[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesian Muslims Angered by Danish Muhammad Broadcast [+LAT/Denmark]

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: LATimes: Muslim Lawmaker Assimilated and Berated
[Denmark's Naser Khader is praised by secular Europeans 
as a  voice for moderation and unity. Islamists consider him 
a traitor.]; and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood denounces what 
it calls 'new Danish insults' to Islam

Indonesian Muslims angered by Danish Muhammad broadcast

JAKARTA, October 8 (AFP) -- A video lampooning the Prophet Muhammad
broadcast in Denmark has angered groups in Indonesia, the world's
largest Muslim-majority nation.

Denmark's national TV2 channel on Friday broadcast excerpts from the
video showing Muhammad as a beer-drinking camel and as a drunken
terrorist attacking Copenhagen.

The video, filmed in August, was made by members of the far-right
Danish People's Party.

It shows the Prophet being mocked during a summer party, with some
portraying Muhammad as dressed in a turban and wearing a belt with
explosives, as others look on and laugh.

"In Islam, death is the penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad,
visually through a caricature or verbally, except if the doer regrets
his deed and promises not to repeat it," said Fausan Al Ansori, a
spokesman for the hardline Indonesian Muhajehdin Council.

He added: "Danish authorities should think seriously, are they going
to defend, in the name of human rights, one or two of its citizens who
clearly insulted the Prophet Muhammad, and sacrifice its relations
with the Islamic world?"

The Danish embassy in Jakarta had to close down for weeks in February
following angry protests over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad
published in the European nation and reprinted elsewhere.

Muslims consider all images of the Prophet to be blasphemous.

"I remind the Danish government, do not provoke (us). If the
government of Denmark cannot maintain harmony, it will have to bear
the risks," said Tifatul Sembiring, the head of the Prosperous Justice
Party, in a Detikcom online report.

"A state system should be able to control its citizens. It is very
regretful that provocation is repeating itself without the (Danish)
government doing anything," Sembiring said.

Amidhan, the chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema, the
country's highest authority on Islam, criticised the caricature of the
Prophet.

"I cannot accept this. Denmark should give attention to this because
no matter what, the country also bears responsibility over the actions
of its citizens," he told ElShinta radio.

----------------------------------------

The Los Angeles Times
Sunday, October 8, 2006

Muslim Lawmaker Assimilated and Berated

Denmark's Naser Khader is praised by secular Europeans as a 
voice for moderation and unity. Islamists consider him a traitor.

By Jeffrey Fleishman, Times Staff Writer

COPENHAGEN -- Ever since he left the laundry-draped alleys of his Syrian 
village and glimpsed the red-light district of Copenhagen, Naser Khader's life has 
been a curious, and sometimes dangerous, navigation between Islam and the 
West.

A man with "democracy" tattooed in Arabic on his arm, the Danish lawmaker 
epitomizes Europe's struggle to integrate moderate Islam into secular democracy. 
The Danes view him as the ideal Muslim, a multilingual author with European 
sensibilities for tolerance. Islamists regard him as a traitor, a factory 
worker's son who bartered his identity for a bit of Western acceptance.

It is sensitive cultural and political terrain, but Khader's convictions are 
anything but opaque. This was apparent early this year when he condemned 
violent Muslim protests against a Danish newspaper's publication of caricatures of 
the prophet Muhammad. Khader argued that the worldwide demonstrations were 
orchestrated by radical clerics to aggravate tensions between East and West.

"If you don't want to look at the cartoons, don't buy the paper," Khader, one 
of three Muslims in the Danish parliament, said in a recent interview at his 
office. "I understood why Muslims were upset. But you protest in the frame of 
democracy.

"Why this overreaction? I asked the Islamists why they didn't demonstrate 
when Abu Musab Zarqawi killed innocent hostages in Iraq. Why didn't they protest 
when Bin Laden sent planes into New York? This is against Islam too."

Such sentiments earned Khader, who travels with bodyguards and a wry sense of 
humor, at least one death threat from an extremist imam. A sturdily built man 
who perfected his Danish on neighborhood soccer fields, he is bemused by the 
discreet men who shadow him. "I think it's sad," he said, "that police have to 
protect those who speak for democracy. But the world has changed. This is my 
life."

