We are Sorry
It seems that me, Big Pharaoh, Freedom For Egyptians, Roba and the many others that were opposing this whole retarded cartoon business to begin with are not alone. Here is a website created by a gorup of muslim and arab youth to apologize to Denamrk and Norway for the shamefull way that angry, violent muslims around the world have been acting.
In the middle of all the mayhem surrounding the Danish cartoons controversy, a group of Arab and Muslim youth have set up this website to express their honest opinion, as a small attempt to show the world that the images shown of Arab and Muslim anger around the world are not representative of the opinions of all Arabs. We whole-heartedly apologize to the people of Denmark, Norway and all the European Union over the actions of a few, and we completely condemn all forms of vandalism and incitement to violence that the Arab and Muslim world have witnessed. We hope that this sad episode will not tarnish the great friendship that our peoples have fostered over decades.The problem with media representation of such issues tends to be that the media only picks up the loudest voices, ignoring the rational ones that do not generate as much noise. Voices that seek tolerance, dialogue and understanding are always drowned out by the more sensationalist loud calls, giving viewers the impression that these views are representative of all the Arab public’s view. This website is a modest attempt at redressing this wrong. We would appreciate it if you could forward the word to as many of your friends as possible.
We will note that we find the cartoons to be incendiary, insulting and very abrasive. We also take issue with the general stance of the Danish Newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which has a reputation for publishing inflammatory material. Yet, it would be wrong to take away their freedom of expression, regardless of how horrid their material is. We affirm our belief in freedom of expression and people’s right to express whatever opinions they hold.
Here are their banners:
Go check them out. And if you are arab or muslim and feel the same way, link to them. Those are the voices that the media ignores, and we have a duty to let them be heard.
posted by The Sandmonkey @ 2/05/2006 12:26:00 PM
33 Comments:
I am happy and moved to read your sincere appology for other peoples violent actions and your willingness to forgive people for publishing pictures and text you find insulting and offensive and for your understandig of the freedom of speach laws of Denmark.
One universe, one planet earth and one humanity, let us all try to live in peace, freedom and love with each other, life is just to fucking short for having any more insane wars.
Love & Peace from Sweden.
It's strange how by speaking out against something always comes in the form of an apology for arabs and muslims; not knowledge or clarification, but an apology for the actions of others. The Danish people should not apologise for the actions of a newspaper and 1.3 billion muslims should not apologise for the reactions of a few retards. instead, those responsible for both the actions and the reactions should apologise. and if they don't, then no one should do it for them. people on both sides need to be responsible and held accountable for what they do.
that's just my opinion though
Could you please fix your RSS feed, it isn't working in Firefox. Thanks!
Could you please fix your RSS feed, it isn't working in Firefox. Thanks!
Zeyad, of Healing Iraq, has a new post on the controversy.
http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/archives/2006_02_01_healingiraq_archive.html
Gutsy effort by these Muslims but they shouldn't have to apologise for the evil done by Muslim radicals. All those who are calling for the hatred to increase and the attacks to continue should wake up to how they are destroying their own religion. But sadly I doubt if they care. It is about power and fear.
God bless all Muslims who are standing up against this culture of hate.
"We affirm our belief in freedom of expression and people’s right to express whatever opinions they hold. However, at the same time there is a need to realize that freedom of expression is a responsibility that should not be used to gratuitously insult people’s beliefs." from the link you gave us
This gratuitously insulting people's beliefs goes both ways - perhaps Muslims should drop the words 'infidel', 'pig', and 'dog' for starters.
Joanne
Concerning RSS feed, there is something wrong in the code in the Holocaust topic.
Bravo man!
Be careful to preserve your anonimacy though. Some people will put a fatwa on you soon.
Heh... if the Sandmonkey gets Fatwa'd - all he has to do is ask for a sponsor and he'd probably get lots of young pretty US women offering to sponsor him (and not a few old ugly ones too - better stick to ones you've met, Sam).
As you can see from that Guestbook, the west has a few who need apologizing for too. I hereby do so - for what it's worth.
Bravo indeed.
I haven't left a comment on that site, and for one reason only -- what's with the Palestinian flag? This issue, of Danish cartoons offensive to Muslims, has nothing to do specifically with Palestinians... just as it has nothing to do with Jews (who have been dragged into it nonetheless).
Obviously, if it's your site, you can decorate it any way you like. But I do wish you could use something else. It's not like the Palestinians have been models of restraint on this issue.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
Sandmonkey
more important that this issue just blow over, here in the Uk that demo at the weekend did not help, especially the slogans eg "another 7/7 on the way etc
despite that most people here know that all muslims dont support terror attacks etc,
hopefully site will help things now
This link says that 3 additional cartoon, that were never published, were added to the 12 published cartoons to create more of a reacttion.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/02/islamic-society-of-denmark-used-fake.html
SM, did you read this Palestinian "apology" to the end?
