Editor of Finnish magazine fired for refusing to remove Muhammad cartoon
Only 2,000 people subscribe to this magazine - Probably not worth mentioning but here it is…
The board of Finnish culture magazine Kaltio decided Friday to sack its editor, Jussi Vilkuna, after he refused to remove a cartoon featuring a masked prophet Muhammad from the magazine’s website.
Harri Kynnös, the chairman, told the Finnish News Agency (STT) that letting Mr Vilkuna go after eight years as editor of Kaltio had been a difficult one. Mr Vilkuna said the board’s decision illustrated that it had not grasped the nature of a culture magazine.
“The task of a culture magazine is to arouse debate on important issues. What a grand way to interpret freedom of speech,” Mr Vilkuna added ironically. In the cartoon, the prophet Muhammad is depicted debating the meaning of free speech with a cartoonist.
On Thursday, Tapiola, Sampo and Pohjola withdrew their advertisements from the Kaltio website. Olavi Nieminen, the chief lawyer of Pohjola, a non-life insurance firm owned by OKO Bank, said the posting of the cartoon had been irresponsible and a wrong way to defend free speech.
UPDATE: Here are the cartoons in question… Cartoon #1, Cartoon #2, Cartoon #3, Cartoon #4, Cartoon #5
UPDATE #2: Here they are in English…Cartoon #1, Cartoon #2, Cartoon #3, Cartoon #4, Cartoon #5
Or just click on the link below to see them all on one page - but be warned, they’re kinda stupid…
Harri Kynnös, the chairman, told the Finnish News Agency (STT) that letting Mr Vilkuna go after eight years as editor of Kaltio had been a difficult one.
I’m sure it was…
Comment by gopha — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 7:29 pm
Having seen the cartoon I am not surprised.
Comment by Anonymous — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 7:58 pm
I think this IS worth mentioning. Maybe they have few readers but the idea of companies putting pressure and the editor sacked… UTTERLY DISGUSTING.
It’s interesting that the English STT News leaves out Harri Kynnös’ comment which you can read in HS in Finnish:
(quote)
“Meidän mielestämme tämä on yhteiskunnallisesti niin vakava asia, että näin kantaa ottavaa juttua ei olisi pitänyt laittaa julkisuuteen ollenkaan”, hallituksen puheenjohtaja Harri Kynnos selittää.
(unquote)
What’s the correct English translation? Help anybody? Perhaps like “In our opinion this is such a serious societal issue that an article taking such a strong stance in it should not have been brought to any publicity whatsoever”..? Anybody’s English better than mine?
HORRIBLE.
Needed to google this Kynnös guy. 1) He’s emplyed by Tapiola, one of the pro censorship companies. Did he force Tapiola to cave in or vice versa? 2) He’s a Rotary. I think censorship is not one of the Rotaries’ core values.
We should exhibit this guy in a kind of hall of shame of neo-Finlandization.
Comment by Anonymous — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 8:00 pm
Ha, kouros will have a party tonight!
Comment by dot — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 8:01 pm
In English
paha.suojelupoliisi.org/sarjis/
“fuck oh fuck i wish a war would come and nobody helped finland (like the last time) so these fucks would get what they deserve” [about Halonen, Tuomioja and Vanhanen]
Comment by anonyymi pelkuri — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 8:25 pm
“On Thursday, Tapiola, Sampo and Pohjola withdrew their advertisements from the Kaltio website.”
This is an example of why markets should never be given full rein: the profit is the only value private enterprises care about, you can’t expect them to defend the really important values if those values endanger their profits. A truly libertarian society would last for perhaps two seconds, before collapsing into plutocratic feudalism; if values are not forced from outside of the market, the values of the richest will prevail.
Comment by Turjake — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 8:29 pm
Thanks for the link anonyymi pelkuri!
Comment by Phil — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 9:15 pm
Comments, Phil, on Turjake’s rather pertinent last remark? Should the free market be allowed to decide on matters of freedom of speech? Ultimately, where do their interests lie? This was not statism in action, or was it?
