Dutch PM Geert Wilders’ movie, Fitna, is finally out!
However, actually being able to see the video is another matter. We will be tracking availability of the video, and censorship issues regarding the video, in this article.
Pulled from main and backup hosting sites…
Fitna has been pulled from the main site, http://www.fitnathemovie.com, on account of complaints. It has also been pulled from LiveLeak on account of threats against the staff.
fitna is available as bittorrent quite easily from various providers. I downloaded it in about 10 minutes. Try searching on “fitna bittorrent”
From EuropeNews:
Gates of Vienna keeps a list of alternative sites, torrent sites and translations. It is available at Google Video and many other places. The LiveLeak link will remain here, as the takedown message is instructive. This is what happens if our politicians do not stand up against intimidation. They’ve been rather frail this time, not least at the EU level.
So far, March 28, 2008 has been our best day ever for traffic on 1389 Blog. Is one of our stories “cutting-edge”? Heck no! Do we have some great piece of analytical work that our readers have been waiting for? Sorry, not that either. In fact, we must apologize about having been so slow at getting out some articles that our readership has been expecting.
No, people have been flocking to 1389 Blog to read two articles that are both over a month old. In fact, one of them is over two months old. But these old articles have suddenly become timely. How could that be?
Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Set You Free
1389 Blog exists for two purposes, to provide information to combat the current Islamic jihad against not only the US, but of all respectable civilization; and to provide technical help, tips, and assistance to the online counterjihad community. This does make us a bit unpopular in some circles.
We Are Not Politically Correct
There is a current fad of relativism and egalitarianism. Men and women must be equal, to the extent of being the same except for outward appearance. (But, for some strange reason, we are still using separate public restrooms!) All cultures are of equal value. (Of course, some cultures, like Southerners, Slavs and “Rednecks” of any kind, just are not quite as equal as the rest!) And all religions are more or less the same.
That last claim is the most puzzling. Contrary to what you might hear on the History Channel, the Mayan culture of Central America is still alive and well. True, they may no longer be in the pyramid building business, but take a trip to Guatemala and you should have little trouble finding someone who knows a priest in the Mayan religion. Now, it is a lucky thing for us that the Mayans are not demanding their religious rights to conduct human sacrifices. But that was once part of their religion.
I wonder what those who preach the modern gospel of political correctness would say if the Mayans were to return to their practices of human sacrifice. Would they scream that such a practice was “murder” and condemn the Mayan religious leaders for wanting to revert to it? Would they say that they personally opposed to human sacrifice, but consider human sacrifice to be a private matter within the Mayan community and oppose any government interference? Or would they finally realize that their own philosophy of political correctness is both illogical and morally bankrupt?
(Disclaimer! Present-day Mayan Indians do NOT want to return to this practice! This is merely a hypothetical example.)
We at 1389 Blog have consistently opposed the equally disgusting practices of jihadism to which many modern Muslims adhere. Yes, we get a lot of flack. However, these practices of jihad are every bit as disgusting as a rebirth of Mayan human sacrifice would be.
Geert Wilders Has the Platform
1389 Blog is just a small blog with about ten authors. Several of us have other works published. Most of those works are under names other than those used here. At present, we have no substantial platform that we can use to drive our point home.
The Price Paid by Theo Van Gogh
But then, having such a platform can be deadly proposition. Consider the fate of Theo Van Gogh. This is the movie, Submission, for which he gave his life:
Geert Wilders Refuses to be Silenced
The anti-jihad community has a new hero in the intrepid Dutch MP Geert Wilders. He has made a film, Fitna, that exposes modern-day Islam for the savage, cruel and barbaric death cult that it really is.
For obvious reasons, the crime against Theo Van Gogh figures prominently in Fitna.
Geert Wilders is so prominent that old articles bearing his name are drawing new readers out of the woodwork. We must selfishly thank Geert Wilders for the collateral benefit he has brought to 1389 Blog. However, we must wholeheartedly give him an altruistic thank you for helping to do more to spread the truth about radical Islam to the world than, in my opinion, 1389 Blog will ever be capable of doing.
