Threaten One, Intimidate a Million

With bomb explosions, assassinations and riots coloring the recent history of Islam in Europe, the already tense state of relations took a serious turn for the worse over some cartoons. Drawings in the right-wing Danish daily “Jyllands-Posten” last autumn satirically portrayed the images of Prophet Mohammad – unleashing outrage throughout the Muslim world, including a boycott of Danish goods in many Arab countries. Already, a Danish dairy company closed its plant – causing a panic over the 11,000 jobs potentially at risk. But Henryk Broder, writing for Spiegel Online, maintains that the world should not “elevate cultural sensitivity above freedom of opinion.” He applauds other European papers – one in Norway, Germany, and France – who reprinted the cartoon in “solidarity” with the Danish newspaper’s right to free expression. While some critics point to the newpaper’s history of endemic racism, Broder matches this moment with the furor around Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses.” Liberal intellectuals then sharply rebuked the rigid, violent intolerance of Ayatollah Khomeini and his fatwa. Now, as militants in Gaza storm the EU offices in protest, Broder laments how the indignation of a few can threaten to gag many. – YaleGlobal