Rasmussen Explains the Basics

The official website of Denmark has reported that Egypt intends to make an issue of the "blasphemous" cartoons published in Jyllands-Posten, which I wrote about on October 18. They plan to refer it to an Islamic summit. The website states:

… the Egyptian ambassador in Denmark requested, along with ten other ambassadors of Muslim states, to meet with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to discuss Jyllands-Posten's decision to print twelve caricatures of the prophet, an act considered blasphemous by many Muslims.

The newspaper published the cartoons after a Danish author complained that no artist dared to illustrate his book about the prophet. Jyllands-Posten's editor-in-chief said the cartoons were a test of whether fear of Muslim retribution had begun to limit the freedom of expression in Denmark.

Rasmussen refused to meet with the ambassadors, saying that if they thought he had any power to influence what a national newspaper did and printed, the essence of Danish democracy had been lost on them.

…

'The Egyptian ambassador in Denmark has said that the case no longer rests with the embassy. It is now being treated at an international level. As far as I have been informed by my government, the cartoon case has already been placed on the agenda for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference's extraordinary summit in the beginning of December,' ...

(Emphasis is mine.)

I’m beginning to like this Prime Minister Rasmussen. I'm thinking that I have done a disservice to Denmark by assuming they were part of Old Europe.

11/4/2005 8:36 PM

UPDATE 11/8/2005 10:25 PM -- The illustrator of the most controversial drawing, showing Mohammed as a bomb, is selling it at auction. In my opinion, this picture is not an ordinary cartoon. It is very well drawn and thought-provoking in its detail. I predict it will go for a lot of money. You can look at it over here.