While Danish caricatures of Islam were offensive and insensitive, we all can do more in moving towards tolerant and common understanding, writes Pernille Bramming* It is quite a strange feeling to be Danish these days, our identity having always been dominated by the fact of coming from a very small, little known country of five million people in the far north, that has no international power but only a bit of influence as a member of the EU. It is even stranger to hear so many people talking about a Danish newspaper, the third biggest out of our seven dailies. As a journalist who has been travelling in Arab countries since 1989, who has lived for six years in Cairo, working as a correspondent for a Danish daily, Politiken, and who has so many personal friends among Muslims, I thoroughly disapprove of the idea of making caricatures of Prophet Mohamed and find these cartoons a humiliation of Muslims, as well as racist. It was a hideous act. A lot of Danes agree with me on this and the first step to countering such acts in the future is to understand the roots of the idea of asking Danish cartoonists -- 46 in total -- to draw the prophet, remembering that 34 did not want and that two of the 12 drawings made do not represent the Prophet but on the contrary mock the very enterprise. One is a drawing of the editor of the culture pages; the other is a drawing of a schoolboy in front of a blackboard, on which it is written: "the editors of Jyllandsposten are a bunch of reactionary provocateurs" in Iranian language. The mindset of the responsible editor is marked by the belief that Muslim citizens threaten Danish values, especially freedom of expression, which is the pillar of our democracies. We see young Muslims adhering to Hizbut Tahrir and declaring that they are against democracy and that they want to establish khilafa, or a world dominion of Islam, first in Denmark then elsewhere. We have witnessed the murder of the Dutch filmmaker, Van Gogh, because of a film criticising the way women are despised by some Muslims in the name of Islam. And then there are the terror acts by Al-Qaeda in the name of Islam. We also have to mention the honour killings that we have witnessed in Denmark; like last year when a young boy of Pakistani origin killed his sister in the middle of the day, in the middle of the street, in the middle of a Danish town. Her family held a council and an uncle decided that this young boy should kill his sister in the name of Islamic values "because she had married an Afghan man" (also a Muslim). This and many other events have frightened Danes and made them feel that we have to defend our values and to insist that Muslims in Denmark must abide by Danish law and respect Danish values. Thus in the mind of the editor of Jyllandsposten, the publishing of the cartoons was an act of defiance and defence. This logic is of course faulty and it is also the consequence of a very deep lack of understanding: the editors at Jyllandsposten had absolutely no idea of how deeply Muslims would feel humiliated by this act. If you ponder on how much you know about the gods of the Hindus or about Confucius -- can you quote any of his sayings? -- you'll understand how little most Danes know about Islam. Their big mistake is also that they did not think things through, overlooking the fact that such cartoons would go around the world by the Internet in a split second, overlooking that in this world there are so many political agendas and that neither Islamists nor some Muslim governments would abstain from stirring up, benefiting from the anger that the cartoons would arouse. Because of a lack of knowledge about Islam, the first thought in general was to cast the cartoons within the framework of freedom of expression that for a long time now in Denmark has exceedingly wide limits. We are used to making fun of everything. This is one reason mentioned by the lawyer of the State of Denmark when he refused to open a case against Jyllandsposten. By now most Danes have understood that Muslims have strong feelings about Prophet Mohamed and they therefore now understand that it was wrong of Jyllandsposten to publish these cartoons. And by now another group of Danish lawyers has raised a new lawsuit against Jyllandsposten, referring to paragraph 266b of the Danish law that prohibits humiliation of a group of people because of their creed. This lawsuit will probably be accepted by the lawyer of the State of Denmark and go to court. Together with a group of Danish intellectuals, I am now working on an open letter declaring our support for such a case to reach court. We find it important that this whole matter go into the hands of the legal system of Denmark: we have to discuss this in a civilised manner based on the principles of law and democracy and hopefully this will guide all Danes, whatever their creed, to live peacefully together and to take care not to misuse freedoms of expression. We still have a lot to learn, all of us. The Muslim community in Denmark is young: workers from Turkey and Pakistan were invited to Denmark in the 1960s and were considered guests for a long