The Jihadists’ Allies
Speaking hypothetically once again, if the Mayan Indians ever wanted to return to human sacrifice, or even to demand their right to do so, the would get little traction. I have been to Central America several times and have met a number of Mayan Indians. Yet, I know few people from the US, Canada, Europe, or even Israel who can say the same. Most of the people whom I encounter in the US do not even know that Mayan Indians still exist and still have solid communities.
So, the Mayan Indians would have few allies in their “struggles” to return to human sacrifice. Very few people would know of some wonderful Mayan Indians who they felt the need to stick up for in that regard.
(Disclaimer! The Mayan Indians in real life do NOT want to return to this practice! This is merely a hypothetical example.)
However, it is different with Muslims. Everyone knows and likes some Muslims. We all seemed to learn in school that Islam was one of those acceptable “Western” or “Abrahamic” religions, almost like Christianity and Judaism. We have all heard someone tell us that Allah must be the same God whom the Jews worship, or that Allah is equivalent to God the Father of the Christian Trinity.
What is at the root of this? We all want cheaper oil, and it seems logical to many that appeasing Muslims worldwide, and especially in the Middle East, would be a good way of guaranteeing our supply. We all have heard misguided people tell us that if Israel were not our “ally,” that the Muslims would all love us.
But the truth is far different. Islamic doctrine requires never-ending expansion so as to put the entire world under Sharia law. There is no room in Islam for anything other than itself. That’s what mainstream Islam is all about.
Thank You and Thank You
First of all, I would like to thank the Mayan Indians for helping me to make my point. I will be buying some of your shirts (a/k/a camisas tipicas) as soon as I see them for sale. Those shirts are a pleasant reminder of how the people of your culture do so well co-existing with the peoples of other cultures around you. True, there have been some failures in that regard, as we are all only human. However, I fully respect your culture, as I know you respect mine.
And thanks again to Geert Wilders for taking such a bold stand.
“So where can I see this Fitna movie?”
Note: Fitna has been pulled from the main site, http://www.fitnathemovie.com. It has also been pulled from LiveLeak on account of threats against the staff. This is frustrating, big time.
For this reason, we are hosting the video ourselves at 1389 Blog:
Updated 3/14/08: Nope…the problem’s back. Further research shows that this screen is a common 403 error screen on Drupal, an open source developer famous for creating Digg clones. Hmmm….
Updated 3/13/08: Looks like the problem’s been corrected.
Previously on FHK and on the 1389blog, we have discussed at length that companies that allow public internet access use filterware, which has, at times, exercised odd behavior in choosing which sites to block. At that time, we knew Panera Bread was using SonicWALL.
Today, I’m on the road, however, and stopped at Panera to catch up on my blogging I tried to Digg a story for a friend and got a screen I hadn’t seen before. It didn’t look like the old familiar SonicWALL censhorship page, and a check of SonicWALL shows that it has Digg.com rated as “News and Media [and] Information Technology/Computers“. Instead. Instead, the screen looked like this: Continue reading →
Dutch parliamentary member Geert Wilders has announced that his Islam critical film named “Fitna” will be ready at the end of this week. The film, he announced, will soon have its own website:
Revealing fact is that the Dutch parliamentary member choose to host the website not from a server in The Netherlands, but from a server located in North America. Presumably to hold it out of reach of the Dutch government.
Next week, says Wilders, he will start negotiating with Dutch broadcasters to get his 15 minute film broadcasted in The Netherlands. A process that, according to him, can take up to several weeks. This could be sign that the movie will not be released the end of this week. But it could also be a way to put pressure on the Dutch broadcasters who don’t want to broadcast the whole movie, because they all politically oppose Wilders, but who at the same time would even sell their own mother for a scoop.
