Boycotting Butter and Burning Flags

Pam — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 01:49:44 -0600

The story, or the bits of it that have made it to my brain, has it that a Danish newspaper published the caricatures, which was a step that stirred a torrent of reactions by Danish Muslims. Some time later, a Norwegian newspaper published the same, or so I read, cartoons. This time, the torrent grew larger: Muslims around the world pledged to boycott Danish products, governments condemned the sacrilege and retrieved ambassadors, the Danish people -in polls- urged their leaders not to apologize, and just recently the EU took up the matter and made a not-so-subliminal economic threat to all countries who enact the boycott.

This is from Tololy's Box, a blog by a young woman in Jordan. She thoughtfully considers where the edges of free speech lie in the face of the international scandal caused by the offending cartoons.

In the midst of mindless "Buy Danish" and "Boycott Danish" campaigns, her consderation is refreshing. Read the comments too. Her sensitivity is something often missing in the heated arguments between free speech and political correctness.

Latest on this story is that the editor of the paper apologized.

The drawings "were not in violation of Danish law but have undoubtedly offended many Muslims, which we would like to apologize for," said the Jyllands-Posten's editor in chief, Carsten Juste, in a statement posted on the newspaper's Web site.[IHT]

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Boycotting Butter and Burning Flags