Comment by Trust the free market — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 9:22 pm
Turjake & Trust the free market - If we can’t trust the free markets, we’re to trust the state? Look at YLE and the Mohammed thing, they’re not (supposedly) concerned with profits, yet they banned the use of the cartoons. If it wasn’t for private enterprises, the Finns would have never seen them.
Comment by Phil — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 9:28 pm
They did NOT ban the use of the cartoons. They banned the use ( = the showing of) of the cartoons in their ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMMING. discussion of them, even in entertainment programmes, was never banned. They were shown on the news, in current affairs programmes, in panel discussions.
Was this for you simply a subject that people could laugh at? Or they the only programmes you watch?
And once and for all… The Finnish Broadcasting Company is controlled by PARLIAMENT. Last time I looked, that wasn’t “the government” or “the State”.
Comment by Trust the free market — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 9:55 pm
They were shown on the news, in current affairs programmes, in panel discussions.
Yeah, I read they were shown on the news for a couple seconds. Let’s see if they’ll ever do that again.
And once and for all… The Finnish Broadcasting Company is controlled by PARLIAMENT. Last time I looked, that wasn’t “the government†or “the Stateâ€Â.
And parliament is part of the state. Regardless of the terminology, you get the point.
Comment by Phil — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 10:03 pm
those cartoons were truly stupid. perhaps the editor was fired for idiocy as opposed to just being offensive? if i were spending advertising bucks, i’d at least want something controversial to be stated intelligently.(ne olivat tyhmä suomeksi myös..)
Comment by Trust the free market — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 10:04 pm
perkele. that (#12) was me, not rust the free market.
Comment by jenkki immigrant — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 10:05 pm
“trust” the free market not “rust” the free market. my american is getting worser and worser..
Comment by jenkki immigrant — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 10:05 pm
“Look at YLE and the Mohammed thing”
To paraphrase an old adage: “It’s Nokia, stupid!”
Nobody, I mean, nobody in Finland would ever dare to do anything that would hurt Nokia, because that would cause an economical disaster in this country. Millions of muslims boycotting Nokia mobile phones would be a nightmare.
Thus, it’s the markets that dictate even the actions of the state. Not to mention that Finland has a pretty good history of submission and finlandization.
Comment by Finland Iz Ation 2006 — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 10:53 pm
Well, at least Iraq is now a totally free market place, libertarian dream come true. No pesky government or laws messing up things and those godless traffic lights are all shot to pieces. Remember, libertarians do not believe in traffic lights. Competitition at its finest, survival of the fittest.
Comment by tim73 — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 11:03 pm
tim73 - your lack of knowledge concerning libertarianism always amazes me.
Comment by Phil — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 11:12 pm
” your lack of knowledge concerning libertarianism always amazes me.”
What lack of knowledge, prove me wrong…You are the one always blaming the government this and that and free markets should take care of everything…
Comment by tim73 — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 11:14 pm
Remember, libertarians do not believe in traffic lights.
Comment by Phil — Fri, Feb 24th, 2006 @ 11:33 pm
They are overly stupid!
Bad image about the Finnish style sense of humor
Comment by Abu Omar — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 12:03 am
tim73 - when the bolsheviks seized the power, the mensheviks were promptly executed; if the libertarians somehow get the power, they will quickly shoot the civil libertarians.
How do I know? I used to live next to them: “libertarian christian militia”. That is, men with guns, battered women, and heroes such as Timothy McVeigh and David Koresh. And yes, they consider themselves christian.
Comment by Oregon — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 12:04 am
Oh wow
I know the paper, I think they wanted to interview me some years back or something, because the editor, now obviously sacked, emailed me with some questions.
What’s even more funny is that I know the artist of that cartoon, I have a vague memory of drinking red wine and listening to Rahmaninov in his parents’ house when I was 16 or 17.
The world is so small, a Finn would say.
That said, I’m rather disappointed, because the cartoon really isn’t very good. Even though I know Ville uses naivety to create an effect sometimes.
Comment by Anna — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 12:04 am
Oregon: You are so right, like Toyota says, we need hybrids, there are no absolutes or guides for good living. What I see, Muslim world is growing up through our 1400-1900 years at fast speed. Much is to us to blame (just how many straight lines are in Africa and Asia on that map, drawn by European/American white men generals, hmmmmm.)
