I've been following this story with interest over the past week or so on the web, since the main news programs over here haven't even mentioned it (big surprise...)
I don't consider myself an intolerant person, but who can claim to represent a peaceful religion (Islam) when they resort to violence at every turn? I think the newspaper had every right to publish the caricatures, even if they were insulting, since saying/writing things that some people aren't going to like is what freedom of speech is all about. We wouldn't need laws ensuring freedom of speech if people only wrote/said/drew things that everybody liked!
As for the caricatures "encouraging religious and ethnical hatred"...well that's just a stupid thing to say. No caricature in the world is going to make the average Western person get up in the morning and suddenly decide after seeing the drawing that they hate Muslims! Most people would be amused by the caricatures or just shake their head at the immaturity of it. They sure won't incite hatred. Those feelings would have had to exist previously.
It's a classic example of something that got blown out of proportion.
Not to mention the fact that when European Muslim organizations went to the Middle East to draw some attention to this, they included in the 12 caricatures a few that were NOT published in any newspaper in Scandinavia or anywhere else...and were quite offensive to say the least. Talk about trying to stir up hatred...
Wikipedia has an article on this with a lot more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jylland...ns_controversy
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