Letter From Denmark
ByThe New York Times op-ed page was full of the Danish cartoon controversy last weekend. In an effort to give a range of views it included a very critical piece from Martin Burcharth, the US correspondent for the Danish newspaper Information.
The piece explained that:
Denmark’s reputation as a nation with a long tradition of tolerance toward others…is something of a myth.
[...]For 20 years, Muslims in Denmark have been denied a permit to build mosques in Copenhagen. What’s more, there are no Muslim cemeteries in Denmark, which means that the bodies of Muslims who die here have to be flown back to their home countries for proper burial.
[...]After the flag burnings, the Danish news media began to refer to the white cross on the flag’s red background as a Christian symbol.
There was something discordant about this, for we’ve come to connect the flag less and less to religion. Denmark, after all, is one of the most secular countries in Europe. Only 3 percent of Danes attend church once a week.
Still, the news media were right. Up to a point. Legend has it that the flag fell from heaven during a battle between the Danes and the Estonians nearly 800 years ago. It was a sign from God, and it led the Danes to victory. Now that flag has become a symbol around the world of Denmark’s contempt for another world religion.
Shocking and embarrassing, I thought, until I received the following email from a relative in Copenhagen:
I have just seen an article in JP about Martin Burcharth’s article in NYT. He has now admitted that there were factual “errors” in his article, but that he “regrets nothing”! He explains that his article was rewritten several times and the last revision was made “under difficult circumstances”. Incidentally, he hasn’t lived in Denmark for many years!
His wrong information was apparently reproduced in a programme on New York’s National Public Radio this week by a Professor Mahmood Mamdani in a discussion with Die Zeit’s Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff.
The professor had no other source than this article and could not substantiate his allegations. It was however pointed out that he contradicted himself by referring to the desecration of exactly the Muslim graveyards which don’t exist!!!!
The experienced German correspondent also totally rejected his generally negative description of conditions in Denmark and said that Denmark was well-known for its well-functioning democracy and respect for human rights, and this respect for other cultures and thought was what made the country particularly attractive for Muslim immigrants.
There are many mosques in around Denmark in existing buildings where Friday prayer is practised every week, and there is no ban against building any new ones either. But there has been no agreement amongst the many different Muslim communities as to which school of Islam a new mosque should belong, and there has been a financial problem as well. Mosques have to comply with local town planning regulations like all other buildings, but that has not been an issue.
Also, his suggestion that the white cross in the Danish flag is now assuming a new religious significance for the irreligious Danes is just ludicrous. We have taken the flag burnings remarkably relaxed and with a forgiving shaking of the head. And the old myth that the flag came down from heaven….yes, surely we all believe that it came straight from God!
A very tendentious article all the way profiling the journalist at the expense of the truth.
6 Comments
February 17th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
I understand that the desecration happened in a Muslim section of a larger cemetery. There appears to be a movement to establish a first all-Muslim cemetery there. My question is are there any such cemeteries for other religions in Denmark? — a Jewish cemetery? — a Christian cemetery?
February 17th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
The thing that shits me to tears about this cartoon thing is not the hypocrisy of Muslim protesters who raise not an eyebrow at vicious anti-Semitic imagery in the various Arab and Muslim media, but that of the Western bleeding heart liberals who have jumped on board this and other opportunities to bash the liberal democratic West and absolutely refuse to apply the same standards for all people – thus making themselves racists.
And that was a bloody long sentence. Apologies.
February 17th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Paul, I hope you don’t mind but a friend of mine may be in touch with you sometime soon… Not in a sinister sense! You may both be able to find some kind of sense out of this mayhem…
February 18th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Andrea, Denmark is a liberal country and there are 120 Muslim cemeteries in Denmark, some of which are already all-Muslim, e.g. one in the city of Odense.
There are of course hundreds of Christian cemeteries, since until 20 years ago around 95% of all Danes belonged to the Protestant church. This percentage has now dropped considerably, partly because of immigration.
There is a growing trend amongst Danes to be cremated instead of buried.
A few very religious Muslims prefer to be buried in “holy” ground in their country of origin, just like a few orthodox Jews prefer to be buried in Israel. Their choice.
February 18th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
My perception of Denmark has not changed. I love the history of this country, and the kindness the Danes have shown diverse people while others in this world did not do so. Exemplary liberal values IMO and these “cartoon wars” do nothing to demonstrate otherwise.
February 20th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
i find the Burcharth’s remark about having no regrets interesting. Whatever the rewrites and the circumstances, he seems to feel that innacuracies in the service of (his) truth are permissible, if not desirable. What’s so amazing is that the “greater cause” he serves is that of (unfairly) trashing his own people.
This reflects a characteristic progressive pathology of self-criticism that gives us Masochistic Omnipotence Syndrome (MOS): it’s all our fault and if only we could do better then everything would be alright.