Support the Spear-Danes
‘Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.’
‘So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns.’
It seems the Spear-Danes have made their way back into the news. The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten has recently published a number of depictions of the prophet Mahomet following a Danish author’s failed attempts to find an artist willing to illustrate his children’s book on the Islamic prophet. Although one cartoon depicted him with a bomb as a turban, the subject of the collection was clearly free speech. The illustrations were later republished in Norway. It seems this illustration has caused quite an uproar in the middle east, where images of the prophet are banned. Danish flags were burned in Palestine (stockpiles of American and Israeli flags were running low) and the Kuwaiti and Saudi governments have issue protests, while retailers pulled Danish products from their shelves. In fact, retailers are even advertising this fact.
Arab governments are now calling on the UN to pass a resolution banning attacks on religious beliefs. A deputy secretary-general of the Arab League explained:
"Consultations are currently taking place at the highest level between Arab countries and the OIC to ask the UN to adopt a binding resolution banning contempt of religious beliefs and providing for sanctions to be imposed on contravening countries or institutions.”
Wait, I though it was the Islamic countries that don’t allow rival religions to evangelize in their countries, that blow up ancient monuments built by other faiths, and whose media regularly publishes anti-Jewish cartoons and literature (Arabs are a Semitic people and it’s a bit of a misnomer to call Islamic Jew-hatred anti-Semitism.) It seems the first area of enforcement of such a law would be the Arab nations now pushing for it. Just imagine the effects of such world-wide censorship: Richard Dawkins could be imprisoned and the United Kingdom place under sanctions for his documentary savaging all religious beliefs as the root of all evil, American Jewish organizations banned for their criticism of the Passion while Mel Gibson is imprisoned for anti-Semitism, the US removed from the Security Council for playing reruns of South Park.
For a brief history of depictions of Mahomet put together by another blogger, including some made recently and sold openly in Iran to a Norwegian scientist, as well as the ones published in Denmark, look here. And remember to drink a Carlsberg, eat some Havarti cheese, and buy the kids some Legos. Here’s to Denmark’s ‘courage and greatness’ – may it survive their honour killings.
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.’
‘So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns.’
It seems the Spear-Danes have made their way back into the news. The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten has recently published a number of depictions of the prophet Mahomet following a Danish author’s failed attempts to find an artist willing to illustrate his children’s book on the Islamic prophet. Although one cartoon depicted him with a bomb as a turban, the subject of the collection was clearly free speech. The illustrations were later republished in Norway. It seems this illustration has caused quite an uproar in the middle east, where images of the prophet are banned. Danish flags were burned in Palestine (stockpiles of American and Israeli flags were running low) and the Kuwaiti and Saudi governments have issue protests, while retailers pulled Danish products from their shelves. In fact, retailers are even advertising this fact.
Arab governments are now calling on the UN to pass a resolution banning attacks on religious beliefs. A deputy secretary-general of the Arab League explained:
"Consultations are currently taking place at the highest level between Arab countries and the OIC to ask the UN to adopt a binding resolution banning contempt of religious beliefs and providing for sanctions to be imposed on contravening countries or institutions.”
Wait, I though it was the Islamic countries that don’t allow rival religions to evangelize in their countries, that blow up ancient monuments built by other faiths, and whose media regularly publishes anti-Jewish cartoons and literature (Arabs are a Semitic people and it’s a bit of a misnomer to call Islamic Jew-hatred anti-Semitism.) It seems the first area of enforcement of such a law would be the Arab nations now pushing for it. Just imagine the effects of such world-wide censorship: Richard Dawkins could be imprisoned and the United Kingdom place under sanctions for his documentary savaging all religious beliefs as the root of all evil, American Jewish organizations banned for their criticism of the Passion while Mel Gibson is imprisoned for anti-Semitism, the US removed from the Security Council for playing reruns of South Park.
For a brief history of depictions of Mahomet put together by another blogger, including some made recently and sold openly in Iran to a Norwegian scientist, as well as the ones published in Denmark, look here. And remember to drink a Carlsberg, eat some Havarti cheese, and buy the kids some Legos. Here’s to Denmark’s ‘courage and greatness’ – may it survive their honour killings.
posted by Ryan | 10:47 am
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