The 43-year-old lawmaker and his adopted Europe are caught amid disturbing 
agendas. Radical Islamists and anti-immigration attitudes are jeopardizing 
Muslim integration, giving rise to right-wing political groups such as the Danish 
People's Party. Muslims with immigrant backgrounds often face high unemployment 
and alienation, which has led to terrorist threats, including an alleged plot 
several weeks ago by three men to detonate a bomb in Denmark.

Khader has tried to become a unifying voice; his politics spring from a 
childhood of trying to fit in and succeed. But his unapologetic political message, 
praised by secular Europeans, has irritated conservative Muslims. They 
consider him a man who has drifted too far to the other side, marrying a native Dane, 
not attending Friday prayers, sipping beer and attending soccer games in a 
jersey that resembles the Danish flag.

"Naser Khader is irrelevant to Muslims in this country," said Ahmed abu 
Laban, an outspoken Islamic leader in Copenhagen. "His role is to keep bombarding 
Muslims and Muslim values. He represents that strain of thought in Europe 
that's too cowardly to face legitimate Muslims. So they get people like Khader to 
act as a human shield and to spit in our face." 

David Trads, a political analyst who has written a book on Islam in Denmark, 
said: 

"Many are saying that Khader's like an Uncle Tom. That's not a fair 
criticism, but he wants to make sure everyone in Denmark understands that there's a 
very serious situation with the Islamists. He wants also to build a bridge 
between moderate Muslims and Danes." 

Dressed in a blue blazer and pinstriped shirt open at the collar, Khader sat 
the other day at a table strewn with papers, a folder and a book titled 
"Cradle of Islam." A biography of U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sat on a nearby 
shelf. Khader, who is straightforward instead of tactical when it comes to 
politics, weighed the aspirations and pitfalls of being identified as a European 
and a Muslim in the same breath.

The atmosphere was less volatile in 1974, when an 11-year-old Khader and his 
mother, three brothers and a sister left their Syrian village to join his 
father in Copenhagen. The elder Khader, a Palestinian, was among those who had 
come to Denmark years earlier to fill Northern Europe's need for laborers and 
factory workers. His parents weren't religious - his father was a Marxist - and 
unlike today, Islamic head scarves were rarely spotted along the city's canals 
and alleys.

"There was no Islamophobia in Denmark in the 1970s," said Khader, who first 
tasted rye bread and licorice on the sidewalks of his new city, where sometimes 
the "working girls" near the red-light district bought him ice cream on his 
way home from school. "It was a different world. I had come from a village 
where the only TV set was in a coffee shop for men."

The tone in Denmark shifted a decade later, however, when refugees from the 
Lebanese civil war began arriving. More Muslim immigrants landed throughout the 
1990s, along with imams financed by radical Islamic groups in the Middle East.

The gap between the parallel societies of Muslims and Danes widened after 
Sept. 11, and the controversy over the Muhammad caricatures further exposed the 
integration failures in a nation that prided itself on equality.

Danes were left with the moral question of how far the vaunted tradition of 
Scandinavian tolerance extended. Muslims, who account for about 200,000 of the 
population of 5.4 million, are split between those such as Khader and the more 
extremist voices angry about discrimination and issues such as the 
participation of Danish troops in the U.S.-led war in Iraq. 

"It's not a clash of civilizations. It's a clash of ideologies, and the 
largest part of that is between Islamists and moderate Muslims," Khader said, 
adding that Middle East extremists were trying to exploit Muslim integration 
problems in Europe. "I've founded a group called Democratic Muslims. We're going to 
hold an international conference. We need to oppose the well-organized 
Islamists.

"We don't know enough about the Islamists," he said. "Who are they? What's 
their thinking? Why is radical Islam so attractive to people even born in this 
country?" 

Khader says much of the blame lies with religious leaders such as Abu Laban, 
who organized a Muslim delegation to the Middle East to gain diplomatic 
support for protests against the Muhammad cartoons. The demonstrations in Europe 
were largely peaceful, but the outrage in the Middle East and other regions led 
to violence, deaths and the storming of Danish embassies. 