We have just been lucky to evolve through enough peaceful times.
Comment by tim73 — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 12:41 am
A publication carrying a cartoon referencing another cartoon in another publication.
I cant think of anything that shows more clearly how the media is capable of creating news and then covering it.
Maybe that was Ville’s intended message.
And maybe not.
ammusedmoose (in case it shows me as tim73)
Comment by ammusedmoose — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 1:21 am
“Look at YLE and the Mohammed thing”
YLE is a tv company. I don’t remember any private Finnish tv channel using the cartoons more than YLE (btw, YLE has used the cartoons several times), with Phil’s logic that must mean that private companies suck.
Comment by Sale — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 1:50 am
“Probably not worth mentioning”
Kaltio is a great northern magazine with over 60 years of history.
Funny cartoons!
Comment by Sale — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 2:06 am
I liked 2. But 4 and 5 were stupid.
Comment by A Finn — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 2:10 am
Nope, sorry. Just remembered, it was election time and I was a candidate and they were emailing questions about that. These things always make me think I should return to Finland.
Comment by Anna — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 2:53 am
A bit naive, but funny enaugh. And quite frankly, I think the fourth one hits the truth.
Comment by LDG — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 4:47 am
Those cartoons are not only funny or strange. They show the Finnish reality as it is today. Socialists and dhimmis rule Finland. Finnish people seem to have lost the will to defend their country. It will take only few generations for immigrant islamists and their descendants to conquer Finland and set up the Sharia law.
Comment by Mayer Amschel Wrathchild — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 3:21 pm
Its a cartoon strip with a point, and I agree with it entirely. One cannot offer tolerance to intolerance. This is the first comic strip or cartoon that I have seen that hits the nail on the head.
Yoda would say: stupid cartoon this is not.
Comment by KGS59 — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 3:25 pm
Those cartoons were hilarious… it’s sad to see the western world bend over and take it up the *** because of fariy tales (religions). A world with religion will only split people and cause wars (the amount of people who have died of it is sick..), that’s the purpose of the fairy tales.
Comment by xxx — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 4:10 pm
Kaltio is indeed an established culture magazine up north. Some people would think there would not be culture in Oulu without it.
It’s starting to get hilarious this thing, the city of Oulu just cancelled a job they’d given Ville Ranta earlier (they are publishing a book on Snellman (of all people in this context) and no longer want him to illustrate it).
It’s my understanding btw that Tytti Isohookana-Asunmaa (former minister of culture, centre party) is on the board of Kaltio. I also hear sacking the editor was something she may have wanted to do before. I’m living on rumours here mainly because I can’t read hesari at the moment.
Comment by Anna — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 7:23 pm
On 2000 subscibes to Kaltio magazine, but our websites had 500 000 visitors last year, about 40 000 in a month. Now it is closed by the board of Kaltio.
Jussi Vilkuna ex-editor of Kaltio
Comment by Jussi Vilkuna — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 7:40 pm
Dear Mr.Vilkuna,
You have my deepest sympathies on the way you have (and the rest of Finland) been treated with contempt. As I said in the above, your comic strip hit the nail on the head. One cannot offer toelrance for intolerance. No one person or an institution is above criticism, even Islam.
http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2006/02/can-anyone-really-see-difference.html
Tsempia!
KGS
Comment by KGS59 — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 7:48 pm
Those cartoons are not only funny or strange. They show the Finnish reality as it is today. Socialists and dhimmis rule Finland. Finnish people seem to have lost the will to defend their country.
Comment by Mayer Amschel Wrathchild — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 7:55 pm
Bitte Willkommen Sie nach Tampere wo die qurans are burning in these days:)
Seppo Lehto kannatussivustot Allah akkubar-hengessä;)
http://www.seppolehto.95mb.com/
TAMPEREEN YLIOPISTO - UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE CALLS YOU:
TO 2.3.2006 12:00 - 16:00
Länsimaiden ja islamilaisen maailman suhteet Tanskassa julkaistujen pilapiirrosten jälkeen
Politiikan tutkimuksen laitoksen ajankohtaisseminaari, Attila B377, Yliopistonkatu 38.
