re: jesus as osama

Submitted by Mikkel Olsen (Denmark), Feb 8, 2006 at 07:33

hi Sidda
As you yourself note about the painting "Christ/Osama" Jesus is depicted upside down, and Christian symbols turned upside down usually refers to anti-christ/anti-christianity.

As for piss-Christ the artist received death treats, and he is a Christian, a fact that (in my humble opinion) contributed to keeping the protests low key.

I don't know how much you know about Danish politics and the Danish freedom of speech. The Danish freedom of speech is limited, you are not allowed to (as Dr. pipes writes) "insult and blaspheme" coincidentally, that is the exact words used in the Danish blasphemy-act.

And there is little reason to believe that the Danish people are succumbing to Islam, between 10 and 14 percent of Danes vote for at party that is overtly anti-Islamic. One of its members has called Islam "a plague over Europe" from the chair of parliament as late as 2002.

The party is the parliamentary basis for your current liberal/conservative government, and they are wielding great political power and influence.

While it is true that some teenagers have threatened the newspaper and the artists, such threats are unfortunately normal in Denmark and many public figures receive death threats unrelated to the debate on Islam. This was a media stunt, and before the burning of Danish embassies, most of the debate in Jyllands-posten was xenophobic statements such as: "with the threats against Jyllands-posten we see the true face of Islam", this has changed (fortunately) and Danish Moslems have taken to the streets protesting the violent outbursts in the middle east and Jyllands-posten.

Yes, I remember the Van Gogh incident, but in Denmark Islam and Moslems have been targets of hate and ridicule since the seventies, then it was a man named Mogens Glistrup most famous for expressing things like: Denmark should be rid of Moslems, because they are only here to wipe out and kill. No one has stabbed him or the members of the Danish peoples party.

The Bottom line is that if you want dialogue you don't insult people. Like if you want to talk politics with a French person you probably won't say: hey, cheese-eating surrender monkey, what's up with your anti-Americanism?
Best Regards
Mikkel

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