period, until it became clear at the end of the 1970s that they were staying; that they had brought their families and that there would now be Danish citizens born by Turkish and Pakistani parents, thus being native Muslims. As of today, Turks and Pakistanis make up around half of the Muslims living in Denmark. In the 1980s we welcomed refugees from the war between Iraq and Iran and from Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. In the 1990s we welcomed Muslim refugees from Bosnia, more refugees from Iraq, and also refugees from Somalia. Today around 200,000 Muslims are living in Denmark and we can add to that figure a few thousand Danes who have converted to Islam. According to Danish law, a refugee or emigrant can ask for Danish citizenship after having lived in Denmark for 10 years. A large number of Muslims in Denmark do have Danish citizenship and enjoy all attendant rights. Muslims (and other people) living in Denmark for more than three years without Danish citizenship enjoy most rights, including the right to participate in local elections. Of course all children born in Denmark are eligible to become Danish citizens. Islam is recognised as the second biggest religion in Denmark and there are now a large number of mosques as well as many religious and cultural associations established by Muslims and benefiting from financial support from the state to organise conferences, concerts and exhibitions serving the public interest of Danish society. In addition, there are three Muslim members of the parliament, none of whom were born in Denmark but have gotten Danish citizenship. One of them is the son of a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother. On the local level, there are Muslims citizens in most city councils in Denmark. The army and the police have led a special campaign to recruit Muslim citizens because it's a very important principle of Danish society that the army and the police fully reflects society as a whole; thus, there are now Muslim officers in the Danish army. The number of initiatives and projects to give refugees and emigrants (encompassing not only Muslims) a fair possibility to study and to find a job are countless, and Danish politicians and authorities have taken significant steps in order to integrate Muslims into Danish society and to respect Islam. As but one example, in the city of Copenhagen, kindergartens only serve halal meat for children. Depending on district and area, Muslim children compose anywhere between five and 60 per cent of children attending kindergarten. All receive halal meals. In general, Danish Muslims have reacted very calmly to the cartoons, staging peaceful demonstrations, writing letters to newspapers expressing their feelings, and lately by protesting all violent acts in the name of Islam. The big question now is how we can solve the conflict. There are now being forwarded various demands to the Danish government, including that it apologise and punish the newspaper. Those demands are not reasonable. The Danish prime minister has apologised sincerely -- whether you like his personal style or not, which I don't -- and the Danish government has absolutely no power to punish any newspaper. All newspapers are privately-owned and no Danish minister can tell any journalist or editor-in-chief what to write and what not to write. That would be illegal, and if anyone tried, the government would fall. What we must ask from the Danish government is that it does everything possible to enhance dialogue and cooperation between Denmark and Muslim countries. The recent events have not only tarnished the image of Denmark as a tolerant and peace-loving country, but also the image of Muslims: watching furious Muslims burning our embassies and our flags, burning pictures of our prime minister, threatening to kill Danes, boycotting Denmark, burning churches in Baghdad and Egypt and killing each other in the streets all over the world has not enhanced respect for Islam and Muslims. On the contrary, it has enhanced fears about Muslims and their political agenda. How would you feel if you saw shouting Danes burning the Egyptian embassy in Copenhagen and heard them threatening to kill all Egyptians? We all have now a very big challenge in front of us: to stop making stereotypes of one another; Europeans seeing the violent, mindless, furious Muslim as the image of all Muslims, and Muslims casting all Europeans as imperialists and disdaining non-believers. We must meet each other on all levels: as intellectuals, scholars, politicians, scientists; each should meet and get to know the other better. Youth teams should meet in summer camps and play football, handball and basketball, and visit the homes of each other. Many more books should be translated; more writings exchanged between newspapers. But first of all we must be willing to respect each other and accept differences of ways of life and creed. Jews, Christians and Muslims have been fighting in the name of the same God for centuries. It is long overdue that we stop judging which of each other is apt for hell. * The writer is a Danish journalist.
