Cartoon ruckus heightens Danes' identity crisis (turning 'red')

[rodeodance]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/13/news/danes.php


Cartoon ruckus heightens Danes' identity crisis
By Dan Bilefsky International Herald Tribune

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2006
COPENHAGEN For decades, the Christiania neighborhood here was an informal symbol of Danish tolerance, dotted with hippie communes and stalls where people could openly buy and smoke marijuana despite nominal laws against it.

Now the stalls are empty and the revelers have gone home. Many here see the change as reflecting a society-wide shift that has also brought rising support for the Danish People's Party, a conservative anti-immigrant party that holds 13 percent of the seats in Parliament and has pushed for cleaning up Christiania with the same zeal it has used to fight tolerance of Muslim immigrants.

Now, after rioting in the Middle East and Asia after a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, Denmark has sunk even more deeply into an identity crisis. A country that once prided itself on having the most open immigration policies in Europe and a generous welfare state is grappling with how to preserve its vaunted liberalism while remaining Danish.
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"We are used to seeing ourselves as a permissive and open society on the side of the good, and it is shocking to see Danes as objects of hate," he said, and he added, "It's easier to be lenient when your neighbor looks like you, speaks the same language and has the same habits. People are willing to pay for a welfare state, but not for 'Ali' who comes from 5,000 miles away."
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[Wilms]

1. Thanks for posting that. n/t

[Briar]

2. More...

Imam Abdul Wahid Pedersen, a Danish convert to Islam, argues that Danish self-delusions have been destroyed by the cartoons.

Pedersen, who converted 24 years ago and speaks fluent Arabic, says that before the cartoon crisis his Muslim identity was embraced by Danish friends. Now he says he is taunted as a "traitor" and has even received death threats.

"Blockhead right-wing politicians in this country are saying Islam is a terrorist religion, that our prophet is a con man, that we take their jobs and steal their women," he said. "The tolerance it took decades to build up has been torn down in a matter of a few months."



<edit to show where the quote ends.>


The problem is that blockhead right-wing politicians know their audience and just how to win its votes. It's distressing to see this tide of anti-immigrant fueled racism rising all over Europe, from Oldham eastwards, and boosting right wing parties at the same time. It's even more distressing that so few are prepared to confront the prejudices and hatred at its core.