Although Gaza and the West Bank have been one of the main centres of the riots, evidently supported by many, this Palestinian website pretends it's marginal.
It is a Palestinian attempt to ammend the damage done to Arafat's old strategy of ensuring European support with a false talk of peace regardless of real opinions and actions of the evident majority in the PA.
Sandmonkey.
It's been said, but I'll say it again. You shouldn't have to apologies for what others did.
But nontheless I APPLAUD YOU IN THE LOUDEST TERMS POSSIBLE for standing up against what is wrong, standing up for what you believe, standing up to offer another face to the world.
It is not easy to feel like your religion is either under attack from outside or from within. I know the despair that can be felt when you cry with all your soul "THAT IS NOT WHAT *i* BELIEVE! STOP IT!"
There is nothing else *to* do but feel horror that someone has taken your belief and used it to excuse the most horrific of actions.
I applaud you SM. You are the future of Egypt. I pray it is good to you.
Daniel, anat, that's the Jordanian flag, not the palestinian one. It's very similar to the palestinian one, but you know the difference by the red isosceles triangle at the begining.
Sandmonkey,
This is the Palestinian flag!
I can't believe you can't tell the flags of Palestine and Jordan apart. The Jordanian flag is a copy of the Palestinian, but has a white star in the red triangle.
Daniel and Anat: This site was constructed by Arabs, many of which were Palestinians.
We all feel, as a large silent majority of Palestinians do, that the actions of these few are harmful and stupid. This is an attempt to express this belief on a wide-scale, and we included the Palestinian flag as a gesture of solidarity along with the Norwegian and Danish flags.
For many years Europeans have raised our flag to demonstrate their solidarity with us, this was our gesture back.
You have to understand that because you oppose the actions of the barbarians against the European embassies, you must, as an honest human being oppose the actions of the barbarian Israeli army against Palestinian civillians.
You have to understand that because you oppose the actions of the barbarians against the European embassies, you must, as an honest human being oppose the actions of the barbarian Israeli army against Palestinian civillians.
And once again, the Jews *who are not even involved in this* get dragged in once again.
The Jordanian flag is a copy of the Palestinian, but has a white star in the red triangle.
Since Jordan is a country and has been since '22, wouldn't that be the Palestinian flag is a copy of the Jordanian one *minus* the seven pointed star?
To equate the terror-against-civilians and terror-support of ALL Palestinian parties to the Israeli acts of defense - is an act of double-toungue terror-appeasement.
The Palestinians are not peace loving. ALL their parties are dedicated to the destruction of Israel, and THE MAJORITY who voted for Hamas are also supporters of the global Jihad to which Hamas is dedicated alongside other Jihadists.
Stop pretending.
Anat,
"The Palestinians are not peace loving. ALL their parties are dedicated to the destruction of Israel,"
And I suppose Israel is dedicated to their good health & welfare.
In 1948, 2 thirds of the Palestinian population were driven from their homes into neighboring countries - ethnically cleansed in other words. Several hundred Palestinian villages were wiped off the map. An almost exact replica of what happened in Kosovo & what is happening in Darfur today. And we had Golda Meir telling us all that there are no such people as the Palestinian people. I mean who exactly was destroyed here?
"To equate the terror-against-civilians and terror-support of ALL Palestinian parties to the Israeli acts of defense - is an act of double-toungue terror-appeasement."
Not all Israeli policies are aimed at self-defence. Many of them are aimed at creating & protecting illegal settlements built on vast expanses of land whose Palestinians owners are dispossessed & imprisoned or murdered if they object. And this policy of mass evictions, land confiscation & settlement was in place many years before Hamas even came into existence.
As a general rule I don't like digging up the history of this conflict because I think the main problem there is the inability of both sides to look to the future instead of the past. But your claim that Israel's hands are 100% clean, that only you have suffered, that you only you have grievances would have been funny if the situation on the ground wasn't so serious. This absolute denial of the other side's humanity & suffering is why this stupid conflict has lasted as long as it has & you've just demonstrated that you're part of the problem not the solution.
LouLou and Anonymous 12:05:
First of all, thanks for responding.
You have to understand that because you oppose the actions of the barbarians against the European embassies, you must, as an honest human being oppose the actions of the barbarian Israeli army against Palestinian civillians.
