Demonstrative Demonstrations

Once again, the Gazans are busy whining and seething. This time, they're busy complaining about the republication of the Mohammad cartoons, which happened two weeks ago after Danish authorities cracked an assassination plot against Kurt Westergaard, one of the cartoonists.

Flags were burned, and the demonstrators expressed their ire against the likes of Denmark, the US, and Wikipedia (which refuses to stop publication of the cartoons at the heart of the matter). Brian at Snapped Shot has photos of the ongoing demonstrations. Michelle Malkin has more. The editors have done their best to crop the heck out of the photos to sanitize the messages of hatred and venom.

They're busy burning effigies of Westergaard (and jumping over the flaming carcass?) in Pakistan [ed: added location for clarity]. Seriously. What is this about? Getty Images has a whole bunch of these types of photos.

I have to wonder just how many of the protesters actually know what Wikipedia is.

Demonstrations also took place in Indonesia and Kuwait, where one of the signs indicated that the demonstrators are more than willing to sacrifice their sons for the cause. How comforting.



Syria warns that the cartoons will lead to a religious war. Right, as though the ongoing jihad against the West by the Islamic co-religionists is to be ignored?

UPDATE:
Jammie notes that the Islamists are sure to start complaining about snack foods before long. You see, some actually use alcohol to tease out additional flavors, but are in minute quantities so are therefore not included on ingredient lists.

A tiny amount of alcohol is used in some products as a chemical agent to extract flavour.

The use of alcohol was discovered by Besharat Rehman, who owns a halal supermarket in Bradford, and reported in the Eastern Eye. Mr Rehman said: “Our suppliers were unaware of the alcohol. Walkers must make it clear on the packaging so customers can make an informed choice.”

Shuja Shafi, who chairs the food standards committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that he intended to investigate. “Certainly we would find it very offensive to have eaten food with alcohol.”

Right, it would be offensive to eat foods containing alcohol, but you don't seem to have a problem with co-religionists turning into suicide bombers and slaughtering innocents. I find that highly offensive.

UPDATE:
Charles at LGF points out that the AP is busy calling the protestors torching Danish flags human rights activists. George Orwell would be proud.

Does that make me a human rights activist according to the AP if I publish the Mohammad cartoons to protest the jihadis who blow stuff up in the name of Allah? I didn't think so.

Worldwide Reactions Continue In Aftermath of Cartoon Republication: UPDATE: Bombing in Copenhagen

UPDATE --- See below for latest on bombing incident in Copenhagen ---

While rioting in Denmark itself has settled down (or isn't being reported by the wire services, demonstrations in Muslim countries around the world continue to make news and headlines. One such demonstration took place in Indonesia. At least 150 people demonstrated, organized by Hizbut Tahrir, outside the Danish embassy:

The protesters, who blocked the entrance to the embassies, wore headbands bearing Arabic inscriptions and waved banners saying "Death to those who insult the Prophet" and "Freedom of speech a disguise to insult Islam".

Free speech for me, but not for thee. You disagree with the Islamists, and you could find yourself sans head.

Pakistani officials summoned Danish officials to demand explanations for the cartoon republication.

"The Danish charge d'affaires was called to the foreign office today... to lodge a strong protest over the republication of the blasphemous cartoons in Denmark," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Danish envoy was told by a senior Pakistani foreign ministry official that the republication of the cartoons had "deeply offended Muslim feeling and sentiment" all over the world, it said.

"Since hurting sentiments of other religions was not responsible behaviour, the Danish government was obliged as a responsible government to stop the publication of the cartoons," it quoted the official as telling the Danish envoy.

The ministry said that the Danish diplomat explained that his government did not have any hand in the publication of the cartoons and that he would convey the sentiments of the government of Pakistan to his government.

None of these governments are exactly going out of their way to condemn the men who were arrested plotting to assassinate one of the cartoonists who drew one of the cartoons involved. They, instead, are going after the newspapers and those who republished the cartoons.

The matter has even made its way into the United Nations Durban II conference, where they're debating limitations on free speech.

