أثار تكريم المستشارة الألمانية أنجيلا ميركل للدانمراكي كورت ويسترغارد ، صاحب الرسوم المسيئة للنبي محمد -صلى الله عليه وسلم -غضبا واسعا بين مسلمي ألمانيا.
وكانت ميركل ألقت خطابا يوم الأربعاء أمام اتحاد "إم 100 " للصحفيين في مدينة بوتسدام وسلمت ويسترغارد -75 عاما- جائزة الاتحاد لهذا العام ودافعت في خطابها باسم حرية الصحافة وحرية الرأي عن الرسام الدانمركي وقالت إن بوسع ويسترغارد أن يرسم رسوما من هذا النوع وأن أوروبا هي المكان الذي يمكن أن يحدث فيه شيء كهذا. من جانبه قال كنان كولات ، رئيس إحدى المنظمات العلمانية التركية بألمانيا في حديثه مع صحيفة "راينيشه بوست" الألمانية الصادرة أمس الجمعة إن المستشارة الألمانية بمنحها ويسترغارد هذه الجائزة في شهر رمضان أوضحت أنها تفتقر إلى الحساسية الثقافية.
غير أن كولات قال إن "حرية الصحافة يجب بالطبع الدفاع عنها لكن توقيت منح الجائزة كان غير موفق إلى حد بعيد".
وأضاف كولات ان "تكريم شخص جرح مشاعر المسلمين بهذا الشكل في هذا الوقت تحديدا جعل كثيرا من المسلمين يشعرون بالإهانة".
وفي سياق متصل وجه أيوب أكسل كولر ، رئيس المجلس المركزي للمسلمين في ألمانيا خلال حديثه مع صحيفة "ميتل دويتشه تسايتونغ" انتقادات حادة لهذه الخطوة من قبل ميركل قائلا إن هذا التصرف "أعاد سكب الزيت على النار".
ورأى كولر أن تصرف ميركل "أجج عداوة المسلمين" كما فعل عضو مجلس إدارة البنك المركزي تيلو زاراتسين بتصريحاته العنصرية.
وكانت رسوم ويسترغارد التي نشرت قبل خمسة أعوام أثارت ردود فعل غاضبة واسعة النطاق في كل أرجاء العالم الإسلامي. وكانت ميركل أدانت في نفس الخطاب الذي دافعت فيه عن ويسترجارد حملة بعض المسيحيين المتشددين في الولايات المتحدة الداعية إلى حرق المصحف على خلفية ذكرى هجمات الحادي عشر من سبتمبر.
Only just got home, thanks to the ineptitude of a Blue Bird Taxi driver who didn’t know where Citraland is, one of the largest, longest-established and best known malls in West Jakarta. From Rasuna Said, he even required directions to Semanggi, the best-known junction in Jakarta, probably.
Bluebird has been has been losing its reputation as the most professional and reliable taxi-firm in town and today’s experience confirms this.
Having dropped my friend off at Citraland, I found one of those newish bright yellow cabs, who took me home, slightly circuitously, but not excessively so, and his constant cheery conversation precluded criticism.
His expressions of horror when I revealed that Scotland’s idea of hot weather was when Glasgow reached Puncak temperature, or that in Canada my dad often had to jump from the second story window and dig a way out of the snow-slammed front door, these comical reactions were worth the tip I bestowed when we reached my patch of Jakbar.
Once in the door, I simultaneously opened up my email and RRA, hence this brief post with the JG’s online story of Angela Merkel’s endorsement of the persecuted cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard.
Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard poses in Aarhus
A few points to be made on her stance, which on the face of it is quite right, supporting him and ‘…talking here about the freedom of opinion and of the press. It’s about whether in a Western society with its values, he is allowed to publish his Mohammed cartoons in a newspaper or not,” Merkel said. “It is irrelevant whether his caricatures are tasteless or not, whether he thinks they are necessary or helpful, or not. Is he allowed to do that? Yes, he can,” Merkel added in the speech in Potsdam near Berlin.
Good for Angela, but then why doesn’t she scrap the moronic law that outlaws questioning the ‘holocaust,’ not every holocaust, but only the one that Hitler sponsored.
The Ukrainian Holocaust is open for target practice from Stalinoids, and the Cambodian Holocaust will have apologists who say it was just a storm in a tea-cup.
And of course we have a German ban on the symbols of the Third Reich, because of its many awful activities. But no ban on the Hammer and Sickle or the innumerable t-shirts proclaiming the fame of homicidal psycho Guevera. Very inconsistent, these Germans.
However, credit where credit is due.
[/caption
'Kurt Westergaard, who is under constant police protection, “is a cartoonist, of whom there are many in Europe. Europe is a place where a cartoonist is allowed to draw something like this. “This is no contradiction that Europe is also a place where freedom of belief, of religion, where respect for beliefs and religions, are valuable commodities....Maybe they will try to kill me and maybe they will have success, but they cannot kill the cartoon,” Westergaard said before being awarded the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium international media conference’s 2010 prize.
-------------------
But this guy is not just smart with the crayons. He thinks ahead. Or maybe his experiences have smartened him.
------------------------------------------
'He also said a clash between Islam and Western culture was inevitable. “I do not regret [the cartoon] because I am absolutely sure that this clash … between two cultures would have happened sooner or later,” he said. “The cartoon became a catalyst.”
———————
Yes, he’s right, and the reactions illustrated better than any cartoon why a clash must be on the cards until large numbers of Muslims learn to act with an iota of maturity.
The Globe reminds us of ‘the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut, and the death of dozens of people in Nigeria’ and that in January this year ‘a Somali man allegedly broke into Westergaard’s home and threatened to kill him with an axe and a knife. In 2009 two men were arrested in Chicago allegedly with plans to attack his newspaper, the Jyllands-Posten.’
And still the arrogant intruders can’t get it, that they live in a (mostly) free country…..’Merkel meanwhile was criticized by Germany’s Central Muslim Council (ZMD) for attending the event. Merkel was honoring someone “who in our eyes kicked our Prophet, and therefore kicked all Muslims,” ZMD head Aiman Mazyek told the radio station Deutschlandradio Kultur. He said giving Westergaard a prize in this “highly charged and heated time” was “highly problematic.”
——————
So was it really problematic? Why would it be? Sure there are problems of individual and political liberty in Merkel’s fief.
Does Mazyek get upset about Germany’s persecution of parents who want to home-school their kids? Does he think the miniscule Hitlerite parties should be able to fly their swastikas?
Does any infringement of personal freedom upset these ‘German’ Muslims? Probably not. So why the fuss on this?
Was it truly problematic that Merkel stood up beside this jolly-looking Dane?
No it wasn’t. It makes perfect sense, because Germany is fundamentally a democratic country, traditionally part of Christendom, which historically values liberty – unlike the backward lands where you can get butchered for converting out of a religion, or even disagreeing with it.
If creepos like Mazyek don’t like their creed being insulted, they should do more to reform it.
They should call for bans on polygamy, call for outlawing child-marriage, call on Muslims to root out illegal immmigrants, offer rewards for the capture of Al Qaeda and Taliban agents in Germany (of whom there are lots!)
If they are not prepared to act responsibly in these suggested ways, they should sod off to Saudi or Afghanistan.
