Danish editor takes an indefinite leave By Dan Bilefsky International Herald Tribune
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2006 COPENHAGEN Flemming Rose, the Danish editor whose decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad helped provoke weeks of fury in the Muslim world, said in an interview on Friday that he was leaving his newspaper on indefinite vacation following a series of recent mistakes. Rose stood by the decision of the newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, to publish the caricatures, citing the freedom of the press. And he declined to apologize for the drawings, which have prompted widespread protests across the Middle East, boycotts of Danish goods and the burning down of Danish embassies. He said in an interview, however, that the stress of recent events had given him sleepless nights and affected his judgment. "I am thankful that the newspaper has given me the chance to recover. I am tired," he said. "In the middle of a crisis, you do not always recognize the tensions placed on you. I'm glad someone on the paper had the guts to make the decision to give me a break because sometimes you want to keep on fighting." The announcement of Rose's extended vacation comes after weeks of violent clashes in Europe, Asia and Middle East over the cartoons, which have prompted demands for an apology by Denmark and calls that Rose resign. After a brief lull Thursday, the demonstrations resumed Friday as thousands of worshipers emerged from Friday prayers and took to the streets in several Mideast cities and across Asia and Africa, The Associated Press reported. But the protests were largely peaceful, drawing praise from Muslim and Western leaders alike. [In Nairobi, the police shot and wounded one person Friday as officers sought to keep around 200 demonstrators protesting the cartoons from marching to the residence of Denmark's ambassador, The Associated Press reported. [About 60 protesters in Tehran threw firebombs at the French Embassy, shattering nearly every window on its street façade, even after a cleric at one of the Iranian capital's most prominent mosques urged people not to attack diplomatic missions in his Friday sermon.] Muslim leaders in Denmark, meanwhile, said that Rose's "vacation" was unlikely to be enough to mollify tensions in the Muslim world. "I am not his boss, but I would fire him," said Imam Wahid PedersEn, a prominent leader of Copenhagen's Muslim community. "What he did is disgraceful and I can't even begin to understand what has gone on in his head." "He has become a scapegoat," said Lhaj-Thami Breze, the president of the Union of Islamic Organizations in France. "The point is not to get rid of an editor, the point is to find the right words for a public excuse and to avoid that this happens again." In Jordan, Abdelnasser Abul Basal, professor of Sharia law at Al Isra University, said of Rose's leave: "Is this because they really believe he really did something wrong or is it just to pacify us? It certainly helps, but it's not the solution. Every day there is someone else who is publishing these pictures. What we really want is a dialogue between Muslims, Europeans and the West to get past these issues." But in France, where the editor of France Soir - the first newspaper there to reprint all 12 controversial cartoons - was fired last week, some Muslim leaders considered the fact that Rose had taken leave a small victory. "That's very good news," said Mohammed Henniche, president of the Union of Muslim Associations in a department northeast of Paris where rioting in November stunned France. "It shows that there is an evolution and that people recognize that offense has been caused." Henniche said the dismissal of the editor of France Soir had helped to keep a lid on the anger in the Muslim community in France. "It shows that they are not isolated in their belief that this was unacceptable," he said. Others said the fact that Rose was now on leave in itself was significant, showing a growing recognition in Western Europe that such provocations should be avoided. Rose, meanwhile, acknowledged it had been a mistake to suggest in an interview with CNN on Wednesday that the paper intended to reprint Holocaust cartoons as part of a contest being sponsored by an Iranian newspaper. He said he had no intention to offend the Jewish community, but had suggested publishing the Holocaust cartoons in order to document cultural satire in the Middle East for a Danish audience. Rose also said he had erred in suggesting on a Danish television program earlier in the week that Jyllands-Posten should devote a Saturday issue to previously published cartoons satirizing Christians and Jews, including a cartoon of the star of David in the shape of a bomb by the same cartoonist who had drawn one of the Muhammad cartoons. "I wanted to show that in Denmark we do not have an anti-Muslim bias and that we had published these cartoons before without having riots or boycotts of Danish goods in Israel or Christian countries," he said. Last Saturday, Jyllands-Posten did publish a series of cartoons from the Arab world, including one showing Auschwitz with a towerblock draped in the Israeli flag. The paper apologized last week for offending Muslims but has steadfastly stood by its decision to print the Muhammad cartoons. Asked in a recent interview whether he regretted commissioning the cartoons, Rose said the question was the equivalent of asking a rape victim if she regretted wearing a short skirt. "I feel sorry if Muslims feel offended and that was not the intention," he said. "But the cartoons were within the acceptable boundaries of free speech in Denmark." People close to Rose said the 47-year-old former Moscow correspondent was deeply shaken by the furor over the cartoons and had not slept for days. They said he had police protection in public, and was only occasionally venturing outside for a 12-kilometer, or 7-mile, run. "He still believes in what he did, but never imagined the scale of the consequences," said a friend, who requested anonymity for fear of fanning tensions further. Rose dismissed suggestions that there was tension between him and the editor of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, emphasizing that the decision for him to go on vacation had been mutual. "There are no differences between me and the editor. I am looking forward to returning and to do what I love, which is to create a great paper." The crisis began in early September when Rose came up with the idea to commission the cartoons after the Danish writer Kare Bluitgen, author of a children's book on religion, complained that she was having difficulty finding artists to illustrate a book about Muhammad because of fears of violent attacks by extremist Muslims. Rose, a former war correspondent in Afghanistan and Iran, known for his fearlessness and trenchant views about immigration, was incensed. Colleagues say he railed at the growing self-censorship and political correctness in Europe since Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim radical because he had made a film critical of Islam. Rose invited 25 newspaper cartoonists to draw a picture of Muhammad "how they saw him." Twelve cartoonists responded and had their pictures printed on Sept. 30. As a former correspondent in Iran, Rose said he knew that Sunni Islam bars depictions of the prophet from the Koran because of concern that such images could lead to idolatry. But he says nothing prepared him for the reaction that followed. The French Muslim leaders, meanwhile, were united in welcoming an opinion poll that indicated a majority of French people considered the reproductions of the cartoons in two national newspapers an "unnecessary provocation." The poll, conducted by the CSA institute and published in the Catholic newspaper La Croix, found that 54 percent of respondents felt that it was wrong to reprint the images, while 38 emphasized the right of the press to reprint the images. CSA questioned 1,000 adults on Thursday; it gave no margin of error. Katrin Bennhold contributed reporting from Paris and Hassan M. Fattah of The New York Times contributed from Dubai. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/10/news/cartoons.php Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