UPDATE:
Kurt Westergaard, one of the cartoonists, and the author who penned the cartoon that accompanies this and other postings on the cartoon jihad, has been kicked out of a hotel where he was staying on fear that the jihadis might strike at him there:

He was booted from his police-protected hotel room on Feb. 15 for being “too much of a security risk.” And now the 73-year-old cartoonist and his wife are without a place to live.

UPDATE:
This is the only report I've seen thus far, but apparently a bomb went off in Copenhagen earlier today and two other suspicious packages were destroyed as well. No one was injured, but it does mark an escalation in the violence. Once again, the author is Jakob Illeborg, and I've been highly critical of him before. He again suggests appeasement in the face of violence, and I'm not alone in that criticism. Eugene Volokh also wonders why Illeborg doesn't consider free speech an important concept worth defending, and instead counsels waiting until it really matters (leaving it completely undefined and amorphous).

Nine Days of Danish Riots; New Excuse Offered

The latest excuse to the ongoing rioting that has resulted in schools across Denmark torched, along with hundreds of cars, is that the riots occurred to protest police harassment.

A group of youths who have been torching cars and waste containers in the Danish capital said Tuesday the wave of unrest started as a protest against police harassment.

In a letter published in Copenhagen newspaper Politiken, the youths accused police of "brutal, racist" behavior.

It was the first time that rioting juveniles had offered any explanation for the fires that have raged for nine consecutive nights mostly in immigrant neighborhoods across the country. The authors of the letter said they would now stop rioting.

"Basically the unrest is about the way we are treated by the police, who are brutal, racist and totally unacceptably insulting," the group said in the letter.

The authors called themselves "Boys of inner Noerrebro," referring to the immigrant neighborhood in Copenhagen where the unrest started on Feb. 10.

Police said 21 fires were set overnight Tuesday for a total of about 600 since the wave of arson started. The youths have burned cars, trash containers and schools. In some cases, they have pelted firefighters with rocks, but no serious injuries have been reported.

Did no one try nonviolent demonstrations such as protesting in papers or marching through the streets, rather than starting directly with rioting and carnage?

Expect this to be an excuse proffered by those who are rioting in France as the French government cracks down and arrests dozens over the weekend for involvement in the nightly rioting that occurs in the Paris suburbs.

These thugs are justifying the inexcusable rioting and destruction of public and private property because they claim that the police are racist or engage in harassment.

Meanwhile, the Egyptians summoned the Danish ambassador to give him a talking to over the cartoon republication. Egypt also banned issues of four papers from distribution in Egypt, including the Wall Street Journal:

The Egyptian government has summoned the ambassador of Denmark in Cairo to protest the reprinting of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad in Danish newspapers, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The Information Ministry also said it has banned issues of four Western newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and Britain's The Observer, because they contained the reprints, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported.

Protests and riots erupted in many Muslim countries in 2006 when the cartoons, one showing the Prophet wearing a turban resembling a bomb, first appeared in a Danish daily. At least 50 people were killed and three Danish embassies attacked.

"The insistence of the Danish media to insult Islam again is unfortunate since the incident of publishing the cartoons has undoubtedly confirmed that such shameful acts only lead to more tension," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The insistence to complain bitterly about the publication of cartoons while remaining silent over the assassination plot to murder one of the cartoonists, is quite telling. Thousands of Egyptian students demonstrated and called for a boycott of Danish goods. You can't tell me that this is some spontaneous action - there is coordination going on here that smacks of Islamist intent.

Riots Continue for Eighth Night in Denmark

The riots in Denmark continue for an eighth straight night.

A total of 20 towns were hit by fires on Sunday night, with around 29 people arrested - most of them for arson or attempted arson.

In two cases the fires were so strong that blocks of flats had to be evacuated.

Bands of young people have vandalised or set fire to hundreds of cars and a number of schools in the past week, however the situation was said to have been improving over the weekend.

Police said they could give no reason for the behaviour, but said unusually mild weather and the closure of schools for a winter break might have contributed.

