Different Islamic reaction to new Danish "Outrage"?

Danish Video Sparks Fresh Outrage
Saeed Al-Abyad, Arab News

JEDDAH, 8 October 2006 — The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday said it will demand an explanation from the Danish government for the state TV’s broadcasting of a video mocking the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

Danish state TV on Friday aired amateur video footage showing a number of members of the anti-immigrant Danish Peoples’ Party (DPP) at a summer camp in August drinking, singing and engaging in a competition to draw humiliating images of the Prophet.

A source at the 57-member OIC said the group will try to “find out the reasons behind the repeated ridiculing of the Prophet in Denmark” and warned that the incident would have dangerous repercussions.

The OIC reacted to the latest outrage as Muslim leaders in Denmark condemned the screening of the video, but said they would not be goaded into taking action.

In September last year Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published cartoons, including one showing the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. Muslims denounced them as blasphemous, sparking protests early this year in which more than 50 people died in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

“Against the background of the problems earlier, we have to be careful,” said Ahmed Abu-Laban, a Copenhagen imam who helped organize a trip to Egypt and Lebanon last year to rally support among Muslim leaders for protests against those drawings.

“This time it’s a different situation. Of course it’s deplorable, but we all know the attitude the DPP has toward Muslims and Islam and these pictures were never intended for publication,” he said.

Abu-Laban said he regretted the Danish TV’s decision to air the footage saying it raised ethical questions. “We’ve been working very hard to resolve the problems since the conflict earlier this year.”

The youth wings of other parties, including the ruling Liberal Party, criticized the DPP and said they would protest by not attending any political events where members of the Danish Peoples’ Party were present.

Yildiz Akdogan, spokeswoman for Democratic Muslims, a pro-integration group formed in the aftermath of the protests against the cartoons in February, said she was glad other parties had condemned the actions. “I think the events are too stupid and too absurd to provoke demonstrations or other actions from Muslims,” she said. “Of course it’s not a good thing and definitely does not make building bridges any easier, but I hope it won’t have any lasting effect.” Kenneth Kristensen, a senior member of the DPP’s youth movement, criticized the events, but stopped short of apologizing. The party was not available for comment yesterday.

The DPP rose to prominence in a 2001 election on a platform that combines emphasis on increased spending on schools and care for the elderly with a strong anti-immigrant stance. It has been accused of racism, but has been a political ally of the center-right coalition led by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen since 2001.

Muhammad Al-Johani, secretary-general of the World Islamic Media Organization, urged businessmen in the Islamic world to support WIMO’s programs aimed at educating people in the West on the history of Islam and teachings of the Prophet.

“Such programs will play a big role in removing misunderstanding of non-Muslims on Islam and its Prophet,” Al-Johani told Arab News.

He said many people in the West do not know that Muslims’ love for their Prophet is part and parcel of their religious faith. “We have to explain to them the danger of insulting the Prophet as no Muslim will accept it,” he added.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood condemned the video. “The Muslim Brotherhood denounces this repetition of acts (hostile to Islam) in the West and calls on Muslims to defend their religion in this sacred month” of Ramadan, a statement said. It called for a boycott of products from countries that “permit these sort of acts,” for peaceful protests and for international legislation banning such “attacks.”

In Britain, newspapers yesterday backed a government minister embroiled in a political storm sparked by his views on the Muslim women wearing the face veil.

Several dailies commented editorially on remarks made by former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and subsequent protests.

Straw, now responsible for arranging government business, said the veil made it harder for Muslims to integrate and that he preferred talking to constituents face to face, often asking Muslim women to remove their veils.

The issue of integrating Britain’s 1.65 million Muslims has been high on the political agenda since the deadly July 2005 London bombings. “It is perhaps understandable if Muslims feel under siege at the moment,” said The Sun newspaper, Britain’s biggest-selling daily. “That is the unhappy consequence of Islamic extremists bringing terror and death to the UK and the world.”

But Straw’s “constructive observations about veils have sparked an absurd overreaction from some Muslims for whom even the mildest criticism of any aspect of their religion amounts to a declaration of war.”

Several newspapers said Straw, 60, a skilled diplomat and experienced politician, representing a town with a significant Muslim minority, was just the sort of carefully-worded man who could launch such a topic.

The Times newspaper said “community relations might be improved by genuine face-to-face contact,” adding that the veil “precludes a basic form of human contact in a way which the Sikh turban or the Buddhist robe” does not.

The Daily Telegraph said Straw had “touched a raw nerve” by focusing on such an emblematic symbol of Muslim life but that “integration can’t be achieved behind the veil.”