Englishman in New York

The cartoon row hangs over our apartment like a dark cloud. Most people take little notice of Denmark, so it is upsetting for my Danish wife that this event has brought it to the world’s attention.

The sad fact is that in some quarters Denmark is being portrayed as a semi-fascistic, racist, xenophobic state. In an op-ed I read yesterday, Denmark sounded like Germany circa 1933 (then again, in the same op-ed it was European colonialism and US militarism which were the cause of the protests, not a word of Islamic extremism).

I don’t think you would find many countries in Europe more devoted to freedom of religion and freedom of expression than Denmark. To characterize the cartoons as racist or anti-Muslim is wrong.

The cartoons did not depict Muslims as terrorists. They illustrated the hijacking of religion by extremists. In doing so they offended a vast swathe of Muslims by choosing Muhammad as the vehicle for their attack. Their crime is ignorance not malice. Which is more than can be said for the reaction from some quarters. However, I fear I am wasting my breath.

Links for today:
With a little over two hours to go the Rocketboom advertising auction is at $30,000 with the reserve still not met. My guess is that the reserve is $40,000. Will it jump $10,000 in two hours?

UPDATE: We have a Rocketboom advertising winner. The winning bid? $40,000. Not a bad guess by me!

Harry’s Place reports that ticket sales for Galloway’s next UK tour are slow—unlike sales of Celebrity Big Brother memorabilia he’s flogging off on eBay.

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