The Importance of the Danish Cartoons

The cartoons published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten will go down in history as an important milestone showing in graphic terms (literally and metaphorically), the unbridgeable chasm that lies between Western pluralism and the totalitarianism and intoleranace of the Islamo-Fascists. Whilst it was very wrong of the Danish government to apologise for these harmless cartoons, their attempts to pacify the situation in order to save precious human lives was understandable. Denmark is a decent, tolerant and democratic country. To see Danish embassies attacked and burned by violent and disturbed people claiming to be affronted by cartoons they had probably never seen was both annoying in the extreme and profoundly disturbing. If the concept of irony is available to these people, then they must have seen that their actions reinforced and justified the stereotypes portrayed by some of the cartoons. Most of the cartoons are, however, just harmless caricatures, infinitely less offensive and less racist than the daily output of anti-Semitism and anti-Westernism in the Middle Eastern press.

The arrogant and unacceptable stance of the Islamo-Fascists and their sympathisers is that they are the custodians of the one self-evident truth in this world and the rest of us are here on suffrance and better watch out. We are not allowed to question, criticise, call into question or reject. They speak of respect. Well, respect is something that works both ways and moreover it is something that needs to be earned. Where are the furious demonstrations denouncing the acts of terror carried out on a daily basis all over the world in the name of Islam? Where are the placards and posters with pictures of Bin Laden saying "Not in my name"? Where is the mass out-pouring of anger rejecting suicide bombers (the topic of one of the cartoons)? Where is the indignant reaction against the provocative and outrageous statements coming from Tehran denying the existence of the holocaust? Now, that is truly offensive.