[Kabar-indonesia] New Danish cartoon controversy angers Muslim leaders [a JP update]

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: Danish PM, Iran president condemn Prophet cartoons

The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 9, 2006

New Danish cartoon controversy angers local Muslim leaders 

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While condemning a video lampooning the Prophet Muhammad, which was broadcast 
in Denmark, Muslim leaders here Sunday asked Muslims not to be provoked and 
suggested the case be taken to an international court.

On Friday, Denmark's national TV2 channel aired excerpts from a video 
depicting Muhammad as a beer-drinking camel and as a drunken terrorist attacking 
Copenhagen. 

Filmed in August, the video was made by members of the far-right Danish 
People's Party, which is known for its anti-immigration stance. The video showed 
people in their 20s and 30s participating in a drawing contest at a summer camp 
for the Party's youth group and they appeared to have been drinking alcohol. 

Video clips of the contest were posted on some Web sites after the annual 
Aug. 4-6 camp. Nearly all of the dozens of people shown in the videos had their 
faces blurred, but the images they drew were clear. 

In one, a woman displayed a drawing of a camel with Muhammad's head and beer 
bottles as humps while the group laughed. 

Kenneth Christensen, chairman of the Party's youth group, refused to 
apologize Friday for the actions of its members, but acknowledged they were 
problematic. 

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's two biggest Islamic 
organizations, slammed the broadcasting of the video. 

"This phenomenon shows a designed attack carried out systemically to taint 
the holiness of Islam," NU leader Hasyim Muzadi said. 

"It also shows that Muslims are not a source of religious conflict and 
conspiracy as has been claimed so far," he added. 

Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin said legal action was necessary to 
prevent such incidents from recurring. 

"We can file a lawsuit against the people who did it for slandering a 
religion and committing a crime against a civilization," he told The Jakarta Post. 

"Muslims around the world are entitled to be insulted because it is indeed 
slanderous to Islam and the Prophet," he said. 

Din described some Westerners as "Islamophobic", saying "some Western people 
and their media do not have any ethics and are not ready to live side-by-side 
in peace". 

"They are hypocrites and are holding a double standard. They claim themselves 
to be democratic and pluralist, but their attitude shows otherwise. They 
accuse Muslims of being terrorists, but what they did was not different to what 
terrorists have done," he said. 

However, he urged Muslims and Indonesians in particular not be emotional or 
overreact, as he believed the incident may have been aimed at deliberately 
provoking anger during the holy month of Ramadhan. 

"Just think of them as people with a mental illness because they are so. The 
most important thing is to show them and the world that Islam is nothing like 
what they think it is. We are civilized people. Islam and Muslims and the 
Prophet will not lose their dignity despite the insult," Din said. 

Muslims consider all images of the Prophet Muhammad to be blasphemous. 

In February, Danish cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad sparked Muslim anger 
all over the world and led to calls for a boycott of Danish products. 

Indonesian Ulema Council deputy chairman Amidhan said the freedom of 
expression that was upheld by the Danish group did not mean they could insult others. 

"I can't accept this. The Danish government should pay attention to this 
issue because no matter what the state holds responsibility for its citizens 
undermining tolerance," he told detikcom news portal. 

The incident, he said, was outrageous because it had happened last year and 
was repeated at a time when Muslims all over the world are observing this 
year's Ramadhan. 

Chairman of the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party Tifatul Sembiring urged 
the Danish government to maintain harmony, otherwise "it will have to bear 
any risks". 

"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," 
he said. 

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Danish PM, Iran president condemn Prophet cartoons

By Kim McLaughlin

COPENHAGEN, Oct. 8 (Reuters) - Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen 
denounced members of the anti-immigrant Danish Peoples' Party (DPP) youth wing 
on Sunday for drawing humiliating cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

In Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said those who insulted the 
Prophet were "low life" devoid of human values, the student news agency ISNA 
reported.

The two leaders' condemnations followed Danish state TV's airing on Friday of 
amateur video footage showing members of the DPP youth wing at a summer camp 
in August, drinking, singing and taking part in a competition to draw images 
mocking the Prophet.

"I strongly condemn the behavior of members of the youth wing of the Danish 
Peoples' Party," Rasmussen told Ritzau news agency.

"It is unacceptable behavior by a small group of young people. Their 
tasteless behavior in no way represents the way the Danish people or young Danish 
people view Muslims or Islam," Rasmussen said.

Most Muslims regard depiction of the Prophet as offensive.

Ahmadinejad, referring to the cartoons shown on Danish television, told a 
cabinet meeting "Those who make these insults are low life, lost, without human 
values...," ISNA said.

"Such measures reveal the depth of weakness and failure of the leaders of 
liberalism," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.

Just over a year ago the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published cartoons of 
the Prophet Mohammad, including one showing him with a bomb in his turban. 
Muslim clerics denounced them as blasphemous, sparking protests in which more than 
50 people died in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Rasmussen tried then to assuage Muslim anger but said the Danish nation could 
not be held responsible for what was published by independent media. Angry 
Muslims demonstrated and boycotted Danish goods in several countries in the 
Middle East.

On Saturday, Muslim leaders in Denmark condemned the video footage but said 
they would not be provoked into taking action.

Last year, a number of Danish imams traveled to Egypt and Lebanon to rally 
support among Muslim leaders for protests against the Jyllands-Posten cartoons.

Other parties' youth wings criticized the DPP and said they would refuse to 
attend any political events where DPP members were present.

Senior DPP members refused to apologize and party leader Pia Kjaersgaard 
criticized media for airing the footage of what she called a private party.

The DPP rose to prominence when it campaigned for the 2001 election on a 
strongly anti-immigrant platform combined with calls for higher welfare spending. 
It has been accused of racism but is a political ally of Rasmussen's 
center-right coalition.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Tehran)

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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