"I went to Abu Laban's mosque when I was younger, but then I got tired of his 
politics," said Khader, a former Copenhagen city councilman with a master's 
degree in political science. "He started talking about then-President Reagan 
and the first President Bush. I couldn't listen to him anymore.

"In Denmark today there are between 100 and 120 imams, but only five or six 
of them [radicalized] the controversy around the cartoons." 

Abu Laban said that he was opposed to violence and that "relations between 
Danes and Muslims are not so fearful as some might imagine."

When asked about Khader, Abu Laban said, "Unfortunately, Mr. Khader is riding 
two horses, and in my opinion, he doesn't fulfill even the minimum of being 
called a Muslim." 

Khader said he was aware that some might perceive him as a patsy for the 
West's idea of a Muslim. Europe constantly sifts through the rhetoric of radical 
mullahs and fundamentalist ideologues to find what it considers palatable 
Muslim voices. This search is growing more intense as the continent's population 
ages and immigrants are needed to bolster its economies and fund its welfare 
states.

Khader said Danes had begun to move away from stereotyping Muslims, but 
overall the society had been slow to embrace multiculturalism. There are 
indications that since the publication of the cartoons, Danes are more skeptical about 
Muslim integration.

The Danish People's Party controls 13% of the parliament; the nation's new 
bestseller compares radical Islam to Nazism, calling it a threat to Western 
freedoms.

"It's not enough to think that all Muslims must look like me," Khader said. 
"Integration has to be for liberal and conservative Muslims, for Muslims who 
wear head scarves and for Muslims who are devout. Europe must accept this fact."

Khader had to accept it within his family. Five years before his death, 
Khader's father rediscovered his faith and became an observant Muslim. Khader's 
mother, who wore no head scarf when she arrived as an immigrant, wears one today. 

------------------------------------------

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood denounces 
what it calls 'new Danish insults' to Islam

By MAGGIE MICHAEL
Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, October 8 (AP) - Egypt's largest Islamic group, the Muslim
Brotherhood, on Saturday denounced what it called "new Danish insults"
to Islam and urged the world to boycott countries that allow offenses
to all religions.

The Brotherhood's condemnation came a day after word spread about a
Web video showing young members of a populist Danish political party
mocking Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The video showed people in their 20s and 30s participating in a
drawing contest at a summer camp for the Danish People's Party Youth
last August. They appeared to have been drinking alcohol.

The footage shows a woman presenting a drawing of a camel and saying
it has "the head of Muhammad" and beer bottles as humps. The group
laughs as the woman, who was not identified, explained the drawing.

"Muslims are shocked by this new Danish insult," the Muslim
Brotherhood said in a statement issued Saturday. It described the
drawing as "the ugliest for God's most honorable human being, peace be
upon him."

Kenneth Christensen, chairman of the Danish People's Party Youth --
known for its anti-immigration stance -- refused to apologize Friday
for the actions of its members, but acknowledged they were
problematic.

"It is bad style because it overshadows our political line,"
Christensen said. But he added that he believed it was "OK to poke fun
at Muhammad, Jesus or Bill Clinton."

The Brotherhood, which enjoys wide popularity in Egypt and across the
Arab World, urged Muslims on Saturday to boycott products from Denmark
and any other country that would allow such an "insult."

It also called on Muslims to "express denouncement through peaceful
means, by demonstrations and protests."

The drawings depicted in the video, like the pope's comments about
Islam earlier this month and Danish cartoons mocking Muhammad last
year, were likely to provoke Muslims and could trigger a new round of
angry demonstrations all around the world.

"The repetition of such actions is evidence of the depth of enmity
carried by certain sectors in the West toward Islam and the prophet,"
the Brotherhood statement said.

In September 2005, the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten printed drawings
of the Prophet Muhammad. Four months later, they were reprinted in a
range of Western media, triggering protests from Morocco to Indonesia.

Some Islamic leaders called for the cartoonists to be killed.
Throughout the crisis, the Danish government resisted calls to
apologize for the cartoons and said it could not be held responsible
for the actions of Denmark's independent media.

Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depiction of the prophet for
fear it could lead to idolatry.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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