The debate has yet to abate. This is from Ozie, a long time friend of the VOI:
Come on Aiz the Danes have an anti-blasphemy law that protects the Christian faith from being ridiculed in the media. So when the Danes feel like utilizing it they do. Often times its just the Danes making fun of their own religion so the government doesn't act but there have been occassions when they have. So much for freedom of expression huh. However when it comes to Muslims, the anti blasphemy law doesn't cover it. So there is discrimination in Denmark.
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With regards to freedom of expression there are limits. You say that limit is when a law exists to provide it. Hence if the Danes doesn't allow anti Christian sentiments to be published but do allow anti Muslim ones then this hypocrisy is ok?
The following is my answer:
Perhaps the law you're referring to is Section 140 and 266b of the Danish Criminal Code, where the law prohibits disturbing public order by publicly ridiculing or insulting the dogmas of worship of any lawfully existing religious community in Denmark. This law has not been enforced since 1938. Section 266b criminalises insult, threat or degradation of natural persons, by publicly and with ill intent attacking their race, color of skin, national or ethnical roots, or sexual orientation.
Concerning the application of this law against Jyllands-Posten, Muslim NGOs in Denmark lodged a police report on October 27, 2005 against the newspaper for alleged violations. The police and public prosecutor investigated the case, and on 6 January 2006, the Regional Public Prosecutor in Viborg discontinued the investigation as he found no basis for concluding that the cartoons constituted a criminal offence. He stated that, in assessing what constitutes an offence, the right to freedom of speech must be taken into consideration. That while the right to freedom of speech must be exercised with the necessary respect for other human rights, including the right to protection against discrimination, insult and degradation, no apparent violation of the law had occurred. Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark.
As to your argument that the Danish government is a hypcocrite for enforcing the law on anti-Christian expression, but not anti-Muslim expression, please refer to the legal precedent: since 1938, NO ONE has been convicted under this law, regardless of faith. The application of the law has been, in the last 70 years, very consistent and thus provides protection against calls of hypocrisy on the part of the Danish law enforcement and judiciary.
If the law above is not the law you were referring to in your posting, please enlighten us with the exact anti-blasphemy law in Denmark you were speaking of, and cases of recent judicial action where persons or parties have been successfully tried and convicted under this law.
Lastly, on your remark that Denmark will suffer economic sanctions for the action of refusing to sanction Jyllands-Posten (the newspaper recently won an award for the protection of free speech), it has to be argued whether the OIC or any particular Muslim nation has the teeth to support their bark. Denmark is a member nation of the European Union, and any attempt to impose large-scale economic sanctions on it by Muslim nations will be likely to invoke a very strong response from the EU. As you can see by the mostly "we-disagree-but-won't-do'anything-about-it" stance taken by most Muslim nations so far, including our very own Malaysia, Muslim leaders tend to be very pragmatic in their approach towards international incidents of this nature, and rightly so. Small scale sanctions will still happen, but as evidenced, they are nothing but drops in the ocean and are likely to have no impact whatsoever on Denmark's economy.
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