Tanskassa julkaistut pilapiirrokset profeetta Muhammedista ovat aiheuttaneet paljon levottomuuksia islamilaisessa maailmassa. Se vaikuttaa länsimaiden ja islamilaisten maiden suhteisiinkin. Myös monet muut syyt synnyttävät levottomuuksia. Näitä aiheita tarkastellaan seminaarissa eri näkökulmista.
Ohjelma:
klo 12-13.00 dosentti Pertti Multanen, Helsingin yliopisto
Islam globalisoituvassa maailmassa
klo 13-13.45 professori Jyrki Käkönen, Tampereen yliopisto
Pilapiirrokset ja kansainväliset suhteet
klo 14.30-15.15 tutkija Aliakbar Almaspour, Tampereen yliopisto
Islamilaisten maiden kovan reaktion syyt
klo 15.15-16 professori Jukka Paastela, Tampereen yliopisto
Pilapiirroksen synty ja profeetta Muhammedin kuvaaminen
Lisätietoja: osastosihteeri Riitta Lehtimäki, (03) 3551 6417, etunimi.sukunimi@uta.fi
http://km-piiri.blogspot.com/2005/12/tiedoitus-kaikille-neekereille.html
Comment by Pro Seppo Lehto — Sat, Feb 25th, 2006 @ 8:16 pm
It is sad that editors and other cartoonists are sacked because of offending the sensibilities of the muslims. Europe must not be bullied by those Islamic fanatics. The Bush supporters,Sky News,Fox,and other right wingers are laughing since the anti Iraqi war suporters are being punished by their own governments and journalistic bosses.
Comment by BlkUS — Sun, Feb 26th, 2006 @ 1:12 am
Dear Mr.Vilkuna,
You have the sympathy and the support of the Ovi magazine. Unfortunately in all this case with the cartoons people saw the tree and missed the forest and how important it is the right in freedom of speech.
Lately I’ve been wandering if all this people are going to show the same respect and tremble regarding to the Pope (I’m an atheist my self but the Pope has often been criticized or animated from our Muslim friends in the worst possible way) or to any of the presidents who are symbol institution in our democracies.
You are always invited to write and express your self for Ovi magazine
http://www.ovimagazine.com
Comment by Thanos — Sun, Feb 26th, 2006 @ 9:23 pm
DISCUSSION AND DIALOGUE NEEDED!
There is no direction in the world without dialogue - or the direction is towards autocracy. If you want to use cartoons to boost discussion then they have to be provocative and irritant. I liked Ranta’s cartoon a lot and I’ll use it with my students (I’m training coming teachers).
This again shows who runs the world - not the poor people in the Islamic world (we see rioting in the media) but the corporations who will risk everything else but the profit and the markets.
Comment by Jari — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 3:17 pm
Has anybody withdrawn their business from Tapiola, Sampo or Pohjola because of their involvement in this?
Comment by Ace — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 7:07 pm
Yep! I closed my account in Sampo today, withdrawing all my money from there and had my bank card cut in two. Not that much but it’s the principle that counts. I’ve no business ties with Tapiola neither Pohjola… Well, I do with OKO of which Pohjola is now a subsidiary, however.
That’s a way to deal with companies that threaten what is dear to us and don’t even want to admit what they’re doing. If you read for example the discussion at hs.fi on the Kaltio controversy, you can see that many people there tell about their own personal decisions similar to mine.
Comment by Anonymous — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 9:17 pm
Sorry to see dhimmitude as infected even the land of Sibelius.
Comment by Rob — Mon, Feb 27th, 2006 @ 10:43 pm
Like I said, the Islamistas have won this round. The way Vanhanen groveled before the Islamic world, reminded me on how my dog greets me when I come home….on her back with all four paws in the air.
Its not by accident that Finland was selling vehicle transports in the ME just before his public apology, and that Valio is making enroads in the old Arla market place of the ME. When its all said and done, its money over principle.
Comment by KGS59 — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 9:31 am
Letters from our readers - Regarding the Danish cartoons
http://oobio.tripod.com/helsinkitimes/index.blog?entry_id=1423534
Comment by Oobio — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 1:10 pm
I would remind your reader that the right to offend outweighs the supossed right to be ‘not offended’, and fortunately such a right does not exist.
