A group in Denmark burned an effigy of Mohammed (instead of a witch) at the traditional midsummer festival. Below is a translation of what is said in the video:
We declare:
Saint Hans’ Eve has always celebrated the tradition of burning away the evil, in earlier times symbolized by the witch, who was supposedly directly connected to Satan. And if the witch was not burned then the harvest could not be safely brought into the house.
Now a new evil has arrived in Europe, an evil that lies and kills in the name of their so-called God. An evil that springs from the so-called Prophet Mohammed. Therefore, in our time, it is he who symbolizes evil and it is not just one harvest that will disappear, but all of Western Europe’s future that will vanish if this evil is not dispatched to Hekkenfeldt [i.e. Hell, literally the Hekla volcano in Iceland — BB].
Therefore will we burn the so-called Prophet Mohammed, on June 23, 2007, in three nameless places.
We burned Mohammed in three different places across the country. We now release the video from the first burning. The next videos will be released on July 23 and August 23.
For a Mohammed-free Denmark!!!
I guess someone is spoiling for a fight.
39—What are they asking for other than not to have the Muslim religion forced on them?
Do you consider yourself a moderate “average” Muslim or something else?
What do you think the appropriate response to someone insulting Islam should be?
Ok next time have them burn some other religious figures as well. I mean if you want to antagonize people, might as well go for broke!
Imbeciles.
Cursor_
My son’s name is Mohamed , it is purely for the sake of tradition, after my father’s name. As a muslim who does not give a heck about religion, I think under the right of freedom of speech they are entitled to do whatever they like, however, can they really do the same for all religions and get away with it?
When the moderate majority had the upper hand in most of the Muslim countries the west supported the mad Wahabis to fight communism, now it seem it is payback time. We even used to have porn magazine, for Pam sake, and they did not bother with the 5 second kiss limit set in Hollywood , in our old films. But generating conflicts requires giving prominence to religious zealots of all kinds. I think our curse in the middle east is too much oil with reemergence of religion, Jews included. For our incredible old films’ nude scenes, check out Al Fahd Syrian film, or several other Egyptian or Lebanese ones. Religion no good, porn fun. Long live the king.
Apart from the free speech/religious tolerance angles there is another issue – how the media handles this.
This article for example, takes a video from a small group of hateful people, give it massive coverage
(compared to the plugs guys like this usually have access to) and spin it just to get readers/response.
So why cover these guys – is it because they raise the problem in a new way and ask some provocative
questions that make you think and maybe reevaluate your view of the problem, or is it their display of intolerance?
Is this article on Dvorak because its important what a small lunatic fringe group is doing, or is the
anticipation of the violence that may follow.
This is an important subject, but the base for the discussion is so radical that every participant in the discussion is already in the defensive position.
Furthermore a small group of people make a hateful video and the headline reads ‘is the country ready to explode in violence?’.
Well not quite, and do such a dramatic headline help giving the reader information, that will help him/her, in analyzing/decide about the problem?
The journalist should be more aware of their power over which topics are hot, and how we talk about them, and just referring that somebody said
‘Burn Muhammed’ or ‘Burn baby Jesus’ is not starting a debate but just being an amplifier for stupidity.
The only information you get from this article is that free speech, religious tolerance and intolerance still are hot topics, and that are some loonies in Denmark,
and that journalist prefer form over matter – number of readers over information.
I’m usually not this grumpy, but this repetition of the same info in a new even more inflammatory form gets to me on rainy Wednesdays.
Well, too bad ninja has chosen not to contribute further.
43–Free speech is not something you “get away with.” You either exercise it or not. FREEDOM, the right of other people to do that which you would not. And yes, we would all be better off turning to porn rather than violence.
44–You have identified both major reasons why that group is getting coverage. The fact that it is covered is more important than how it is covered. We all are responsible to filter/doubt the media for the spin it provides. That means more coverage of any issue, not less. I didn’t find your post gloomy at all ===but then I thought the newstory revealed the loonies in the Muslim world as much as with the Danes.
What they didn’t highlight enough was the difference between cause and effect. Important don’t you think?
I thought enlightened liberals like the Dutch don’t engage in hate, intolerance, and violence?
The Dutch are learning the hard way something our homegrown, knee-jerk variety has yet to learn; tolerance of everyone, which necessarily includes those who have no intention of tolerating YOU, is at best stupid and counterproductive, at worst suicidal.
At some point, a sense of perspective will take hold among a minority of liberals, and they will finally accede to the fact that tolerance must be conditioned on it’s reciprocation, or it’s nothing more than high-minded social hara-kiri.
Cheerfully offering freedom to people who are more accustomed to and comfortable with paternalistic authoritarianism is seen by them as approval for them to bring those authoritarian ways with them, and impose them on all. All freedom means to religious serfs is ‘freedom to spread religious serfdom.’
Get it through your heads, folks; just because we collectively worship individual freedom doesn’t mean everyone else shares our enthusiasm for it. It scares a lot of people, and often for good reason, since they have so little experience of it, they don’t know quite what to do with it.
#21 – And yet, none of that matters. The real question is if people will see this device as a ‘change agent’ of sorts, leading to new uses for mobile devices. That’s what time will tell.
However, in terms of purchases, like the AppleTV, the thing is already a success: It will make money.
…for some inexplicable reason, a image just flashed through my alleged brain – of James Hill standing on the street, poking intently at his new iPhone, oblivious to all else, as a vaguely Middle-Eastern-looking individual in the bacjground rolls a grenade between his feet…
#49 – I’m sure the iPhone would alert me to said danger. A “MiddleEasternerAlert” web application should be easy to write.
Now, besides offer me an overpriced solution, I’m not sure how the phone would solve my problem, but isn’t that any worse than the overpriced solution we’re already attempting (as a nation) to apply?
This video is flaming more hatred. Posting it was stupid.
I wonder if posters religious-ethnical background is playing in here.
51—So, what else do you call news?
birthday announcements only?
#50, James,
I’m sure it will take much more then some stupid overpriced phone to help your problem. You might try some stupid overpriced medical help first.
My name is Pat. I really get offended when I hear people say
“I got it down pat”
or
“how patronizing”
or
“let’s play patty cakes”
or
“give the dog a pat”
The next time I hear someone use one of those expressions then I will burn their effigy.
It seems that youtube removed the video. Can someone post a new link?
Dr. Ali Sina of faithfreedom.org has already expects that in 30 years time Islam will be a thing of the past. Wait for the release of his book “UNDERSTANDING MUHAMMAD” in all languages and especially for India, in TAMIL TRANSLATED BY “ALIE SIRAJ”