Social workers believe an alleged plot to kill a Danish cartoonist for his drawing two years ago of the Prophet Mohammad may have fuelled the riots. Fifteen Danish newspapers reprinted his drawing on Wednesday in protest against the alleged murder plot.

It's almost become a truism about these riots that they're due to winter break combined with unusually warm weather.

Social workers are on the right track, at least in part. The rioting began before the republication of the Mohammad cartoons following the revelation and disruption of an assassination plot against one of the cartoonists. However, things progressively became worse after the republication. Muslim groups denounced the republication, but have been strangely silent over the assassination plot against the cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard, who was expressing his free speech rights to criticize others. It's truly a sad commentary when the cartoons spur the very violence that the cartoons depict.

About 90 fires were reported last night. The Danish Prime Minister puts the onus on those responsible for the violence:

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Sunday said the rioting youths and their parents bore the responsibility for the unrest, and said they should expect no sympathy from society.

He noted that Denmark's freedom of speech includes cartoonists, and that anger over a drawing did not give anyone "the right to burn others' cars or to burn down schools or institutions."

On Saturday, Danish lawmakers canceled a planned trip to Iran after the Foreign Policy Committee received a letter from Iran demanding that lawmakers condemned the cartoon reprints.

The all-party committee said in a statement that the trip was called off because its members "can't or will not apologize for the drawings."

The violence may lessen now that the Danish schools are back in session.

Still, there are those who think that the riots are self-inflicted by the newspapers that republished the articles. Jakob Illeborg, a writer at the Guardian, thinks that the Danish papers acted hastily and that the reaction was predictable in the anti-Danish sentiment that swept through the Muslim world. Really? Your right to speak your mind is based on the ability to say things that might be uncomfortable or put the beliefs of others in a bad light. You may be satirized, criticized, and lambasted for what you say and what you believe.

The cartoon jihad shows that there are groups, specifically Muslim and Islamist groups, that refuse to accept criticism, satire, or any kind of objection to their views and that their first response is not to speak back, but to whine, seethe, and riot. There is absolutely no reason why people have to watch what they say, print, or draw because it may be offensive to some other group. That's the beauty of free speech. You fight speech with speech. The moment you set a group aside that is exempt from criticism, they are given a position of power over other groups that is neither afforded to them under the law of the state, nor should be granted to them as a practical matter.

He writes:

"But it is the Muslims' fault", a few angry Cif commenters reminded me. That may be, but I think we ought to ask ourselves whether it is worth picking these fights. Of course we must protect our writers and cartoonists from deranged fundamentalists, but we are not faultless ourselves. There were hidden political and religious agendas in the original printing of the cartoons, just as is there are this time around. The latest street riots in Denmark tell their own story of the serious problems with disintegrated migrants that we have at the moment, but they also speak loudly about Danish society's inability to cope with foreign cultures and religions - it is no coincidence that such riots take place in capitals such as Copenhagen and Paris and not in London.

London may not have had riots, but they surely had suicide bombers who attacked the London Underground, and they had the gas-car bomb plot that saw a number of Muslim doctors plot and attempt to carry out mass-casualty attacks across the UK.

The problem isn't so much that the Danes or the French refuse to cope with foreign cultures as much as it is a refusal of Muslim groups to assimilate into the Danish or French cultures. I know and understand that there is resistance in France to accept non-French as Frenchmen, but there is a certain amount of reciprocity involved, and when Muslim groups first impulse is to riot and torch hundreds of cars and businesses and schools, you're not going to get a whole lot of sympathy from this quarter.

There were hidden agendas involved in the publication of the cartoons. It took two months from the time the cartoons were originally published to initiate the riots, and that was after additional cartoons were invented by Islamist groups to further fan the flames of vitriol in Muslim communities around the world. The cartoon riots did not happen spontaneously, but were stage managed by Islamist leaders.

The political statement made by the original publication was, and remains, the ability of people to speak freely and criticize others, and specifically criticize the violent and misogynistic nature of the Islamists.

