Clue #3: If “corporate” profit-greed is the problem, then insulating a news organization from it would be the solution, and NPR would be the gold standard of TRVTH. Need I say more?
And finally a word from Mark Steyn:
Though this may be self-interested and none too courageous, it goes a bit beyond “market share.”
On the other hand, I was surprised to learn that the Philadelphia Inquirer — much closer to CNN’s political orientation than Fox’s — had published the cartoons. Apparently, guts are not evenly distributed in the media.