The right to lampoon sacred cows was and still is grounded in the right to free speech, and no one or group is above it. Those cartoons have been throughly explained over and over again for the ‘umpteenth’ time, why they were printed.
After viewing on a number of occasions the self censorship by those in the media, they sought to see just how deep the phenomenon went. All of the cartoons were incredibily mild in tone, and can be interpreted in a number of different ways, and gives reason why soemone’s being offended, cannot be used to restrict free speech.
Not all Muslims were offended, at least not enough to not reprint them themselves. Egypt reprinted them last October, and Jordan last November. Some Muslims came out vocally in support for them, even the Helsingin Sanomat published an article of one who gave an eloquent case of WHY THEY SHOULD BE PRINTED.
What we have here is hegemony by Islamists not willing to endure any type of criticism in the western media, while their state run media give space to the most vile anti-Semitic drawings available. The difference in these drawings and anti-Semitism, is that Muslims have been using the Quran and the teachings of many radicals as the justification needed in carrying out heinous acts of terrorism.
Anti-Semitism is founded on falsehoods and baseless conspiracies that are popular in the Islamic World. Its not by accident the Hitler’s Mein Lampf and the Russian forgery ‘The Protocals of the Learned Elders of Zion’ are the number one selling translations in the ME, along with the fact that very little western literature is translated into Arabic.
What we have here is classic denial that something is worng in the Muslim world, with all the fault being found in the West. Sorry, but I’m not buying it. KGS
Comment by KGS59 — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 2:04 pm
I think the problem is rather that the west IS THE PROBLEM in the muslim world, and it is in denial of seeing that.
In Holland for example it is forbidden by law to insult the queen.
This by Robert Fisk
So now it’s cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed with a bomb-shaped turban. Ambassadors are withdrawn from Denmark, Gulf nations clear their shelves of Danish produce, Gaza gunmen threaten the European Union.
Don’t Be Fooled, This Isn’t an Issue of Islam versus Secularism
In Denmark, Fleming Rose, the “culture” editor of the pip-squeak newspaper which published these silly cartoons–last September, for heaven’s sake–announces that we are witnessing a “clash of civilisations” between secular Western democracies and Islamic societies. This does prove, I suppose, that Danish journalists follow in the tradition of Hans Christian Anderson. Oh lordy, lordy. What we’re witnessing is the childishness of civilisations.
So let’s start off with the Department of Home Truths. This is not an issue of secularism versus Islam.
For Muslims, the Prophet is the man who received divine words directly from God. We see our prophets as faintly historical figures, at odds with our high-tech human rights, almost cariacatures of themselves. The fact is that Muslims live their religion. We do not. They have kept their faith through innumerable historical vicissitudes. We have lost our faith ever since Matthew Arnold wrote about the sea’s “long, withdrawing roar”. That’s why we talk about “the West versus Islam” rather than “Christians versus Islam”–because there aren’t an awful lot of Christians left in Europe. There is no way we can get round this by setting up all the other world religions and asking why we are not allowed to make fun of Mohamed.
Besides, we can exercise our own hypocrisy over religious feelings. I happen to remember how, more than a decade ago, a film called The Last Temptation of Christ showed Jesus making love to a woman. In Paris, someone set fire to the cinema showing the movie, killing a young man. I also happen to remember a US university which invited me to give a lecture three years ago. I did. It was entitled “September 11, 2001: ask who did it but, for God’s sake, don’t ask why”. When I arrived, I found that the university had deleted the phrase “for God’s sake” because “we didn’t want to offend certain sensibilities”. Ah-ha, so we have “sensibilities” too.
In other words, while we claim that Muslims must be good secularists when it comes to free speech–or cheap cartoons–we can worry about adherents to our own precious religion just as much. I also enjoyed the pompous claims of European statesmen that they cannot control free speech or newspapers. This is also nonsense. Had that cartoon of the Prophet shown instead a chief rabbi with a bomb-shaped hat, we would have had “anti-Semitism” screamed into our ears–and rightly so–just as we often hear the Israelis complain about anti-Semitic cartoons in Egyptian newspapers.