UPDATE:
Gateway Pundit has more. Astute Northern Seer has a contrary view, with reliapundit questioning that take in the comments.

UPDATE:
In a related note, Wikipedia has been deluged with emails demanding the service take down copies of the Mohammad cartoons. Thus far, Wikipedia refuses to do so. Good for them. (HT: DanThePainter at LGF)

Seven Nights of Rioting in Denmark

For the seventh straight night, Muslim thugs are rioting in the streets of Denmark, torching cars and businesses.

Bands of youths set fire to cars, buses and schools in Denmark on Saturday, the seventh night of rioting and vandalism in the capital Copenhagen and other Danish cities, police said on Sunday.

Four youths were arrested in the capital for suspected arson and at least 24 fires were reported across the country. Several youths were detained in Denmark's second city Aarhus in Jutland, and in Odense on Funen island.

"It is some of the same groups that have roamed the city for the last couple of nights," police operations leader Preben Jorgensen told Reuters while inspecting fire damage at Tingbjerg School in the outskirts of Copenhagen.

Hundreds of cars and a number of schools have been vandalised or burned in the past week. Police could give no reason, but said unusually mild weather and the closure of schools for a winter break might have contributed.

Authorities have arrested dozens of youths, predominantly with immigrant backgrounds.

Police said that Saturday night was calmer than earlier in the week.

The situation would be calmer still if more aggressive policing allowed the arrest of still more of these rampaging youths. Still more schools have been torched. The past week has seen 180 fires set around the country.

The police are giving no reasons, despite the fact that some in the Muslim community were thoroughly upset with the republication of the Mohammad cartoons in the aftermath of the discovery of an assassination plot against one of the cartoonists. Danish lawmakers canceled a planned trip to Iran following the latest incidents in Denmark because the Iranian parliament demanded an apology because Danish newspapers had reprinted the cartoon.

The Danes know what is at stake and refuse to give in on a foundation concept in the West: free speech. Muslims seek to subsume that concept to their own preconditions and create a law unto themselves.

UPDATE:
Via storagemanager at LGF, Jordanian groups are looking to protest the Danish government for their protection of free speech rights for the cartoonists. Storagemanager also notes that some Iranian parliamentarians are calling for Iran to break ties with Denmark over the republication of the cartoons.

As usual, these Muslim groups are full of fury and seething over publication of cartoons, but are silent over the rampaging slaughter of jihadis who murder innocents in the name of Islam.

Muslims Continue Rioting in Denmark

There have been now six straight nights of rioting, which began even before the news that a group of jihadis were plotting to assassinate one of the cartoonists involved in publishing cartoons less than complementary of Mohammed or the response by Dutch papers to reprint those same cartoons in response and defiance.

Gangs of rioters set fire to cars and garbage trucks in northern Copenhagen on Friday, the sixth night of rioting and vandalism that has spread from the capital to other Danish cities, police said on Saturday.

Five youths were arrested in the capital on Friday after 28 cars and 35 garbage trucks were burned, Copenhagen police duty officer Jakob Kristensen told Reuters. Several youths were arrested in other Danish towns.

Scores of cars and several schools have been vandalised or burned in the past week. Police could give no reason, but said that unusually mild weather and the closure of schools for a winter break, making them easy targets, might have contributed.

Social workers said the reprinting of a two-year-old cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish newspapers might have fuelled the riots.

Social workers want to ignore the fact that the riots started before the publication. They ignore the assassination plot against the cartoonist.

They ignore that the jihadis and the Islamists refuse to assimilate into Danish life, and instead want to impose their views on everyone else. When they fail to get their way, they not only whine and seethe, but they send their youth out on to the streets to riot.

Two 15-year olds are in custody for inciting still others to rioting. In all 50 have been arrested thus far. The reproduction of the cartoons sparked demonstrations in Pakistan, where a group of Islamists demanded the expulsion of the Danish ambassador and torched the Danish flag. Others demonstrated in Gaza.