We keep you posted about the developments around the film Fitna. In the meantime, if people like to provide some free PR to the movie, they should create as many back links as possible to the website “fitna the movie”. This can be done by simply placing links to www.fitnathemovie.com. This can be done on you’re personal blog, other people’s blog comments, discussion forums, websites, etc.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities on Tuesday lifted a ban on popular video-sharing website YouTube after it removed “objectionable content” insulting Islam.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had ordered about 70 internet service providers last week to block the website because it had hosted a trailer for a “blasphemous film” by Dutch politician Geert Wilders that portrays Islam in a negative light.
The move by Pakistani authorities to block access to the website caused an accidental near global blackout of YouTube on Sunday.
YouTube , which is owned by Google, said on Monday that an ISP complying with Pakistan’s ban had caused a blackout of the website on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Senate or upper house of Parliament strongly condemned the republication in Denmark of the blasphemous cartoons caricaturing Prophet Mohammed that were also posted on YouTube.
A resolution passed unanimously by the Senate said “serious tensions” are also brewing because of a “sacrilegious film against Islam” made by Wilders.
(Emphasis is ours.)
That’s right… the controversy even brought down YouTube!
These crude and heavy-handed efforts to stop people from watching Fitna will eventually backfire. The harder our foes work to censor vital political speech, the more attention it will get, and the more curiosity will be aroused. That’s just human nature; after all, if the movie warrants that much consternation, then what it contains must be very important indeed.
But even though totalitarian censorship fails in the long run, before that happens it always does enormous damage to human societies and to the human spirit. Geert Wilders’ movie is going to be huge - and it deserves every opportunity to reach its eagerly-awaiting audience.
Here’s where YOU come in:
Cross-post the Fitna movie announcement on your own blog.
Wikileaks, a website that has brought to light many scandalous acts by giving whistleblowers a forum to expose wrong doing anonomously, has been ordered by US District Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California to display blank pages and goes even further by barring them from redirecting traffic to offshore servers. It also bars them from transfering ownership of the domain name wikileaks.org. Once again, a Bush appointed judge has over-extended the government’s conrtrol over our essential freedoms. If ever there were any doubt about our Constitution being under attack, this would be a shining example.
Wikileaks was founded in 2006 by people from a host of countries, including the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa. It has generated headlines by hosting documents exposing several high-profile scandals, including those related to the collapse of the UK’s Northern Rock bank and to prisons in Iraq and and Guantanamo Bay. The site says it has posted more than 1.2 million documents.
In the case in dispute, Wikileaks claimed a bank located in the Cayman Islands engaged in money laundering and tax evasion. The latest agreement came in a lawsuit brought by Bank Julius Baer, the parent company of the accused Cayman bank. After trying unsuccessfully to get Wikileaks to remove the documents, Swiss-based Julius Baer went after Dynadot, the California web hosting company, which according to this copy of the court order [PDF], agreed to roll over in exchange for the suit against it being dismissed. Dynadot also agreed to turn over records related to Wikileaks, including “IP addresses and associated data used by any person, other than Dynadot, who accessed the account for the domain name”. Wikileaks claims that it is an “uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis”. But this is true only if its webhosts can be trusted not to pull the plug on its customers or divulge sensitive client information.
Wikileaks lawyers were given only a few hours notice of this latest hearing, and amazingly the judge allowed the hearing to proceed and issued the injunction without hearing any counter-claim from Wikileaks lawyers. One would hope that this type of shotgun injunction will be overturned on appeal based on the patent unfairness of the proceedings. It would also appear that the court is engaging in what amounts to Government sanctioned censorship. It all is a fascinating story to follow.
Wikileaks has also been banned in China and Thailand. Apparently they have pissed off many rich and powerful people around the world. It will be interesting how this plays out in the U.S. courts, as I’m sure this is only round number one. Stay tuned for more on this one…..
