http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2006-02/16/article03.shtml Danish Paper Slams "Special Treatment" for Muslims COPENHAGEN/WASHINGTON, February 16, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The editor-in-chief of the Danish daily embroiled in the cartoons row claimed on Wednesday, February 15, that the press was giving Muslims a special treatment, as his cultural editor defended the decision to commission the lampooning drawings of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). "It turned out that the freedom of the press crumbled much more quickly than I thought," Jyllands-Posten Editor-in-Chief Carsten Juste told the Danish Christian daily Kristelig Dagbladet, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). "It seems to me that the freedom of the press the world over is being limited as Muslims are being given special treatment," he argued. Last September, Jyllands-Posten ran 12 cartoons including portrayals of the Prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban and another showing him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women. Many European newspapers reprinted the drawings on the ground of freedom of expression, triggering an outcry across the Muslim world. Jyllands-Posten has recently said the cartoons "were not in violation of Danish law but have irrefutably offended many Muslims, and for that we apologize." Privileges The editor-in-chief said that he was "very ill at ease with what is happening at the moment". He argued that the result of the current crisis would only be that Muslim "privileges are going to be extended even further." "Now we have to be careful about things we never thought we would have to be careful about, such as writing about the oppression of women in Muslim societies," he claimed. Juste has sent his cultural editor Flemming Rose, who commissioned the Prophet cartoons, on an "indefinite leave" only one day after he told CNN he would consider publishing Holocaust cartoons. Britain's the Guardian also revealed recently that Jyllands-Posten refused three years ago to publish cartoon of Jesus Christ on the ground it was "offensive" to its readers. Self-censorship! Echoing a similar argument, Rose said he had commissioned the drawings to trigger a debate on what he called a self-censorship in Denmark and elsewhere over issues of Islam and Muslims. "There was a legitimate news story we had to cover and we chose to cover it in a not very ordinary way," he said, referring to a letter he sent in September to 40 cartoonists asking them to draw the prophet. "My intention was to have them appear under their own name and go against this tendency to self-censorship," Rose told a panel discussion at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. "I did not ask them to make (the prophet) a laughing stock or to mock him or to make fun of him." Rose claimed the caricatures were no different than similar drawings his daily has published over the years mocking Jesus Christ, the Danish royal family or politicians. "So in fact the cartoonists were just treating Islam and Muslims in the same way they would treat everybody else," he argued. Rose acknowledged that his paper had rejected the Jesus drawings, but said the current situation was not comparable. Hostage The 47-year-old editor said the caricature portraying the Prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban aimed at showing that "some individuals have taken the religion of Islam hostage in order to commit terrorist acts." When asked if he regretted the publication of the cartoons, Rose said it was like asking a rape victim whether she regretted wearing a short skirt. "What I did did not transcend normal practice," he maintained. Rose said that one positive outcome of the cartoon row was that it had stirred a debate in Denmark about freedom of speech and Muslim immigration. "These cartoons were just casting light on problems that were already there and maybe they served as a vehicle to see things more clearly. "I think the jury is still out whether this (the controversy) will work in favor of integration or against integration." Easing Tension Seeking to ease tension over the cartoons, a Danish church delegation was expected to arrive in Egypt on Thursday, February 16. "The aim of our journey is to say that Danes don't hate Muslims and that Christians want to live in peace with Muslims in Denmark and in the rest of the world," the bishop of Viborg, Karsten Nissen, told AFP. He, however, said that the visit was not meant to apologize on behalf of the Danish government or Jyllands-Posten. "That's not the point of our visit," he said. The Danish delegation will meet with Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, Egyptian Mufti Ali Gomaa, the Orthodox bishop of Cairo, the bishop of the Anglican church in Cairo as well as officials of the Arab League and Egyptian ministry of Awkaf (religious affairs). Danish Foreign Minister Stig Moeller was also expected to hold talks in Vienna with Syrian Mufti Sheikh Badreddine Hassun and Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Mustafa Ceric. The meeting, organized by Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, will also be attended by leader of the Muslim minority in Austria Anas Shakfeh.
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