Muslims protested Friday in the Gaza Strip, Pakistan and Denmark against the reprinting of a Danish newspaper cartoon depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Thousands of residents in the conservative Gaza Strip ruled by the militant Islamic Hamas movement marched in the Jebaliya refugee camp chanting: "What Denmark said is heresy."

"It is shameful that Denmark should renew its offense against the prophet," Hamas official Mushir al-Masri told reporters at the protest.

In Pakistan, hundreds of people rallied in various parts of the country, setting fire to Danish flags and demanding the Danish ambassador's expulsion. And in Denmark, a prominent Danish imam urged rioting youth to stop setting fires and hurling rocks at police.

Note what they weren't complaining about. They weren't talking about how shameful it was for co-religionists to plot to assassinate a cartoonist. They weren't talking about how shameful it is for people to go into the streets and riot and set fire to any vehicle or building within their sight.

That's the disconnect.

UPDATE:
Gateway Pundit has more.

UPDATE:
The NY Post has a good editorial today on the cartoon riots, the disconnect between Islam and Western political thought and freedom of speech.

Rioting in Denmark Continues

While some may note that the rioting in Denmark may be related to the latest news out of the country that a group of jihadis were caught plotting the assassination of one of the cartoonists responsible for penning the cartoons that in part provoked rioting worldwide that killed more than 100 people and torched several embassies, the riots have actually been going on for nearly a week.

Turban Bomb has the details as the rioting progressed and became more violent each successive night.

American Thinker reports that some of the Danish authorities can't quite figure out why the rioting is occurring. The quote from the Copenhagen police chief is telling: "We don't know why they're rioting. I think it's because they're bored. Some people say it's because of the cartoons but that's not my opinion,"

That's right. Thugs are busy rioting in your fair city because they're bored. So, what exactly are you doing about this? Are you going in and arresting all those involved, or are you simply going to let them burn off their excess energy? Considering that the rioting has been getting worse, I'd posit that the police chief has been allowing the thugs to riot and rampage and those same thugs know that they're able to get away with it.

In some instances the firefighters responding to the carbeques have been assaulted by the thugs who set the fires.

Meanwhile, the target of the jihadi assassination plot has been living in fear and terror - unable to live at home and can't stay at the same place more than a night. Flemming Rose interviewed Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist whose life has been in danger ever since he penned one of those cartoons:

For the past three months Kurt and his wife have been moving from house to house. In early November, they had a few hours to collect their most necessary belongings before they were driven to a safe location. They had to leave their car at home because the police wanted to create the impression that Kurt and Gitte were still living in the house. The mail was collected, garbage was removed, and an agent who physically resembled Kurt was installed in the house. This was done in case the plotters were to execute their plans to kill Kurt.

In the middle of December Kurt and Gitte returned to their house for just one day to celebrate Christmas with their family.

Early Tuesday morning Danish police broke into several apartments in the suburbs of Aarhus, the second largest city of Denmark with 250,000 inhabitants. Of the three men who were arrested, two are citizens of Tunisia and one is a Danish citizen of Moroccan descent. The police want to deport the two foreigners, which is possible according to an anti-terror law.

I asked Kurt about September 2005, when I wrote to him and other members of Denmark’s Cartoonist Association asking them to draw the prophet Mohammed as they see him.

“I did the cartoon quickly. It was just another day at the office. I finished with a sense of satisfaction. I felt that I was able to express myself in a simple and clear way, and that’s what every cartoon is about.”

What did you want to say?

“My intention was that some Muslims are using their religion as spiritual ammunition to commit terrorist acts. It was directed at Muslims in general, but exclusively at those who are willing to commit violence in the name of their religion.”

Hot Air has more.

Sending a Message

A day after Islamic terrorists were arrested in a plot to murder one of the cartoonists who penned the Mohammed cartoons that sparked worldwide riots that left more than 100 dead, several embassies torched, and hundreds of businesses smoking ruins, papers across Western Europe have reissued the cartoons in solidarity.

Newspapers in Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands also republished the drawing Wednesday as part of their coverage of Tuesday's arrests.

