Danish Cartoons

THANK YOU for offering a readable, current and enjoyable magazine for Egyptian readers. I found the recent events regarding the cartoons published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten to be offensive, to say the least. Regardless of local protocol in Denmark, satire and cartoon depictions of the Prophet (PBUH) are unacceptable.

The fact that it took a pan-Arab boycott to get the attention of the Danish government and pry a less-than-satisfactory apology out of the newspaper is a disgrace.

I was proud to read on your website that Egypt Today’s policy prohibits the publication of material that is libelous or insensitive towards religious, ethnic and other minorities. The European media, and the Danish newspaper in question, can certainly learn a few lessons from et about responsible freedom of expression in the press.

DK-2, A Danish organization for democracy and the media, has for many months criticized Jyllands-Posten for having published the cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed [PBUH]. However, the newspaper has rejected our letters to the editors and those from many other readers.

We firmly believe that this is absolutely not an issue of freedom of expression; it is rather an intended offense against a whole group of people. The fact that the Danish people and the whole of Denmark have to pay the costs of this offense is highly grotesque and deeply unfair both to the Muslims and to the Danes.

The purpose of freedom of expression is to allow the voices of weak groups to be heard, but in this case was misused by a big newspaper to serve its own campaign. Many Danes have sharply distanced themselves from the cartoons, even long before Danish products were boycotted and Danish interests threatened.Danes have taken initiative in collecting signatures condemning these cartoons. There have been street demonstrations headed by Danish personalities from within the church and the cultural circles condemning Jyllands-Posten and the cartoons.

The Danish people find it very unfair and unjust that it is they who have been punished because of the newspaper’s publication of the cartoons. It is absolutely wrong and unfair to make this a general issue to include all the Danes.

I hope that this case has taught us all that respect is to be shown towards each and every human, not only on paper, but also in words, in pictures and in acts. In the name of the Danish people, we wholeheartedly convey to you our sincere apology.

TODAY, Al-Ahram newspaper published a full-page letter of apology from the Danes. This is more than enough. What we [as Muslims] really need to do now is to work on reaching out to educate those people about us and our religion and culture in a civilized way and in a language they understand.

Yesterday, the news channels carried two very contradictory pictures: One of Muslim hooligans burning and destroying public and private property in the name of Islam, and that of Danish people gathered in a public square in Copenhagen on their weekend, in freezing weather, holding candles and signs reading “We’re sorry, we’d like to talk to you.”

Who wins in this comparison? It’s time that we stopped reacting emotionally and took the initiative of positive and constructive action.

ITRUST Egypt Today, if no one else in the Arab world, has the guts to publish this: We apologized. Our prime minister apologized. Do you not understand how much this means? How difficult it is, in our system, for the head of our government to apologize for a newspaper over which he has no control? This is absolutely anathema in our political system, which values freedom of expression in all forms — not just freedom of the press —above all things in our highly individualistic society.

Maybe we need to consider laws on hate speech, but you in the Muslim world must absolutely reconsider your public mannerisms. We understand and listen to reasoned arguments, even those we cannot immediately grasp, such as “It is seriously insulting to depict the Prophet Mohammed [PBUH].” We do not understand the language of torched embassies and dead bodies.

In last month’s Cover Story, “Death Becomes Them,” by Senior Writer Manal el-Jesri, we ran information about the burial plot of the Daramalli family that we believed to be correct at press time.

We have since learned that some of this information, obtained in interviews with the caretaker of the family’s grave plot, was inaccurate. We apologize for any pain this story may have caused the family. Says el-Jesri, “My aim in writing the story was not to toy with people’s private lives; I showed the utmost respect when talking about the deceased and faithfully kept to the interviews I carried out. I extend my personal apologies to the Daramalli family.”

Also in last month’s issue, the photograph that accompanied Staff Writer Noha El-Hennawy’s story on the controversy over publication of Naguib Mahfouz’s banned Awlad Haretna (Children of the Alley) was improperly captioned. The image was of the cover Dar El-Hilal was planning to use, not of the black market edition.  et