Circle Jerkage
At the risk of doing an Atrios/Kos/Kevin Drum and engaging in circular incestuous linkage ( as Martin links back to me in his post too) I still have to bump this post of Martin’s over from Wissewords, as it sums up so nicely the various issues and views around the Islamophobic cartoons and the subsequent fallout.
[…]
Even if this reaction had not takken place, the fact that these cartoons were published in the first place speaks volumes about the place of Muslioms in Denmark. Clearly the newspaper itself, which had earlier rejected similar cartoons about Jesus, did not see Muslims as part if its audience. In general, it looked to me as if Muslims in Denmark are a subject of debate rather than participants, as they have been for the most part here in the Netherlands. These were not cartoons aimed at Muslims themselves or they would’ve used other imagery; it was aimed at “native” Danes over their heads. In other words, it did not matter that they caused offense amongst Muslims as these were not a legitmate part of the discussion anyway; they could be ignored.
The boycott and subsequent riots, not to mention the attacks on Danish embassies and Norwegian bases proved how wrong, how arrogant that assumption was.
[…]
