The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

The Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad which sparked off worldwide protests and violence (including the unsavoury spectacle of some protesters marching in London demanding the cartoonists be beheaded) are still continuing to have an effect – in fact it seems like every few weeks since 2005 there’s been some related story, whether it is a conservative writer in Canada being attacked for discussing them or a court case here for those who demanded bloody retribution on the cartoonists. This time the events are back at ground zero in Denmark, where authorities arrested three people this week, two Tunisians and one Danish national of Moroccan extraction, under anti-terrorism legislation for allegedly planning to murder a Danish target. The security services didn’t identify the target but the Jyllands-Posten newspaper which first published the cartoons claimed it was Kurt Westergaard, their cartoonist. In response the Jyllands-Posten has today reprinted the cartoon which depicts the Prophet with a turban shaped like a very Looney Tunes-style round bomb and fuse, reports the BBC.

(Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard drawing the infamous Muhammad cartoon, borrowed from the Jyllands-Posten, photo: Morten Flarup)

The paper stated that reprinting that particular cartoon in both its print and online editions today was not designed to provoke Muslims but to make clear that they would not bow to threats of violence and curtail their freedom of expression. I’m not sure how to take that move at all – I approve of a newspaper and a cartoonist in a democratic society refusing to be intimidated by the threats of fanatics and instead continuing to do their job in the free press, but given what happened before, reprinting the cartoon could be misinterpreted as sticking up the finger at the Islamic world and could perhaps be seen as a little childish rather than a noble expression of determination to be free to speak regardless of threats. I’d imagine a good article, well written and with some decent analysis of the recent and previous events then contrasted against the paramount rule of the freedom of expression that is a foundation of any democratic culture could have portrayed that determination not to be silenced just as effectively and less provocatively. On the other hand I still can’t wrap my head around people being prepared to kill over a cartoon – we know cartoonists are arrested, threatened and even killed for their work (think of Naji Al-Ali, for instance) and yet I still can’t quite understand how anyone can be so incensed over a few lines of caricature that they decide murder is the only response. Then again perhaps I’m more tolerant or simply not a sociopath; I see plenty of notions expressed I find repugnant, but the thought of trying to ban them, let alone physically harm someone for them is a thousand times more repugnant to me.

(Kurt Westergaard, photo: AFP)

“Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me. However, I have turned fear into anger and indignation. It has made me angry that a perfectly normal everyday activity which I used to do by the thousand was abused to set off such madness. I have attended to my work and I still do. I could not possibly know for how long I have to live under police protection; I think, however, that the impact of the insane response to my cartoon will last for the rest of my life. It is sad indeed, but it has become a fact of my life,” Kurt Westergaard.

Quite where this is going to lead, I don’t know, but it looks like those original cartoons will still be having after-effects for a long time to come. The international nature of the events is reflected in the fact that the online JP edition carries the story of the murder plot and the reprinting of the cartoon not only in Danish but in an English, French and German version too. There’s going to be more from this, let’s hope this time it isn’t violent.