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THE DANISH CARTOON CRISIS: THE IMPORT AND IMPACT OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
APR 5, 2006 - 7:34PM PDT
by Shawn Powers

CPD Media Monitor Report by Amelia Arsenault and Shawn Powers. Invaluable research support provided by Iskra Kirova. In early September 2005, Flemming Rose, the culture editor for a right-of-center Danish newspaper, commissioned over 30 Danish cartoonists to submit caricatures of the Islamic prophet Mohammed that he could print in his paper, Jyllands-Posten. Rose had recently become concerned that European media organizations were self-censoring themselves with regard to issues sensitive to Islam, and was worried that the principles of freedom of speech were under attack. On September 30, with the intent of “pushing back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter,” Rose published twelve cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed, images that are considered blasphemous by followers of Islam. Two weeks later, 3,500 protestors organized in Copenhagen to non-violently protest the cartoons, calling for a formal apology from the paper. Flemming and Jyllands-Posten refused, and tensions escalated. On October 20, eleven ambassadors from Muslim-majority countries asked to meet Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to discuss the government’s reactions to the publication of the cartoons. Prime Minister Rasmussen declined to meet the ambassadors, stating: "I won't meet with them because it is so crystal clear what principles Danish democracy is built upon that there is no reason to do so. . . . As prime minister I have no tool whatsoever to take actions against the media, and I don't want that kind of tool." Outraged by the Prime Minister’s refusal to meet, Abu Laban, an imam living in Denmark, initiated a campaign to bring international attention to the issue. He contacted the Organization of Islamic Faith and organized a group of Muslims that would tour the Middle East presenting and criticizing the cartoons. The tour presented a 43-page book that included the 12 cartoons as well as 3 more images of Mohammed that had never actually been published. After showing the booklet to religious leaders, politicians, and journalists in Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria, public outcry quickly grew. On January 30, 2006, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League jointly called for a UN resolution, backed by possible sanctions. The political firestorm escalated when in response to the debate, numerous publications around Europe began republishing the cartoons in addition to several new, and perhaps more offensive, images. As Western diplomats and media industries in the West paused to debate the free-speech implications of the cartoon debate, what began as a public diplomacy crisis for Denmark quickly spread to negatively effect images of countries such as Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. At the height of the crisis in February 2006, Muslims around the world took to the streets in sometimes violent protest against the publication and re-publication of Danish political cartoons considered sacrilegious, deeply offensive, and disrespectful to the religion of Islam. These protests targeted Western embassies, fast food chains, and even diplomats themselves. In addition to often violent street demonstrations, protests against the cartoon publication have taken a number of…... FULL TEXT

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