Dave Smith > wrote in
:

> How was I supposed to know about their alleged conservative and
> anti-immigrant stand? I don't read Danish.

Neither do I but it wasn't terribly hard to dig into this to uncover
the real JP.

> But it is interesting
> that they cite a review of "The Trouble with Islam". I read that
> book a few months ago and found it quite interesting. It is
> written by Moslem who criticizes some aspects of contemporary
> Islam as a religion based on the Quran but a culture based on
> arabic dessert culture, and that many of the modern practices and
> teachings are at odds with the teachings of the Quran.

And Christianity is a Middle Eastern religion as well over a thinly
veiled North European barbarian core. What of it? When it comes
right down to it, all religions are thin veils over less savoury
cores.

> Their solicitation of cartoons to explore the nature of
> self censorship

That was Rasmussen's explanation, taken up later by the JP.

> is a thin disguise for racism and hate, but the
> racist and violent reaction is...... ?????? Son of a gun, they
> elicited the racism and hatred of that culture.

You're mixing two things here. The reaction of Muslims outside
Denmark was not the intent of the cartoons (a bonus to the extreme
right-wing parties, maybe) but rather the publication aimed at
causing the Danish Muslims to riot (believing representations of the
Prophet to be forbidden) in order to then point the finger and call
for their expulsion. Unluckily for the JP, the Danish Muslims took
the civilized route and foiled that dastardly plot. It's fairly
disingenuous of the Danes to have anti-islamic sentiments when they
actually invited them to come work in Denmark back in the 1970's.
They are of the group called guest-workers, not unwanted immigrants
at all.

However, nowadays, among Muslims, Denmark has a reputation for being
possibly the most racist of all the Northern European nations.

http://nhindymedia.org/newswire/display/3209/index.php

http://www.sabawoon.com/news/minihea...article&artid=
28170

My wife was living there up until the mid 1980's and already racism
(anti-Turkish) was poking its ugly little head. One of her friends,
a black woman from New York, would get into trouble with strangers
accosting her rudely in the street if they believed her to be a
"turk", but it was ok if she was black. So they have been acting on
their racist inclinations for at least twenty years unchecked because
of the belief that they are a civilized nation. Muslims outside of
Denmark have been rioting for a few weeks because they are angry.
You need some perspective here.

The situation of "foreigners" has only gotten worse in recent years
and escalated after 9/11.

"[...] the Danish government declared war on the some 300,000
immigrants in the country, 70 percent of whom are Muslims.

"Right-wing and center-right parties have run viciously anti-Muslim
campaigns. Among its acts of scapegoating, Denmark shut down its
national borders, slashed immigrant welfare payments by 30 percent
[NOTE: To people they had invited to come live in Denmark to work] or
more and barred marriage of Danes to "foreigners" before the age of
24."

You should read more and rant less :-)

--

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why
the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

Dom Helder Camara