The image, by Morgenavisen Jullands-Posten cartoonist Westergaard, was one of 12 cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed originally published in September 2005. Westergaard's cartoon depicted the prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse.

Violent demonstrations erupted across the world in early 2006 after other newspapers reprinted the images as a matter of free speech. The uproar came as some Muslims believe it is forbidden by the Quran to show an image of the prophet.

Many protesters directed their ire at Denmark, prompting the closure of several Danish embassies in predominantly Muslim countries, including Indonesia and Pakistan. There were also attacks on other diplomatic missions in Iran and Syria among others.

The Danish Foreign Ministry has said it is keeping a watch on the situation at its embassies and has yet to report any incidents.

Muslim leaders in Denmark Wednesday attacked the republication of the cartoon, as well as the alleged murder plot, while calling for calm. Imam Mostafa Chendid, chief of the Islamic Faith Community, told AP his group was discussing whether to hold a demonstration before parliament, adding: "We are so unhappy about the cartoon being reprinted."

"No blood was ever shed in Denmark because of this, and no blood will be shed. We are trying to calm down people, but let's see what happens. Let's open a dialogue."

And again, the US media outlets refuse to carry them.

Chendid doesn't want dialog; he wants to dictate what can or can't be published in an open society. He wants such images banned. That's completely antithetical to the concept of free speech, which is a cherished and hallowed concept in Western Civilization. The Islamists refuse to accept such concepts, and instead hope to subvert Western concepts to their own purposes.

The NYT Blog has more on the story, and it again refuses to publish the cartoons, though it does note that bogus cartoons were circulated by the Islamists to inflame the masses to riot and that the Danish Muslims are planning to move on and not protest a move to include copies of the cartoons in a Danish museum.

Others blogging: Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Captain Ed,

Cartoon Jihad Terror Plot Disrupted

Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.

Two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin were arrested in pre-dawn raids in western Denmark, the police intelligence agency said.

The Dane was suspected of violating Danish terror laws but likely would be released after questioning as the investigation continues, said Jakob Scharf, the head of the PET intelligence service. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark, he said.

The cartoon jihad continues and those cartoonists remain in mortal danger from Islamists. (HT: anonymous emailer)

Danish Authorities Thwart Al Qaeda Attack

Danish police have arrested eight people with alleged links to al-Qaeda on suspicion of planning a bomb attack.
The eight suspects arrested late on Monday in Copenhagen form part of a terror cell with links to a senior al-Qaeda figure, police said.

The suspects, aged between 19 and 29, were of Afghan, Pakistani, Somali and Turkish origin, police said.

Denmark's contribution to the US-led military campaign in Iraq has prompted fears that terrorists may target it.

The country also drew anger from Muslims worldwide after a Danish newspaper last year printed cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Eleven addresses were raided in Copenhagen during the overnight police operation, police said.

Buildings in the city's southern suburb of Ishoej and its Noerrebro district - both with large immigrant populations - were among those cordoned off by police.

The suspects held on Monday had been under surveillance for some time, police said. Six of them are reportedly Danish citizens.

HT: Captain Ed

Free Speech Victory

A Muslim group lost a libel case on Friday against the leader of a Danish anti-immigrant party who had accused its members of treason for publicizing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

A court ruled that Pia Kjaersgaard, leader of the Danish People's Party (DPP), did not libel the Islamic Faith Community when she accused some of its members of treason for traveling to the Middle East to publicize a Danish newspaper's publication of the drawings, which caused a worldwide uproar in 2006.

The court said the term "treason" was not libelous because it was used extensively in public debate. It ordered the plaintiffs, a loose network of Danish Muslim organizations which says it represents 50,000 members, to pay Kjaersgaard 40,000 Danish crowns ($7,400) in costs.

The cartoon jihad was a manufactured controversy that caused looting, rioting, attacks against embassies in several countries, and several deaths. The Islamists simply do not tolerate anyone who takes a contrary view to their worldview, and will rage, seethe, and riot to get their way. When that fails, they try to quiet opposition through intimidation and lawsuits.