Arabs on Thursday criticized a Danish court's decision to exonerate the newspaper that published the Prophet Mohammed cartoons which provoked riots across the Muslim world. Arab politicians and intellectuals said the verdict would widen the gap between Westerners and Muslims, but said mass protests were unlikely.
A court in Aarhus, Denmark, threw out a defamation suit filed by seven local Muslim groups who accused the Jyllands-Posten newspaper of publishing 12 drawings of the Prophet in order to insult him and make fun of Islam.
When the cartoons, first published in September last year, were reprinted in European newspapers in January and February, they sparked mass protests, several of which turned violent.
"This [verdict] will only widen the gap between the Western and Islamic world," said Syrian legislator Mohammed Habash, who heads the Islamic Studies Center in Damascus.
Habash said the cartoons constituted an insult to Muslims.
"The Western mentality still sees in such things a facet of freedom that should be defended. This reflects arrogance because they want to impose their way of thinking on all other nations," he added.
The court conceded that some Muslims had found the drawings offensive, but it found there was no basis to assume that "the purpose of the drawings was to present opinions that can belittle Muslims."
Jyllands-Posten's editor in chief hailed the decision as a victory for freedom of speech. The Danish Muslims who filed the suit said they would appeal.
In Jordan, where two editors were jailed for publishing the cartoons, an Islamist legislator alleged the Danish verdict was an example of Islamophobia.
The ruling "is not a judicial decision," said Mahmoud al-Kharabsheh, an independent legislator who heads the Jordanian parliament's legal committee.
"It is a political decision that expresses the hatred of Islam and Muslims by the Danish government, its authorities and its judicial body," he said. "The dismissal of the lawsuit against the newspaper, which was expected, confirms the ongoing intention to harm our religion and our Prophet."
The two Jordanian editors, who reprinted the cartoons to illustrate reports on the controversy, were fired and subsequently sentenced to two months' imprisonment for harming religious feelings. They have appealed.
In Lebanon, professor Radwan el-Sayyed said the verdict was a "misinterpretation of freedom of expression."
But el-Sayyed, who teaches Islamic Studies at the Lebanese University, said Muslims should not regard the court's decision as an affront.
He did not expect a repetition of February's riots because, he said, people know that they were counterproductive.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was