Furthermore, in some European nations–France is one, Germany and Austria are among the others–it is forbidden by law to deny acts of genocide. In France, for example, it is illegal to say that the Jewish Holocaust or the Armenian Holocaust did not happen. So it is, in fact, impermissable to make certain statements in European nations. I’m still uncertain whether these laws attain their objectives; however much you may prescribe Holocaust denial, anti-Semites will always try to find a way round. We can hardly exercise our political restraints to prevent Holocaust deniers and then start screaming about secularism when we find that Muslims object to our provocative and insulting image of the Prophet.
For many Muslims, the “Islamic” reaction to this affair is an embarrassment. There is good reason to believe that Muslims would like to see some element of reform introduced to their religion. If this cartoon had advanced the cause of those who want to debate this issue, no-one would have minded. But it was clearly intended to be provocative. It was so outrageous that it only caused reaction.
And this is not a great time to heat up the old Samuel Huntingdon garbage about a “clash of civilisations”. Iran now has a clerical government again. So, to all intents and purposes, does Iraq (which was not supposed to end up with a democratically elected clerical administration, but that’s what happens when you topple dictators). In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood won 20 per cent of the seats in the recent parliamentary elections. Now we have Hamas in charge of “Palestine”. There’s a message here, isn’t there? That America’s policies–”regime change” in the Middle East–are not achieving their ends. These millions of voters were preferring Islam to the corrupt regimes which we imposed on them.
For the Danish cartoon to be dumped on top of this fire is dangerous indeed.
In any event, it’s not about whether the Prophet should be pictured. The Koran does not forbid images of the Prophet even though millions of Muslims do. The problem is that these cartoons portrayed Mohamed as a bin Laden-type image of violence. They portrayed Islam as a violent religion. It is not. Or do we want to make it so?
Comment by Oobio — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 4:02 pm
I like the ending of Fisk’s apologetic screed, which basically goes like this: “as long as Muslims have a tendency to act like complete imbeciles over a few critical pictures, the west should refrain from treating them as equals.” How ‘paternal’ and condescending of the guy.
As for drawing cartoons of a chief Rabbi with a bomb on his cap, even if cries of anti-Semtisim were heard and slung at the paper, you can be sure that the heads of the cartoonist and editor wouldn’t be demanded. Jews and Christians simply don’t don’t make fatwas against those who offend their religion.
Here is Fleming Rose, let the people decide who has the better point.
Why I Published Those Cartoons
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021702499.html
By Flemming Rose
Sunday, February 19, 2006; Page B01
Childish. Irresponsible. Hate speech. A provocation just for the sake of provocation. A PR stunt. Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad I decided to publish in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their words. They say that freedom of expression does not imply an endorsement of insulting people’s religious feelings, and besides, they add, the media censor themselves every day. So, please do not teach us a lesson about limitless freedom of speech.
I agree that the freedom to publish things doesn’t mean you publish everything. Jyllands-Posten would not publish pornographic images or graphic details of dead bodies; swear words rarely make it into our pages. So we are not fundamentalists in our support for freedom of expression.
But the cartoon story is different.
Those examples have to do with exercising restraint because of ethical standards and taste; call it editing. By contrast, I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. And I still believe that this is a topic that we Europeans must confront, challenging moderate Muslims to speak out. The idea wasn’t to provoke gratuitously — and we certainly didn’t intend to trigger violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.
At the end of September, a Danish standup comedian said in an interview with Jyllands-Posten that he had no problem urinating on the Bible in front of a camera, but he dared not do the same thing with the Koran.
This was the culmination of a series of disturbing instances of self-censorship. Last September, a Danish children’s writer had trouble finding an illustrator for a book about the life of Muhammad. Three people turned down the job for fear of consequences. The person who finally accepted insisted on anonymity, which in my book is a form of self-censorship. European translators of a critical book about Islam also did not want their names to appear on the book cover beside the name of the author, a Somalia-born Dutch politician who has herself been in hiding.
Around the same time, the Tate gallery in London withdrew an installation by the avant-garde artist John Latham depicting the Koran, Bible and Talmud torn to pieces. The museum explained that it did not want to stir things up after the London bombings. (A few months earlier, to avoid offending Muslims, a museum in Goteborg, Sweden, had removed a painting with a sexual motif and a quotation from the Koran.)
