Section 266B of the Danish Criminal Code: “Any person who, publicly or with the intention of wider dissemination, makes a statement or imparts other information by which a group of people are threatened, insulted or degraded on account of their race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religion, or sexual inclination shall be liable to a fine or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years.”
or
Section 140 of the Danish Criminal Code: “Those who publicly mock or insult the doctrines or worship of any religious community that is legal in this country, will be punished by a fine or incarceration for up to four months.”
Just havent seen these posted yet. But they make intersting reading when considering all the arguements over freedom of speech. I wonder what you have to do to break one of these laws? I wonder if they cover insulting Islam?
A nice detail for our understanding of this afaire.
Post a tip jar!
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Excellent diary on topic freedom of speech versus responsibility, has a breaking story on Denmark’s editor Fleming Rose and JT.
● Thor Thunderbolts @dKos
● FS Extremist DTF :: Thank You
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
In theory, if this tracks back to a pack of neocons or an official intel operation of one or more governments, then this could be a mode of prosecution?
Nobody cared or responded with outrage when this cartoon came out in November.
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After the impeachment trials in Congress. Puleaase!
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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Do you not believe that BushCo will ever face justice? If not, then all of your hard work is devalued.
excluded from this law, though this is not specifically stated in the text of the law itself, it is reasonable to conclude that this is understood.
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By: JAN M. OLSEN (Mon, Jan/09/2006)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – A regional prosecutor said he would not file charges against a newspaper that published contentious caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, and Danish Muslim groups said they would appeal.
“We cannot understand the decision,” said Ahmad Akkari, a spokesman for a coalition of 11 community groups, adding that they would take their complaints to Denmark’s top prosecutor.
He said the 12 caricatures, published Sept. 30 in the Jyllands-Posten daily, were a “clear offense to Islam.”
State prosecutor Peter Broendt Joergensen said the drawings were protected by Denmark’s freedom of speech laws and did not violate bans on racism and blasphemy.
Egypt has been spearheading foreign criticism of Denmark over the cartoons. While Egypt “respects freedom of opinion and expression, we also realize the borders which must never be crossed,” Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency quoted Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit as saying after he was informed of the prosecutor’s decision by his Danish counterpart.
Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet, even respectful ones, out of concern that such images could lead to idolatry.
AP Story
Conclusion – Soj’s position in his diary was unfounded, and disinformation, mischief and treachery is clearly a trade on all sides in the Middle East.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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he should seek out some very elderly Jews, who will be happy to explain to him how it works.
I don’t think this has a bearing on soj’s diary, she was basically citing Religious Policeman, whose whole take on this, like his whole blog, is focused on Saudi cooperation with the project.
Which there was. The Saudi papers have run story after story about it, but the princes have long enjoyed a very special relationship with Washington, and frequently work together on all kinds of operations.
How much more is there on Egypt being a driving force in building foreign criticism and energy for protests? What others are assisting?
Yes, Egypt and other governments are using this crisis to distract their people from internal conflict, or so I have read. For example, the sinking of the ferry in the Red Sea, the loss of 1,000 lives had caused riots against the Egyptian government and hatred against the Saudi ownership of the ferry.
There is more, concerning the security and suppression of dissent in these countries suddenly evaporating in the face of riots against the West.
I’ve been reading about this tangentially for a few days and just realized that I can’t really make an informed opinion on the matter without seeing the cartoons in question. But I can’t find the bloody things anywhere! Does anyone have a link to them so I can go look and see for myself what all the bruhaha is about? I saw the wiki entry Susanhu posted but you can’t really see the pictures…
Thanks…
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There are the original 12 drawings, later 3 drawings were added and published in Ekstra Bladet. Please read through my comment Xenophobia and Racism in Denmark – for translation.
Free Speech Extremist DTF :: Thank You ≈
The reaction in the Netherlands is very clear, xenophobic fear has won. The right-wing 1-seat party of politician Geert Wilders has published the despicable cartoons on his website, which led to retaliations by Islamists with anti-semitic expression. A war of words has led to bloodshed and a further division in European society, the future consequences no one seems to care about.
