Cartoon
Imbroglio

Violence over Danish drawing
could impact European-Mideast relations.

Palestinian school girls are reflected in the window of an
east Jerusalem clothing store, as they look at a poster

calling for a boycott against Danish products.

Dinah A. Spritzer
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

prejudice toward any faith. But
people in glass houses shouldn't
throw stones:' said Serge
Prague
Cwajgenbaum, the secretary-gen-
eral of the European Jewish
Danish employee of the
Congress.
European Union in
Some analysts are wondering
Brussels is so fearful of
what Europe's grappling with
Muslim anger over the now infa-
Islamic anger might mean to the
mous cartoons of the prophet
delicate balance of E.U.-Middle
Mohammed in a Danish newspa-
East relations.
per that she is afraid to go home.
Some hypothesized the protests
Unnerved Danish members of
were part of a wider Islamic con-
the European Parliament refuse to
comment on the violent protests in spiracy to pressure the E.U. Shock
and fear has gripped the 25-mem-
the Arab world against the car-
ber European bloc following sever-
toons and even normally chatty
European analysts are withholding al days of anti-Danish and anti-
European demonstrations during
speculation for fear of fanning the
which Muslims vented their rage
flames.
— in several cases setting fire to
"This is the first time there is a
profound argument between mod- embassies — over 12 cartoons
em Europe and the Islamic world',' that appeared in Jyllands Posten
said Emanuele Ottolenghi, a fellow last fall.
The cartoons satirized the rela-
at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew
tionship between Islam and terror-
and Jewish Studies and at the
ism, in one case showing the
Middle East Centre of St. Antony's
prophet telling terrorists that there
College at Oxford University.
"Now Europe is getting a taste of were no more virgins left to
reward them for their acts.
what Israel and the U.S. have long
Numerous
newspapers across
had to contend with."
Europe
have
reprinted the car-
European Jews expressed a mix-
toons
in
recent
days to show soli-
ture of anger and frustration over
darity
with
the
Danes and to sup-
the furor.
port freedom of speech.
As frequent targets of anti-
After the protests grew more
Semitic cartoons — many of them
severe over the weekend, with
in the Arab press — Jews on one
angry mobs in London and the
hand sympathized with the
Middle East calling for the behead-
Muslim outrage. But Jews joined
ing of the Danish newspaper's edi-
many others in expressing shock
tor and the cartoonist, Danish
at the level of violence the contro-
leaders and the newspaper apolo-
versy sparked.
gized for having offended Islam.
"Of course, we condemn all
But their words have done noth-
forms of propaganda that carry

A

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ing to quell the anger in some
quarters. In Iran, the supreme
leader Ayatollah All Khamenei
claimed that a Zionist conspiracy
was behind the cartoons while
stones and petrol bombs were
tossed at the Danish and Austrian
embassies. Austria holds the E.U.
presidency.

5 Months Later
Elsewhere, Norwegian peacekeep-
ing troops were fired on in
Afghanistan, gunmen threatened
to attack a French learning center
in Nablus, and for the Danes, the
most shocking incident was the
Syrian police failure to halt the
burning of their embassy in
Damascus.
These developments come at a
precarious time for European-
Middle East relations, with
Europeans grappling with how to
deal with Iran's nuclear threat and
future funding of the Palestinians,
now that Hamas has come to
power.
Oxford's Ottolenghi noted that
the Muslim demonstrations were
occurring nearly five months after
the cartoons appeared. "So why
now? There is nothing sponta-
neous about what is happening.
Denmark is going to be the chair
of the U.N. Security Council when
the decision about Iran's nuclear
activities is made and these
protests are intended to make the
Danes feel the heat:' he said.
"This violence is clearly intend-
ed to intimidate Denmark in par-
ticular and Europe in general and

they are haunted by political
to push them to have a more
Islam," said Richard Whitman,
accommodating attitude towards
head of the European program
Hamas," he said.
for. Chatham House, the Royal
Such forecasts do not sit well
Institute of International Affairs
with Jans Peter Bonde,-a Danish
in London.
member of the European
While French Interior Minister
Parliament. "The Danish apology
Nicholas Sarkozy decried the fir-
should be accepted and we can all
ing of a French newspaper editor
have normal relations again. I
who
ran the Mohammed car-
think.these violent elements are
toon,
Britain's foreign secretary,
not the view of the majority in the
Jack
Straw,
announced that
Arab world. There is only one way
reprinting
the
cartoons was "dis-
forward: dialogue and peace. It will
respectful."
all be settled and then things will
Most analysts agreed that lead-
be back to normal',' he said.
ers in E.U. countries such as
Ottolenghi scorned Bonde's .
France were more concerned
"wishful thinking" that he said
typified the European "whitewash- about the impact of the cartoon
row on relations with Muslims
ing" of political Islam. "They want
within their borders than with
to see it as kosher because they
have no idea how to respond to the relations with the Palestinians.
threat of Islamic violence',' he said. But some agreed that an aware-
ness of Islamic violence might
• If the European elite appeases
create greater sympathies for
the masses of angry protesters
Jewish issues.
with continued apologies and
• "When. Europeans see E.U.
promises of greater press respect
flags being burned in Palestine,
for Islam, Ottolenghi says some
people are asking themselves if
Muslims will feel that violence
this is the reward for spending all
pays off.
that money there," said Marc
Hecker of the French Institute of
Political Motives?
International Relations.
The question of how to handle
Ottolenghi was harsher. "The
political Islam looms large within
Europeans
have for years been
E.U. borders following the Al
deriding
Israel
for the way it
Qaeda attack on a Madrid train in
behaves,
saying
how much more
2004, the London train and bus
sensitive
they
are
to the
bombings last summer attributed
Muslims. But now that it's
to Islamists and the 2004 murder
Norwegian soldiers being
of a Dutch filmmaker who criti-
stoned in Afghanistan, not
cized Islam's treatment of women.
Israeli soldiers in the West
"It is clear now the European
Bank, they might view things a
governments do not have a com-
bit differently." LI
mon position on what to do when

February 9 • 2006

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