Update 2/27/08:What did the near-worldwide YouTube outage have to do with Geert Wilders’ new movie? Click here to learn more!Fitna, The Movie: Due Out This Week
Courageous Dutch MP Geert Wilders has faced such threats from the beginning: 2/1/2005: Dutch politician Geert Wilders watches the latest Internet video clip calling for his beheading. He has adopted an aggressively anti-Islamic position, saying that Islam and democracy are “not compatible, not now and not in a million years.” (Keith B. Richburg — The Washington Post)
From Expatica, with thanks to Fjordman, who keeps an eye on the international reporting on Dutch affairs. Something we at KV should be doing a lot more, instead of relying on internal MSM reporting. Because this bit of news should have made headlines in the Netherlands, but didn’t. Not by a long shot. One wonders why not…
MP Geert Wilders was threatened with a suicide attack last week. Two young men reportedly planned to shoot the politician down and detonate a van full of explosives next to the politician. “Many innocent people were to die in the chaos.”
This has emerged from the report Wilders filed with the Haaglanden police. A warning of the attack planned for either The Hague or Amsterdam came via the anonymous hotline for crime tips. A similar, but less detailed, death threat came in via the hotline this week. It is unusual for this hotline to be used to announce death threats.
The initial, very concrete warning spoke about an attack planned for early February. Wilders would first be shot, and then a man would drive a white delivery van into the victim and detonate the 500 to 600 kilos of explosives in the vehicle.
[…]
The person who called the hotline said that the perpetrators were not fundamentalists, but “just wanted revenge.”
Well, that’s okay then. Just as long as they’re not fundamentalist. Because that would be, eehm… awkward?
According to Wilders, Islam is a violent religion. “If Mohammed lived here today, I would propose tarring and feathering and hunting him out of the country as an extremist. (…) If Muslims want to stay here, they must tear up and throw away half the Koran. They must not listen to their Imam. I have read the Koran. (…) And I know that there are enough terrible things in it. If Muslims do assimilate, they are fully-fledged citizens, not a millimetre less valuable than you or I.”
Wilders believes his new PVV party - it obtained 9 Lower House seats in November - can grow into “one of the biggest parties” in parliament. “Other parties avoid the themes that threaten us in our existence. Everything we are proud of, we sell to the devil. (…) You feel that you are no longer living in your own country.”
On his thoughts about Israel:
The only criticism he has of the country is that “I find Israel sometimes listens to Europe too much. It should have intervened in Lebanon much earlier. I am more inclined to consider that Israel does not go far enough than that it goes too far.”
THE HAGUE (AFP) — Dutch far-right deputy Geert Wilders said in an interview published Saturday that his controversial anti-Islam film will be called “Fitna” , arabic for ordeal, and will be aired in March.
The leader of the Freedom party (PVV), which has nine of 150 seats in parliament, said in November that he planned to make a short film showing that Islam’s holy book, the Koran, is “a fascist book” that “incites people to murder”.
According to the interview with Dutch GPD news agency, Wilders’ 15-minute film is almost done, and he hopes it will be shown on Dutch television in March. He had initially said it would air at the end of January.
Wilders said he has called the film Fitna, an Arabic word that in Islam is used to describe all things that can test the faith and is sometimes synonymous to evil.
“I use the term in an inverse sense because for me Islam … is fitna,” he said.
Hesham Islam, if you recall, is the Islamist mole who maneuvered his patron and mentor, Gordon England, into firing Steve Coughlin, the Pentagon’s only expert on Islamic law.
In a stunning turn of events, a high-level Muslim military aide blamed for costing an intelligence contractor his job will step down from his own Pentagon post, WND has learned.
Meanwhile, his rival, Maj. Stephen Coughlin, a leading authority on Islamic war doctrine, may stay in the Pentagon, moving from the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the office of the secretary of defense. However, sources say a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey is trying to block his new contract.
The top Pentagon aide, Egyptian-born Hesham H. Islam, came under a cloud of suspicion after reports raised doubt about his resume and contacts he had made with radical Muslims. He is expected to leave the government next month, officials say.