I just heard a report on Dutch radio from the ruling right-wing party of Ms Pia Kjaersgaard of Denmark, where she calls for prosecution of the imams in Denmark with the charge of treason and calls all his Muslim supporters traitors. I suppose scholar Kjaersgaard has taken lessons from RW republicans in the States.
● DTF Thought Provoking
● The Populist Deficiency of European Social Democracy
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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Danish cartoons debated with an editor of France Soir and a Muslim cleric Mustapha.
France Soir: “What is not prohibited, is therefore allowed. In France, blasphemy is allowed.”
BBC World Radio
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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all have rarely used anti-blasphemy laws too. It seems many in the Islmic world are unhappy that the laws of the land are not being used in the cartoon case.
The laws in Germany were used to stop a musical ridiculing Catholicism in the 1990’s.
The story from news24.com gives some detail:
http://tinyurl.com/dsaf5
The Danish writer of the following gives the background of the printing of the cartoons which is edifying. The Danish newspaper is conservative and has refused in the past to publish Christian cartoons that they thought may be offensive. However, the analysis is limited because it fails to bring into the equation the enormous hostility in the Moslem world against the violence and military occupation in Moslem countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. This was expressed on CNN by one of the Imams responsible for bringing the cartoon controversy to the Middle East. He wanted to use the cartoons to inform the Muslim world that “the West” has no respect for the people in Muslim countries and that is why the exploitation of, and military attacks against, their people continue.
From Salon.com
Rotten judgment in the state of Denmark
(Free day pass if you watch an ad)
The Danish paper that printed the cartoons wanted to stir up trouble — and the government wanted a culture war. They got more than they bargained for.
By Jytte Klausen
The question to me is, are the West’s military attacks against Muslim countries more serious and damaging than what may be considered ‘blasphemy.’ Even the Imam on CNN considers the blasphemy only a symptom. Yet in the Western press this has become the focal point instead of the violence against Muslim countries, like Afghanistan, Iraq. (and maybe Iran)
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COPENHAGEN (AFP) Feb. 8 — Muslims in Denmark, sharply divided in the swelling row over cartoons of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), voiced concern that the conflict would slow their integration into Danish society and fuel resentment against their community.
The furious debate in Denmark over 12 cartoons depicting Mohammed, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper and have sparked violent protests across the Muslim world. The conflict has revealed “the necessity of having a common organization allowing Muslims to speak with a single voice” in Denmark, Sunni imam Abdul Wahid Petersen told AFP.
I am “worried Danes will react even more negatively towards Muslims, whom they hold responsible for what is happening to them,” Younes, a practicing Muslim of Tunisian origin, told AFP.
Islam, the second largest religion in Denmark after the state Lutheran church, has long suffered a bad reputation in the Scandinavian country, a pioneer in gender equality where extremist interpretations of women’s submissive role within Islam have not gone down well.
The extreme-right Danish People’s Party (DPP), an ally of Denmark’s right-leaning coalition government, has been especially harsh in its comments about Muslims, calling Islam a “terrorist religion”.
The DPP has described Islam as “an evil religion, which is at a lower level in civilization terms than the Western civilization,” Lars Eslev Andersen, a historian and Middle East expert at the Danish Syddansk University, told AFP.
At the same time, Danish media “repeatedly shows images of suicide attacks in Israel or in Chechnya for instance, labeling it as the work of Muslim terrorists, thus mixing together religion and struggles for freedom,” imam Petersen said
Younes agreed: “We are so diverse with moderates and radicals, that we need to speak with a single voice.” He added that it was a shame media coverage of the cartoon row had focused on the small group of rather radical imams that first spread outrage over the drawings beyond Denmark’s borders by showing them to colleagues in Arab countries.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Chargeable under Danish law?
Wonder what the proper religious reaction of Christians to the above should be? Of Muslims?
Oh yes, poster reminds self. They get to be pick and choosey.
I thought one of JC as a Whackenhut employee interrogating detainees at Abu G to confess to be born again through prostletyzing. Maybe a table of stuff for electric, water, depravity torture tools with a caption of WWJD?