Danish Cartoons Research Articles

A discussion of Paul M. Sniderman, Michael Bang Petersen, Rune Slothuus, and Rune Stubager's Paradoxes of Liberal Democracy: Islam, Western Europe, and the Danish Cartoon Crisis

The 2005 Danish cartoon crisis has been the topic of much discussion among political science scholars. In September 2011 we ran a symposium on Jytte Klausen’s The Cartoons That Shook the World that centered on the tensions between multiculturalism, civility, and freedom of expression disclosed by the controversy. Paul M. Sniderman, Michael Bang Petersen, Rune Slothuus, and Rune Stubager’s Paradoxes of Liberal Democracy: Islam, Western Europe, and the Danish Cartoon Crisis (Princeton 2014) revisits the Danish crisis. Drawing on randomized experiments linked to broader survey research, the authors offer a nuanced account of Danish public opinion, and argue that the sensitivity of Danes to civil liberties concerns explains why the cartoon controversy did not result in an anti-Muslim backlash. The topic, the argument, and the methodology are important, and so we have invited a range of political science scholars to review the book. — Jeffrey C. Isaac

SebastianKim. Theology in the Public Sphere: Public Theology as a Catalyst for Open Debate. London: SCM Press, 2011. 260 pp.

Sebastian Kim. Theology in the Public Sphere: Public Theology as a Catalyst for Open Debate. London: SCM Press, 2011. 260 pp. The strengths of this book are its wide-ranging resources, global context, and systematic critical analysis. Although much of it has previously been published by the author, the new lens through which it has been analyzed lends itself afresh to the reader. While not groundbreaking, it is innovative in its approach to the topic of "public theology," which has reached a Eurocentric saturation point. The volume begins with a thorough analysis of existing material on public theology by way of key contributors who shaped the public discourse of theology. In the introduction, Kim helpfully examines the methodology, content, and the process of doing public theology, setting up a platform to look at the purpose and practice of public theology in the global context. The second chapter focuses on the Bible as key for engaging theologically in public issues. Kim surveys a wide-ranging context in which the Bible, as a resource, is contextualized to strengthen local theological reflection. According to the author, Asian, African, and South American hermeneutics not only provide a new context for interpreting the Bible, but also give new life to it. Authority, discernment, and identity are some of the core issues that the Bible offers its public theologians in these global contexts. The third chapter, examining eco-theology as an example of public theology, is a helpful one, particularly to students who are being introduced to this discourse on public theology. Issues of justice, stewardship, and feminism are dealt within this chapter to drive home the point about the place of public theology within the wider social context. Eco-spirituality is identified as the principle that reinvigorates the community. Kim effectively demonstrates that the issue of ecological concern is an issue of livelihood in the global South, unlike the West. In chapter four, the idea of the church as a public body in India touches upon a significant subject in the Asian context. With his grounded knowledge of the Indian church, Kim classifies how the church, both historically and ecclesiologically, engaged with the social context of India. The Ashram model, the secular model, the inculturation model, and the liberation model are the broad categories. Although these categories are inadequate in capturing the complex relationships that exist within the Indian church, it is sufficient to make a case about Indian theology in the public sphere. The fourth chapter, addressing the Korean context, exemplifies the sociopolitical reconciliation achieved there in the past five decades. The chapter highlights how spiritualizing material wealth and minjung theology were responses to poverty, exclusion, and discrimination. …

Representation of the cartoon controversy on the U.S. newspapers

Cartoon Crisis composed one of the most comprehensive international security problems of the last decade. A Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published 12 cartoons to satirize Prophet Mohammed in September 2005 which resulted in boycotts, anger and violent protest and thus a global conflict. The dispute over the cartoons has brought out the questions about the relations between the Islamic World and the West, the role of media on those relations, the limits of freedom of speech and right to protests and violence. This study aimed to find out how the cartoon controversy was represented in the US news media and the difference between newspapers depending on the rate of Muslim population in their circulation area. A content analysis of Detroit Free Press, Herald News, Omaha World-News and Wyoming Tribune-Eagle newspapers are used to test the hypothesis about the publication of the cartoons and reaction of the Muslims to this issue. The findings suggest that the newspapers published in Muslim diverse communities are likely to draw more attention to the controversy. However, the difference is not significant. All of the four newspapers present negative views not only about the publication of the cartoons but also the reaction of the Muslims.

A Content Analysis Of News Coverage Of The Danish Cartoons Affairs In Al-Ghad Jordanian Daily Newspapers

A Content Analysis Of News Coverage Of The Danish Cartoons Affairs In Al-Ghad Jordanian Daily Newspapers

Are We TalkingWithorPastOne Another? Examining Transnational Political Discourse across Western-Muslim “Divides”

In a time of rapid, globalized communication, what are the possibilities for truly meaningful cross-cultural political dialogue? Optimists contend that we may now speak of transnational public spheres—of spaces in which people reach across national boundaries to engage one another on issues of common concern. Skeptics, on the other hand, maintain that political, cultural, and linguistic barriers continue to preclude truly meaningful transnational discourse. And in the wake of 9/11 and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, many express specific skepticism about the potential for Western and Muslim societies to bridge such divides. Yet little systematic empirical research investigates the realities of cross-national dialogue, particularly between Western and non-Western societies. Using an original dataset produced via content analysis of British and Pakistani newspapers, we examine the discursive links formed during a quintessential transnational media event: the 2005–2006 Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy. Comparing the frames deployed and actors engaged in each of these countries, we find clear evidence of genuine transnational engagement between Muslims and non-Muslims. And though the scope of our data limits our findings, they nonetheless provide a sense of cautious optimism regarding the potential for the formation of transnational public spheres.

