DENMARK: The decision to publish was made in climate of murders by extreme Muslims, writes Patsy McGarry in Larnaca
The foreign editor at the Danish newspaper which first published the cartoons of Muhammad last year, leading to rioting and deaths in some Muslim countries, has said that had they known there would be such consequences, they would not have done so.
Jan Lund of the Jyllands Posten newspaper, while defending its right to publish the cartoons, said yesterday: "Had we known it would cause such tremendous harm, we would not have done it. As well as the violence and loss of life, it has also cost the Danish economy millions and job losses due to the boycotting of Danish goods in some countries."
Speaking to The Irish Times at the Inter Faith Dialogue in Larnaca, Cyprus, he said the decision to publish the cartoons was made in a climate shaped by the murder by extremist Muslims of Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh in November 2004, as well as the experience of a children's author Kaare Bluitken in Denmark earlier last year.
Bluitken had written an educational book for children about the prophet Muhammad but was unable to find an illustrator due to fears over creating images of the Prophet. Eventually one person agreed to do so on condition that he/she would remain anonymous.
Jyllands-Posten carried numerous reports on the matter, taking the position that it was unacceptable for non-Muslims to be bound by the Koran.
Seeing the implicit acceptance of such strictures in the Western media as self-censorship, the newspaper commissioned "about 40 of Denmark's leading cartoonists to submit their personal impressions of what Muhammad might look like.
Twelve did so and their published cartoons were published in Jyllands-Posten on September 30th last year.
The approach, Mr Lund said, was in keeping with the paper's generally unorthodox approach to news presentation. He agreed the newspaper's editorial staff had underestimated the reaction to the cartoons among some Muslims.
On October 19th last, 11 ambassadors from Muslim countries sought a meeting with the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to urge him to act against the newspaper.
He refused on the grounds that the Danish media is governed by the courts, not the government.
In November and December, a delegation of Danish imams went to the Middle East to generate support for protests against the cartoons. They also brought with them offensive cartoons which had never appeared in the newspaper.
Over subsequent weeks, these led to widespread protests in the Muslim world, with violence and deaths in some.
Mr Lund said that "a lot of people at the newspaper" received deaths threats to themselves and their children, leading to some arrests and convictions.
There were also bomb threats, with the newspaper offices evacuated twice, while some of the cartoonists were placed under round-the-clock police protection.
The newspaper began to receive letters containing white powder, some from Egypt. The result now is that all mail received there is opened "in a secret room", while the newspaper's offices in Aarhus and Copenhagen have been heavily secured.
"Beforehand we had nothing by way of security. This was Hans Christian Andersen country after all," he said. "Our whole attitude to security has had to change."
But what "really came as a big surprise was how the global media treated the story," he said. "There was so much false, inaccurate rubbish reported I could not believe it."
Also, as a media organisation the newspaper was not itself prepared for such an onslaught of interest, he said.
"We have no communications officer and at one stage had requests for over 200 interviews. We couldn't do it," he said.
The newspaper used its website as an alternative to make responses, he said. Those responses can be found at www.jp.dk.
One of the more positive experiences arising from the controversy had been greater sensitivity where Islam was concerned, he felt in Denmark itself it had led to the vigorous emergence of moderate Islam with the setting up of the Moderate Muslims group which had been very proactive recently in providing an alternative voice to that of extremists.