Islam and Coughlin recently quarreled over intelligence briefings Coughlin presented showing a close connection between the religion of Islam and terrorism. Coughlin’s contract with the Joint Chiefs, which ends in March, was not renewed.
The Power of the Bloggers:
But as a result of the ensuing firestorm that played out in the conservative press – led by Washington Times Pentagon reporter Bill Gertz – Islam was put under a microscope, and questions were raised regarding his background…
Hesham Islam has been in the new recently. Well, not really. He has been covered by conservative news sites like World Net Daily, NRO and The Washington Times but there’s been precious little MSM coverage outside of that. Bloggers have also covered the news.
Hesham is a close friend, confidant and advisor to Gordon England. England is the #2 man at the Department of Defense. The problem is that Hesham is also something of a mystery. Despite a DoD published biographical profile which described his early life as akin to a Hollywood thriller, there was more to Islam than met the eye. It all came to light after Hesham Islam used his influence to punish Stephen Coughlin, possibly the best Islamic analyst at the Pentagon. Coughlin’s contract was not renewed after Islam described him as a “Christian zealot with a poison pen”. That statement came after Coughlin’s Pentagon reports became increasingly alarmist with respect to Islamic activity which precipitated an ideological conflict with Hesham Islam…
Blogosphere Victory for Ezra Levant
Ezra Levant has been prosecuted by the Alberta Human Rights Commission for having published the Muhammad cartoons.
Excellent! Chalk one up for freedom of speech. Also, Ezra Levant says he is going to sue Syed Soharwardy for the thousands of dollars in legal fees! Go get ‘em, Ezra!!!
Muslim leader drops Ezra Levant cartoon complaint
Western Standard publisher plans to launch a civil lawsuit
Graeme Morton, Canwest News Service February 12, 2008
National Post —CALGARY — Calgary Muslim leader Syed Soharwardy says he is withdrawing his Alberta Human Rights Commission complaint against former Western Standard publisher Ezra Levant.
The complaint was launched in February 2006, after the Western Standard and the Jewish Free Press reprinted cartoons from a Danish newspaper that many in the Muslim world felt insulted the prophet Muhammad. The cartoons sparked violent protests in a number of countries…
Today Syed Soharwardy told the Calgary Herald editorial board that he is withdrawing his human rights complaint against me that he filed two years ago when I published the Danish cartoons of Mohammed. (Seriously, if you haven’t done so, you’ve really got to look at his hand-scrawled complaint here. I know dyslexic ten-year-olds with ADD who are more coherent.)
If he’s really withdrawing the complaint, this is the first I’ve heard about it; and when I spoke with my lawyer this afternoon, the complaint was still proceeding against me.
It might be a lie — it wouldn’t be Soharwardy’s first, but then again, lying to an infidel newspaper isn’t immoral to someone like Soharwardy. It’s called taqqiyah.
But even if Soharwardy withdraws his complaint against me, an identical complaint filed by the Edmonton Muslim Council still proceeds.
So why would Soharwardy do this — and why now?
The answer lies in another Arabic word: hudna. A hudna isn’t a peace treaty. It’s a temporary truce called by a Muslim warrior who’s losing in battle. It’s pretty easy to understand how hudnas work by watching Israel fight Hamas and Hezbollah. Those two terrorist groups lob rockets and send suicide bombers into Israel for months; then, every once in a while, Israel deploys its military and flattens Hamas and Hezbollah, who then call for a hudna. The UN intervenes, saving Hamas and Hezbollah to fight another day. That’s a hudna: a tactical truce for a strategic advantage.
Soharwardy wants a hudna because he’s osing badly. Not financially: he hasn’t spent a penny to further the complaint against me — that has been done courtesy of Ed Stelmach’s government and the taxpayers of Alberta, to the tune of $500,000, I’d guess. Nor has Soharwardy had to spend hundreds of hours battling against me at the commission — Alberta government employees do that for him. It’s because over the past two years — and the past month in particular — Soharwardy has become known for what he is: an Islamofascist imam, who’s trying to bring Saudi values to Canada. Though I’m being pummelled in a kangaroo court, he’s being pummelled in the court of public opinion. He didn’t expect it, and he hates it.
