[RalphyS]

Well we seem to agree by now, that the intolerance and violence of islam fundamentalists/radicals, maybe fueled by some groups who want to (ab)use the situation for their political/terroristic goals, is the basic problem in this situation.

Yesterday I saw several items on tv about the issue.

First there was this UK-show, in which a moderate muslima (she was apparently second in the UK-version of a show called 'The Apprentice'), who very strongly accused all the protesters, who had resorted to violence, of kidnapping her religion. Sira Khan, as I think her name was, stated that anyone who resorted to violence, and especially these protesters, should be arrested immediately and severely punished (she was primarily speaking about protests in front of embassies in the UK itself). She had no problem at all with the cartoons, she said that it was a privilege to live in a western society with all the freedoms attached to that, and that people who rioted against these freedoms did not appreciate them. She also claimed that the protesters were a minority in the islam community in the UK, and if they couldn't deal with western freedom, that they should move to other places. In reaction to her comment of it being a minority, the presenter and his 2-person-panel, reacted with the results of a poll held under 500 UK-muslims earlier, in which large percentages considered these cartoons, just like 9/11, part of a jewish conspiracy. Khan reacted by stating that she didn't know people like that in her surroundings and that it was time that the moderate muslims took back their religion and spoke out against these radicals/fundamentalists. She was really very passionate and I hope to see more muslims like her on air, who not only defend their religion, but also attack the radical forces inside it.

Secondly there was a short item about 2 muslims in Danmark on a Dutch show, one was a Dane from Egyptian background, who worked as a stand-up comedian in acts, where he regularly made fun about his own religion. He brings a 'bomb' on stage, and its supposed to go off after his act. He said he could not understand how someone could not have a sense of humor about things like this. You need humor to evaluate anything, if you take anything too seriously, it will only make things worse.
The other muslim Dane was one of the imams, who send the cartoons to clerics in the middle east. He had the cartoons with him and he showed them to the interviewer on tv and discussed what especially appalling and insulting about them. Even the more moderate cartoons annoyed him a lot, a drawing of Mohammed and a donkey, which I wouldn't even call a cartoon, bur merely an illustration of a muslim 1300 years ago apparently showed the stupidity of Mohammed as viewed by Westerners to him. The drawing of Mohammed face with the Turkisch half moon was also very insulting, the star in the eye made Mohammed look like 'a pirate'. Apparently by sending the cartoons 'home' it was his intention to (quote) 'contain the situation', the interviewer (just like me) found this strange and asked if he couldn't have anticipated the reactions. He gave a very vague reaction and told about how the people who wanted to 'contain' the situation, where now being blamed for it. The strange thing was that when explaining the insult by the cartoons, he was smurking about them. The interviewer told him therefore that he seemed to be able to laugh about it. "It's was I am supposed to do, but I'm raging inside", the imam said. The last question was whether he would ever be able to just laugh about cartoons like this and go on with his life, he seemed to laugh off the question.

Thirdly I saw a report on the same Dutch program about the reaction in the USA on the cartoons item. With some clips from news reporters (CBS anchorman, I think) addressing the item, than Jon Stewart ridiculing it and finally Newt Gingrich defending the Danes on the O'Reilly factor. What followed was an assessment of the Dutch correspondent in New York. He stated that the USA was walking on tiptoes in this situation, apparently only one newspaper in Philadelphia had dared to publish any of the cartoons and Newt Gingrich's address was the only outspoken condemnation of the rioters. The US-media and politicians, according to the correspondent, were very carefull and even self-censoring about the issue out of fear that, their true opinion, that the Danes had every right to publish the cartoons, might cause even more anti-American violence and because there are at this time so many possible American targets in the middle east, it seems no-one is saying what they truly feel out of fear of being responsible for the deaths/casualties of American soldiers/reporters in the area.

On the other hand hand I heard this morning about the press conference that Dutch congreswoman and former muslima Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was elected 'European of the year' by Reader's Digest and who has also been among the prominent top 100 of 'Time' magazine, yesterday gave in Berlin.
This woman, who wrote the script for the short movie 'Submission' in which she critiques the female unfriendliness (to put it mildly) of the koran and islam, has already had a friend/colleague, the director of 'Submission' Theo van Gogh murdered by a radical muslim and who is under constant surveillance/protection against fundamentalists, is brave enough to once again go out their and state her opinion, our rather strong conviction in spite of the threads, hatred and possible attempts on her life that it will cause.
She praised the European newspaper for having the courage to publish the cartoons, she did the same for the Danish premier Rasmussen, who in her opinion wasn't afraid to oppose the pressure from the muslim world to contain the freedom of press, and she wished that the Dutch premier Balkenende had the same courage. She also stated that she held this pressconference to defend the right to offend within the boundaries of the law. It is "necessary and important" to criticize islam and the teachings of Mohammed.

"Many muslims are peace-loving people, not all of them are fanatics. In my opinion they have every right to be true to their convictions, but within islam there is a radical islamic movement that rejects democratic freedom and aims to destroy it", as the Somalian born stated.

Hirsi Ali furthermore suggested that the European Union financialy compensated Danish companies who were stricken by the boycott from the middle east. "Freedom isn't cheap. It is worth it to pay a few million euro to defend the free word", according to Hirsi Ali, who also lashed out at newspapers, who were afraid to publish the cartoons.