I do not have to oppose anything. You are assuming that any thinking person who opposes one must oppose the other, and that is simply wrong. By extension, you are assuming that only your viewpoint has merit. I assure you that we on the Israeli side have thought for a very long time about where we stand; do not make the mistake of assuming that supporters of Israel are wrong by definition.
Now, then. If you want to have a full-blown debate about how bad Israel is and how sweet the Palestinians have been -- and that would be, what, debate number three million on that subject on this website alone? -- that's fine with me. But we're losing sight of the big picture here.
THE DANISH CARTOONS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ISRAEL. Please repeat it with me: the Danish cartoons have nothing to do with Israel. The Danish cartoons have nothing to do with Israel.
If you choose to display pan-Arab unity, or something like that, by waving the Palestinian flag, that's up to you; as I said, it's your site, and you can decorate it any way you like. But please understand that, by doing that, you are dragging the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a debate that has NOTHING TO DO with either Israel or the Palestinians.
This is a distraction from the statement you're trying to make, and a major one. I'm just trying to point that out; whether or not you keep doing it is entirely up to you.
Daniel in Brookline
Daniel,
Thank you for responding. I think you got something wrong though. It's not my website & I didn't post the flags in it. I believe that the site owners have explained that the Palestinian flag is there because they're Palestinians. I hope you can forgive them for being Palestinians. They couldn't help it. They were born that way.:)
But am not sure & either way it's nothing to do with me.
I don't even agree with the concept of apologizing here. Condemning what happened yes but why do I have to apologize for something I never took part in or even supported?The dangerous idiots who took part in those protests should make their own apologies. Am under no obligation to be their spokesman.
My comments were specifically in response to the comments by Anat & nothing else.
And of course you're free to support whatever you wish to support. I hope I also have the same freedom.
LouLou:
Thanks again.
Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that we were discussing your website; I actually don't know who the authors of the website are. (I assumed that the actual authors of the site, if they're reading this, will speak up for themselves.)
I hope you can forgive them for being Palestinians.
*chuckle* I have had many fine conversations with Palestinians over the years. I have no problem whatsoever with anybody over where they were born, or what nationality they have, or anything like that. (I do have a problem with the people who want to kill me, and say so publicly, simply because I am a Jew and an Israeli. I presume you can understand my discomfort with this!)
I understand your objections to the apologies. I have a feeling, though, that there's something else at work here. It has become a cliche to refer to Islam as "a religion of peace", and to say that the vast majority of Muslims do not condone terrorism, or beheadings, or jihad because of cartoons. Unfortunately, though, it is the ones screaming "Jihad!" that fill the newspaper headlines... because they're mostly the ones doing the talking.
My understanding is that some Muslims are making an effort to speak out, and say that the Jihadists are not speaking for them... and I applaud that effort wholeheartedly. Theirs is a message that must be heard.
And of course you're free to support whatever you wish to support. I hope I also have the same freedom.
Absolutely. Freedom of expression, and of belief, is in fact exactly what this issue is about.
Now, can someone please explain to me why, when Muslims are furious at Christian Danes for cartoons of Muhammad, the cartoons they draw in response are antisemitic cartoons?
I'm beginning to wonder if some Muslims use the word "Jew" as a generic insult. If so, it seems pretty silly to me.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
Hi Sandmonkey,
I am a Dane and been reading your blog regulary for the past week or so. It is very refreshing to hear the other side of the story in the Middle East.
When I saw this post I wanted to add my comments on the sorrynorwaydenmark.com page, but I got a bit carried away, and my comments is rejected because it is too long. So I will add it here instead. Hope it is OK and not off-topic.
-----
A very good initiative! Your apology is whole heartedly accepted, as I hope you will accept my apologies – not for the publication of the cartoons but for offending you.
I have given a lot of thought to why 12 cartoons resulted in two burning embassies. There is probably no easy answer, but let me present two reasons I think are important.
The first reason is the huge cultural, not religious, differences. You see, nothing is sacred in Denmark. The papers print satirical cartoons of the prime minister, the queen, priests, the pope and Jesus. And nobody is offended, because this is an expression of the very anti-authoritarian society we live in. We want to laugh at the authorities, because this affirms that we, the people, are in charge.
Denmark is a very open and tolerant society. We accept that people have different religious beliefs. We have openly gay people in the parliament and we have gay marriages. We have equal opportunities for men and women. To have a society like this requires that there are no absolute truths – everything is up for debate and every opinion can be argued against. If Christians claim gay marriages are a sin, they are strongly opposed, because they discriminate against the gay population. If somebody claims that women should earn a lesser wage than men, he is strongly opposed for trying to oppress the female population. And if an author of a book about Mohammed has difficulties finding somebody to draw the illustrations, for fear of retaliatory measures, the papers print cartoons of Mohammed.