He hates that hundreds of bloggers ridicule him. He hates that my video clips, in which I describe his illiberal nature, have been viewed almost 500,000 times. He hates that his own enemies within his mosque have taken advantage of this media coverage to shine a light of scrutiny on the way he runs his mosque - from his financial irregularities, to his abusive treatment of women.
By Patrick Goodenough CNSNews.com International Editor February 11, 2008
(CNSNews.com) - The death penalty given to an Afghan journalist accused of insulting Islam has more to do with judges’ interpretation of the country’s laws than with a constitutional provision entrenching Islamic primacy, according to a leading scholar in Islamic law.
The Afghan government has reiterated its assurance that President Hamid Karzai will “find a just solution” to the case of Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh. A statement released by the Afghan Embassy in Washington said that this would be done “in accordance with Afghan law and our nation’s international obligations.”
A three-judge court in northern Afghanistan on January 22 sentenced the 23-year-old to death, after he was accused of distributing to students an online article questioning why Muslim men may have more than one spouse while women may not…
Mapleton LLC is the group that bought these stations from Citadel Broadcasting. A key factor in this sale was the termination of the Mark Fuhrman Show.
Not available on the Net yet but from the today’s S-R’s Business
Section:
S-R to broadcast on Mapleton Stations
The Spokesman-Review will begin producing radio news reports that will be broadcast over stations owned by Mapleton Communications LLC in
Spokane under an agreement announced Tuesday.
At least four daily
newscasts, plus a weekend talk show and a week-in-review program, will be broadcast from the Spokesman-Review building . . .
Isn’t it enough that it is estimated the Cowles Co control 80% of the local media in our market? As I write in a reply (draft form) to the new Spokesman-Review Ombudsman:
Because of the significant amount of property that the Cowles Co owns or controls in Downtown Spokane and along the Spokane River to the Idaho border, there inherently is a conflict of interest regarding its involvement in development projects and reporting by the S-R. A close analogy is the period genre movie Chinatown. River Park Square is only one of several projects where there is a similar pattern and practice in quasi public/private developments where the public was defrauded.
Friends of Mark Fuhrman Radio Show
The unofficial fan site of Mark Fuhrman Radio Show that was squelched in my opinion by the "usual suspects." This list is dedicated to pursuing among other things the River Park Square fraud et al in Spokane, WA and other related topics that you will never read about in the Spokesman-Review. Read regular updates from Fuhrman Show regulars, Larry Shook, Tim Conner, Cherie Rodgers, former Spokane Mayor John Talbott, Dick Adams, "Ron the Cop" and others.
A complaint for the new S-R Ombudsman To the Citizens of Spokane - Time to take a stand! An Army of Davids Strikes - Spokane, WA
"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing"
As many of you now know the Mark Fuhrman Radio Show was axed by KGA1510 AM (Citadel Broadcasting) in Spokane, WA. . . . I have information from a reliable source that the Fuhrman Show was in play from the very first contact by Mapleton representatives with Citadel about purchasing KGA. IMHO this was a "hit" plain and simple by a criminal enterprise to cover its ongoing robbery of the citizens of Spokane. This criminal enterprise has so thoroughly and systemically corrupted the political and governmental bodies in Spokane to a level I’ve never witnessed before in my entire thirty-five year law enforcement career. . .
COPENHAGEN - Danish authorities arrested three people yesterday on charges of plotting a cartoonist’s assassination for his depiction of the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban that enraged Muslims two years ago.
Three of Denmark’s largest newspapers said they would reprint the cartoon today to show they would not be intimidated by fanatics. It was one of 12 Mohammed cartoons published in 2005 and then again in 2006 that led to protests in Muslim countries.
