Incommunicato

Youssef, our resident half-Egyptian/Half-Danish blogger, is reporting that due to continues snubbing by muslim leaders, the Danish government has announced the end of dialogue between it and the muslim leaders. The Danish Integration Minister (a ministerial post with a mandate to work to ensure that minorities such as Muslims can integrate well with Danish society) has announced the end of any dialog with Muslim leaders. Calls for dialog and invitations to speak from the Prime Minister and the Integration Minister were snubbed by Muslim leaders. The Muslim leaders apparently made public statements to their constituencies that they were not interested in such dialogs. You see, news like that and the fact that the danish Imam who started this whole thing used a picture of a contestent in a pig squealing contest and claimed it was someone portraying the prophet as half-pig that makes me suspect the validity of the argument that this current crisis is something the danish government instigated. It's sad that danish the muslim leaders rejected calls for dialogue though, because now, surely, the danish population will start really riling up against them. Cause while it could be argued that the muslim anti-danish craziness all over the world is not their fault, the muslim leaders' decision to reject dialogue will surely make it seem as if they are not interested in any kind of peacefull resolution for this and in turn not interested in the welfare of Denmark. And if they are not intrested in the welfare and safety of danish citizens, well, why should the danish citizens care at all about their welfare and safety? This is an unnecessary move that probably aims to exploit the increasing worldwide pressure to its advantage to press for demands, which may be smart if the danes cave in, but I fear this will not be the case. Oh well.... On a completely seperate note, I heard that a couple of "No Danish people allowed in" signs appeared at some supermarkets and stores in an apparent attempt to one-up other Danish-boycotters. That depressed me, but it also made me wonder how people like Youssef* may feel about this. How are you supposed to react to something like that if you are half danish, half egyptian? How are you suppsoed to react if you are that and a muslim as well? Interestingly enough, we know how he feels about the cartoons: I am half Danish and half Egyptian. Has I been in the role of the Jyllands Posten Editor, the Prime Minister of Denmark, the Foreign Minister of Denmark, or any other Danish official who has commented and reacted thus far, I declare that I would have behaved exactly as they did. They have my support. There can be no exemptions from free speech; no one is given special protection. There is no room for privilege in free speech. Offensive cartoons like these demand class-action lawsuits against the newspaper, no more and no less. People should stop wallowing in their collective victim complexes. Come next elections, my vote is going somewhere more towards the right. I don't want people in Denmark who hold up placards calling for beheading. And he is half-egyptian. Imagine how the rest of the danish population feels! Do you see now why this whole thing has been retarded? sigh... * By people like Youssef I mean half-egyptian/half-danish people, regardless of religious affiliation,