I understand that some Muslim immigrants in Denmark can have a hard time understanding and accepting this state of affair. It is however because of this lack of absolute truths that they are allowed to have a mosque in Denmark, to wear their traditional clothes, to seek refugee from the oppressive regimes they fled.
The second reason is the way fundamentalist on both sides have used this to position themselves. Imams in Denmark traveled to the Middle East and ignited the firestorm, to make them look like the leaders of the Danish Moslem society. The racist idiots in Denmark used strong rhetoric to make them look like defenders of Danish values. The oppressing regime in Syria used it to look better in the eyes of the fundamentalists in the country.
I hope and think that the rational majority, on both sides of this conflict, can come to an understanding. This page and other grass-root initiatives are a good start. But the real question is how we stop the fundamentalist, on both sides, from misusing the situation to their own advantage.
Daniel,
"I do have a problem with the people who want to kill me, and say so publicly, simply because I am a Jew and an Israeli. "
Naturally. I would have a problem with anyone who wanted to kill me too.:) Did I say anything to suggest you shouldn't?
All I said was that I disagree with the suggestion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was entirely the fault of the Palestinians or that Israel was sainthood itself from A-Z while the Palestinians were evil personified. Sorry but this concept of all the good guys being on one side while all the bad guys are on the other side well, that's just too Walt Disney for the Middle East. Nothing is ever that simple here.
"Now, can someone please explain to me why, when Muslims are furious at Christian Danes for cartoons of Muhammad, the cartoons they draw in response are antisemitic cartoons?"
No I cannot explain it and yes it is pretty stupid. Fascism is the work of inferior minds. It can only define itself in the course of a collision with some conveniently situated Other or Others. If it's any comfort like any fascist movement, that brand of Arab nationalism/Islamofascism is not nice to Kurds, Iranians, Berbers, Southern Sudanese, Darfurians etc...So it's not just Jews it has a problem with. It's anyone who is different.
Well spoken, LouLou.
For the record, I agree completely that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is entirely anyone's fault. There's enough suffering, and enough blame, for everyone to share. (I suspect that you and I would disagree a lot about how the blame is shared... but hey, if everyone agreed about everything, that wouldn't be any fun at all, would it?)
Having answered that point, though, let's talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict somewhere else, and some other time. That issue has been dragged, kicking and screaming, into this Danish-cartoon debate too much already; I don't want to contribute to that.
And yes, I acknowledge that Islamofascism has a long list of peoples it is "not nice to", as you put it. But I haven't seen any anti-Berber cartoons about Denmark, even though the Berbers have as much (or as little) to do with the Danish cartoons as Jews do. I haven't seen any anti-Kurdish cartoons about Denmark, or anti-Darfur cartoons. So I'll submit to you that, to the Islamofascists, there's something special about Judaism; my religion, apparently, is the one they love to hate the most.
(There's an old joke on the subject, dating back to the 1930s. A member of Hitler's Nazi Youth sees a old Jew in the street, sporting his yellow star, and decides to rough him up a bit. So he grabs the Jew by the collar and screams at him, "You! Tell me who the traitors were that caused Germany's downfall in the war!" The old man obediently answers, "The Jews and the pretzel-makers." The Nazi Youth is puzzled, and scratches his head. "Why the pretzel-makers?" he asks. The old man shrugs and answers, "Why the Jews?")
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
If some inocuous cartoons have caused these idiots to go crazy, then this website (the first of many I predict) will really make them mad.
Mohammed Photoshop Contest
Tehran papers announce international contest for cartoons on the Nazi Holocaust. Winners will be awarded gold coins.
February 6, 2006, 5:04 PM (GMT+02:00)
Check it out on www.debka.com
How juvenile (and predictable)
Daniel,
I agree completely that it's not the time or the place to get into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That's not exactly my favorite topic of conversation even at the best of times.
"So I'll submit to you that, to the Islamofascists, there's something special about Judaism; my religion, apparently, is the one they love to hate the most."
See when you say things like this you make it kind of difficult to 'not mention the war'. Now this feels like Fawlty Towers.:)
I think Jews get that special attention because of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. You see that conflict is one of the very few things that all Muslim/Arab peoples can agree on. On almost any other subject we split into Sunnis/Shia or Arabs/Iranians or Northern/Southern Sudanese etc.....And we start fighting each other. We still have problems admitting to ourselves & the rest of the world that we are infact many, many warring Umma's & not one great Umma of love & brotherhood like they tell us in the books.