Investigators said they foiled the plot in its early stages in a pre-dawn raid in the western Denmark city of Aarhus. The police intelligence agency, PET, said two Tunisians and a Danish citizen of Moroccan origin were arrested.
“The case shows that, unfortunately, there are in Denmark groups of extremists that do not accept and respect the basic principles on which the Danish democracy has been built,” Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that the plotters may be getting away with little more than a slap on the wrist.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.
Two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin were arrested in pre-dawn raids in western Denmark, the police intelligence agency said.
The Dane was suspected of violating Danish terror laws but likely would be released after questioning as the investigation continues, said Jakob Scharf, the head of the PET intelligence service. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark, he said…
COPENHAGEN (AFP) — Several Danish newspapers reprinted on Wednesday a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that caused bloody riots in the Islamic world two years ago, a move that prompted Iran to angrily summon Denmark’s ambassador.
Three of Denmark’s biggest dailies were among 17 that published the cartoon, vowing to defend freedom of expression a day after police foiled a plot to murder the cartoonist.
The caricature, which featured the prophet’s head with a turban that looked like a bomb with a lit fuse, was one of 12 cartoons published in September 2005 by the Jyllands-Posten daily.
The controversy sparked violent protests in a number of Muslim countries in January and February 2006 that culminated with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and the death of dozens of people in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan.
DANISH CARICATURES ON TRIAL IN FRANCE. A French republication of the controversial Muhammad cartoons from Denmark has led to a fierce legal battle. But France’s politicians — in a year when some of them are running for president — are clearly on the side of satire … By Stefan Simons
France’s satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo was taken to court by Islamic groups in France for reprinting the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Sales shot from 60,000 to 400,000.
The style of debate was intellectually on a par with that of any literary salon; the legal arguments will be sure to enter the canon of every lawyer’s professional training; and the appearances made by high-ranking representatives of science and politics were often reminiscent of high theater. When Muslim organizations sued French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, everyone posed — in unexpected ways — as defenders of this or that French tradition. (…)
Norway’s major newspapers have no plans to publish the controversial “Mohammad Cartoons”, following the decision by Denmark’s leading newspapers to reprint them today
The cartoons depict the Prophet Mohammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban, a move that irritated Muslim leaders.
The Danish papers said they wanted to show their firm commitment to freedom of speech after Tuesday’s arrest in Denmark of three people accused of plotting to kill the man who drew the cartoon.
Early Tuesday morning, Danish police arrested several people with a Muslim background suspected of conspiring to kill Kurt Westergaard, a Danish cartoonist with Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten.
Apparently the would-be murderers are two Tunisians (who will be deported) and a 40-year old Danish citizen of Moroccan descent, who’ll be released after interrogation. The police have known about the plans for at least 3 months:
“When I came home, three bodyguards were standing with guns. We were told that we could do whatever we wanted. As long as we disappeared from our homes.”
[. . .] the threat has never been as concrete as the information that the Security and Intelligence Service (PET) brought to him 3 months ago: “They want to kill you. They will do it here in your home. They know where you live. And they know your home well enough that they have been able to draw a basic plan over the design of the house.”
Viby: Authorities in Denmark have foiled what came close to becoming the first assassination of one of the cartoonists behind the 2006 Muhammad caricature scandal. SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke to Flemming Rose, the editor responsible for commissioning the caricatures in Jyllands-Posten, who has also been the subject of death threats.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Rose, today three man were arrested who are suspected of having planned the murder (more…) of Muhammad cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. Are you surprised that, two years after the Muhammad cartoon crisis, there are still people under threat?
Flemming Rose: Unfortunately it doesn’t come as a surprise to me. I have known about the threat for a while and last year three young men were convicted of conspiring to plan a terrorist act somewhere in Denmark. Part of their plan was also to attack Jyllands-Posten. And in the first phase of their planning, they also discussed killing me. (…)
(Stein hoist: 
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