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Free Speech and Radical Islam

[Wall Street Journal] Flemming Rose - For the past three months Jyllands-Posten cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and his wife have been on the run. Westergaard did the most famous of the 12 Muhammad cartoons published in Denmark in September 2005 - the one depicting the prophet with a bomb in his turban. The cartoon was a satirical comment on the fact that some Muslims are committing terrorist acts in the name of Islam and the prophet. Tragically, Westergaard's fate has proven the point of his cartoon, as Danish police arrested three men who allegedly plotted to kill him. My colleagues at Jyllands-Posten and I understand that the cartoon may be offensive to some people, but sometimes the truth can be very offensive. As George Orwell put it in the suppressed preface to Animal Farm: "If liberty means anything, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." Sadly, the plot to kill Westergaard is not an isolated story, but part of a broader trend that risks undermining free speech in Europe and around the world. Right now the Organization of Islamic Countries is conducting a successful campaign at the UN to rewrite international human-rights standards to curtail the right to free speech. Last year the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution against "defamation of religion," calling on governments around the world to clamp down on cartoonists, writers, journalists, artists and dissidents who dare to speak up. Europe should make it clear that democracies will protect their citizens if they say something that triggers threats and intimidation. The writer is culture editor of Jyllands-Posten.
2008-02-15 01:00:00
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