So if you have some crazy dream of being the leader of some Great Arab Nation or some New Islamic Caliphate there's not much common ground for you to use to get everyone to rally around you. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict then comes to rescue. It's an on-going conflict. It's always in the news. It doesn't let anyone forget that it's there. In other words, it's a perfect rallying tool.
Unfortunately for all the big dreamers however none of them (Nasser, Khomeini etc..) really had the power or the inclination to resolve this conflict. So what could he do after having stirred up everyone's emotions on the subject?How does he get away with doing nothing or not being able to win any wars with Israel after all his grand rhetoric?Conspiracy theories make good excuses. The Jews are everywhere. They rule the world. They are cunning & devious. They're behind everything etc....
That was how it started back in the 50's. Since then successive Middle Eastern regimes have found it convenient to use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to divert their people's attention from their own tyranny & corruption, to direct all that anger outwards towards a convenient target. In the abscence of a free, diversified press, many people in the literate, political classes have never been exposed to any other point of view all their lives. Except for the lucky ones who've travelled, are well-read, had a proper education & were exposed by their circumstances to the rest of the world.
Having said that I still don't agree with those who say 'most Arabs' or 'most Muslims' do this or feel this. Almost half of the people in the Middle East & the Islamic World live below the poverty line. We have illiteracy rates that go up to 40% in some areas. So 'most people' are not particularly politicized. They're illiterate so they probably never read a newspaper in their lives. Some of them don't have have access to electricity yet let alone a TV set or a computer or Cable satellite TV. And they're too busy worrying what they're going to eat tomorrow to care much about politics. So when I indulge in amateur analysis am referring to the educated political classes - those who've received a 'pure' ME cultural/political education vs those who've been exposed to the outside world. Am not referring to the silent, marginalized majority which is really not a party to anything so far. Not yet anyway.
That's just my personal take on things btw since you asked me to speculate. You don't have to take it as gospel truth or anything. Feel free to ask others for their pov.
Many thanks, Loulou. Your point makes a lot of sense.
Having such a large illiterate population is, to my mind, a tragedy. And this means, unfortunately, that these people are tools to be swayed by any demogogue who speaks to them loudly enough. (Although admittedly, in a country with a government-controlled press, literate people are not tremendously better off, as you pointed out.)
Literacy is power; every dictator who ever lived has known that. If a dictator's people are not literate, he will strive to keep them that way; and if they are, he will try to control their sources of information. The new 'openness' and access to information of perestroika was by no means what caused the end of the Soviet Union, but it did play a significant role.
Personally, I believe that the answer to these problems is representative democracy. Let the people speak for themselves, govern themselves, police themselves. It's far from an ideal solution... but, as Winston Churchill once said, it's the least bad of the choices available.
be well,
Daniel
Daniel,
"Let the people speak for themselves, govern themselves, police themselves. It's far from an ideal solution... but, as Winston Churchill once said, it's the least bad of the choices available."
Not sure why you think it's not an ideal solution. I think it's the only solution.
During the Afghan Jihad, Reagan is reported to have responded to concerns about all the Wahabi religious indoctrination in the ME & some other parts of the Islamic World by asking which is more dangerous to the West - a lot of stirred-up Muslims or the Soviet Union?
Well we all know now that this kind of 'stirring up' is not something you switch on when you need it & then switch off when it's no longer useful. I think the West - and the US - have contributed to this problem through support for these regimes & their policy of brainwashing their people for so long. The region has become a pressure cooker & unless steps are taken to cool it down & reduce the pressure gradually then we're all headed for the kind of explosion that is going to make everything we've seen so far look trivial in comparison. I don't think the status quo is sustainable do you?
Thank you for showing that you care about all the innocent people that are hurt by this commotion. My daughter who is 8 years old asks, "Why do they want to blow up Copenhagen?" and after seeing the placards in the London rally, "Why do they want to massacre us?" There is no reasonable answer to this, but I feel deeply saddened that she is having nightmares because of a few thoughtless newspaper men and Muslim fanatics led by cynical religious and political leaders.
Love,
A Dane
It's so great to find all this support for Denmark. Thank you all :-) It feels so unreal that 12 cartoons in a danish newspaper started all this. I admit when I saw the drawings I thought...some of them too much :-/ so in a way I understand that muslims feels insultet BUT THATS IT. Omg...my kids asked me "is this the beginning of WW3 :-( I really dont understand all this anger and violence around the world just now because of this. Denmark is such a democratic, open and free country. Much humour and satire about everyone and everything.
Even now ppl makes jokes out of this sad situation. In this case a song (Mel: Come Undone - Robbie Williams) http://www.nerdherdstudios.com/flag/
I hope this doesnt offend anyone as it's a way to get through this hysterical situation.
Love and peace
A Danish Girl
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