Finally, at the end of September, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen met with a group of imams, one of whom called on the prime minister to interfere with the press in order to get more positive coverage of Islam.
So, over two weeks we witnessed a half-dozen cases of self-censorship, pitting freedom of speech against the fear of confronting issues about Islam. This was a legitimate news story to cover, and Jyllands-Posten decided to do it by adopting the well-known journalistic principle: Show, don’t tell. I wrote to members of the association of Danish cartoonists asking them “to draw Muhammad as you see him.” We certainly did not ask them to make fun of the prophet. Twelve out of 25 active members responded.
We have a tradition of satire when dealing with the royal family and other public figures, and that was reflected in the cartoons. The cartoonists treated Islam the same way they treat Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions. And by treating Muslims in Denmark as equals they made a point: We are integrating you into the Danish tradition of satire because you are part of our society, not strangers. The cartoons are including, rather than excluding, Muslims.
The cartoons do not in any way demonize or stereotype Muslims. In fact, they differ from one another both in the way they depict the prophet and in whom they target. One cartoon makes fun of Jyllands-Posten, portraying its cultural editors as a bunch of reactionary provocateurs. Another suggests that the children’s writer who could not find an illustrator for his book went public just to get cheap publicity. A third puts the head of the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party in a lineup, as if she is a suspected criminal.
One cartoon — depicting the prophet with a bomb in his turban — has drawn the harshest criticism. Angry voices claim the cartoon is saying that the prophet is a terrorist or that every Muslim is a terrorist. I read it differently: Some individuals have taken the religion of Islam hostage by committing terrorist acts in the name of the prophet. They are the ones who have given the religion a bad name. The cartoon also plays into the fairy tale about Aladdin and the orange that fell into his turban and made his fortune. This suggests that the bomb comes from the outside world and is not an inherent characteristic of the prophet.
On occasion, Jyllands-Posten has refused to print satirical cartoons of Jesus, but not because it applies a double standard. In fact, the same cartoonist who drew the image of Muhammed with a bomb in his turban drew a cartoon with Jesus on the cross having dollar notes in his eyes and another with the star of David attached to a bomb fuse. There were, however, no embassy burnings or death threats when we published those.
Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn’t intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.
This is exactly why Karl Popper, in his seminal work “The Open Society and Its Enemies,” insisted that one should not be tolerant with the intolerant. Nowhere do so many religions coexist peacefully as in a democracy where freedom of expression is a fundamental right. In Saudi Arabia, you can get arrested for wearing a cross or having a Bible in your suitcase, while Muslims in secular Denmark can have their own mosques, cemeteries, schools, TV and radio stations.
I acknowledge that some people have been offended by the publication of the cartoons, and Jyllands-Posten has apologized for that. But we cannot apologize for our right to publish material, even offensive material. You cannot edit a newspaper if you are paralyzed by worries about every possible insult.
I am offended by things in the paper every day: transcripts of speeches by Osama bin Laden, photos from Abu Ghraib, people insisting that Israel should be erased from the face of the Earth, people saying the Holocaust never happened. But that does not mean that I would refrain from printing them as long as they fell within the limits of the law and of the newspaper’s ethical code. That other editors would make different choices is the essence of pluralism.
As a former correspondent in the Soviet Union, I am sensitive about calls for censorship on the grounds of insult. This is a popular trick of totalitarian movements: Label any critique or call for debate as an insult and punish the offenders. That is what happened to human rights activists and writers such as Andrei Sakharov, Vladimir Bukovsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Natan Sharansky, Boris Pasternak. The regime accused them of anti-Soviet propaganda, just as some Muslims are labeling 12 cartoons in a Danish newspaper anti-Islamic.
The lesson from the Cold War is: If you give in to totalitarian impulses once, new demands follow. The West prevailed in the Cold War because we stood by our fundamental values and did not appease totalitarian tyrants.
Since the Sept. 30 publication of the cartoons, we have had a constructive debate in Denmark and Europe about freedom of expression, freedom of religion and respect for immigrants and people’s beliefs. Never before have so many Danish Muslims participated in a public dialogue — in town hall meetings, letters to editors, opinion columns and debates on radio and TV. We have had no anti-Muslim riots, no Muslims fleeing the country and no Muslims committing violence. The radical imams who misinformed their counterparts in the Middle East about the situation for Muslims in Denmark have been marginalized. They no longer speak for the Muslim community in Denmark because moderate Muslims have had the courage to speak out against them.
In January, Jyllands-Posten ran three full pages of interviews and photos of moderate Muslims saying no to being represented by the imams. They insist that their faith is compatible with a modern secular democracy. A network of moderate Muslims committed to the constitution has been established, and the anti-immigration People’s Party called on its members to differentiate between radical and moderate Muslims, i.e. between Muslims propagating sharia law and Muslims accepting the rule of secular law. The Muslim face of Denmark has changed, and it is becoming clear that this is not a debate between “them” and “us,” but between those committed to democracy in Denmark and those who are not.
This is the sort of debate that Jyllands-Posten had hoped to generate when it chose to test the limits of self-censorship by calling on cartoonists to challenge a Muslim taboo. Did we achieve our purpose? Yes and no. Some of the spirited defenses of our freedom of expression have been inspiring. But tragic demonstrations throughout the Middle East and Asia were not what we anticipated, much less desired. Moreover, the newspaper has received 104 registered threats, 10 people have been arrested, cartoonists have been forced into hiding because of threats against their lives and Jyllands-Posten’s headquarters have been evacuated several times due to bomb threats. This is hardly a climate for easing self-censorship.
Still, I think the cartoons now have a place in two separate narratives, one in Europe and one in the Middle East. In the words of the Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the integration of Muslims into European societies has been sped up by 300 years due to the cartoons; perhaps we do not need to fight the battle for the Enlightenment all over again in Europe. The narrative in the Middle East is more complex, but that has very little to do with the cartoons.
flemming.rose@jp.dk
Flemming Rose is the culture editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Comment by KGS59 — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 4:18 pm
Saska Snellman at Hesari called this an example of hysteria (unfortunately in Finnish). I couldn’t agree more.
Comment by Joonas — Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 @ 9:08 pm
How about the copyright of the cartoon?
Did you ask Ville for permission to publish it?
Comment by Finn abroad — Wed, Mar 1st, 2006 @ 12:40 pm
Apparently Ville Ranta gave permission to Kasa, a Finnish blog that also published the cartoon and as it’s already spreading all around the web, it’s hard to believe that this would be a problem. Then again, Phil, it’s always polite to ask.
Comment by Joonas — Thu, Mar 2nd, 2006 @ 3:10 am
It appears “Freedom of Speech” IS NOT a street traveled in BOTH DIRECTIONS, this editor finding his (ahem)’dead-end’. I wonder who got fired for these??? http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ArabCartoons.htm
*sigh*
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Comment by Anonymous — Thu, Jul 27th, 2006 @ 10:28 pm
hahaha. yeah. Everything is fine there is nothing to complain about. I hope nobody thinks we actually have any opinions about anything.. The only thing finnish people have opinions about is what you shouldn’t do. And these are dictated by some weird wanting for everything to be nice and fine and okay. I hate this fucking correctness all the time. Making someone loose his job just because he wanted to speak about an issue instead of just blocking conversation… As I see it, a lot of people need to get fucking backbones in this country.
Comment by Maus — Tue, Aug 15th, 2006 @ 3:31 pm
I wonder why the Moh character is so touchy. Maybe it is because the historical figure is not so appealing a man. Moh was altogether a bandit, attacking caravans thug-like, receiving a 20% commission on any spoils, a slaver, a paedophile with the 9 year old Aisha, a traitor attacking his patrons when he felt strong enough, an assassin also for whom the ends justify any means.
Then I wonder how such a man could have produced any literature at all. Maybe the quran came from his entourage in Mecca for the most part, written before Moh became so violent a man.
Knowing this historical truth could indeed endanger the faith of any sensible muslim person. This is why the Moh matter is forbidden with curses and fatwas and magically protected with automatic blessings by the believers.
The Islam system is threatened by the modern world, notably by its freedom of speech and the free access to knowledge. Expect hatred and violence for a while.
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