The risks of nation branding as crisis response: A case study of how the Danish government turned the Cartoon Crisis into a struggle with Globalization

In this article, we investigate the limitations of organization-centric models for crisis communication in handling place crises. Two distinct types of place crisis are identified as what we respectively term the ‘sudden’ and the ‘ongoing’ type. We point out that place branding traditionally has been used to handle the latter type. We then demonstrate how the inspiration from corporate communication in place branding has led to a fixation on reputation, which becomes salient when place branding is used as crisis communication in sudden crisis. Here the corporate inspiration tends to rule out alternative strategies for handling crises based on ‘societal models’. Through a case study of Denmark’s so-called Cartoon Crisis we demonstrate how crisis communication falls short of coping aptly with the complexity of the crisis due to the branding-inspired translation from ‘sudden’ to ‘ongoing’ crisis. We thus argue that the Danish government’s solution in nation branding aimed at the reputational implications failed to address the immediate consequences of the crisis vis-a-vis national security and exports. And that this solution in turn created the reputation as additional risk. We conclude that a broader societal perspective on crises therefore is needed in the emerging academic literature on place crisis communication.

On the Muslim Question by Anne Norton (review)

Reviewed by: On the Muslim Question by Anne Norton Shabbir Ahsen On the Muslim Question. By Anne Norton. The Public Square Book Series, Ruth O’Brien, series editor. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013. Pp. xii + 265. Hardcover $24.95, £16.95, isbn 978-0-691-15704-7. In On the Muslim Question Anne Norton attempts to demolish the dominant view in the post-9/11 context in Europe and the United States of a clash between Islam and the West. The clash is articulated in neat terms. Both Islam and the West are seen as monolithic entities, incapable of existing together. Since the West supports democracy, freedom of speech, equality, and human rights plus the liberation of women, the argument goes, it must be in conflict with Islam, which does not submit itself to these Western values. As opposed to the West, we are told, Islam is against democracy and it supports violence and terrorism, and treats women in a way that cannot be tolerated by Western civilization. Norton questions each of these points of view in her attempt to reject the “us versus them” thesis, something that is widely accepted by both academics and the dominant political paradigm. The Muslim question, for her, lies at the center of political and philosophical discourse that is going to shape our world in the twenty-first century, much like the Jewish Question that shaped the nineteenth century. Both, she argues, revolve around the questions of citizenship, equality, and discrimination. There are two dominant themes in the book. One questions the grounds of the clash-of-civilizations thesis while the other attempts to bring to the fore the lived experience of Europe and America in which people are shaping “a common life together.” Norton derives her inspiration from the Enlightenment ideals of equality, freedom, and fraternity, and is deeply committed to democracy and multiculturalism. In her opinion, the Muslim question is a question not about Islam but more about Western values. She rejects Derrida’s view that “Islam is the other of democracy.” In a world as diverse as ours there may be different forms of democracy that prosper in areas where Muslims are in the majority. Muslims sometimes take violent measures against free speech, but she suggests that Muslims in the West have not taken recourse to violent measures against Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses or against the recent anti-Muslim Danish cartoons, which she maintains were provocative, and that Muslims were within their rights in voicing their anger against these publications. British citizens were asking for equal treatment in matters relating to the blasphemy laws. But this is not how things were seen then or afterwards in public discourse. Although she sees some aspects of Rushdie’s writings in a positive light, Norton is quick to point out that her orthodox students, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, made a common cause with conservative Muslims in expressing dislike for Satanic Verses. She further points out that Rushdie’s life was not endangered by British Muslims, and [End Page 800] that they did not set out to carry out the fatwa declared by Ayatollah Khomeini. She deals with possible counter-examples such as the killing of Theo van Gogh, the producer of the provocative film Submission, and the loss of lives (almost all of them Muslim) during protests in the Islamic world against anti-Muslim cartoons by arguing that the former was the individual act of an angry Dutchman, while the latter is explained in terms of the prevalence of violence in those countries where people lost their lives. Such violence has not been limited to the cartoon issue alone. A brief explanation in this regard would have been helpful. Norton maintains that freedom of speech need not be provocative or insulting—here criticizing those who hold that whatever can be said must be said, an attitude that she finds widely prevalent. The status of women, their dress, sex, and sexuality are recurrent themes of the book. Agreeing with Alain Badiou, Norton explains the opposition to the veil in terms of its being a challenge to capitalism and the commodification of female sexuality. As sex is now taken to be more of an...

The weight of words: the freedom of expression debate in Norway

A confluence of interests and forces among Norwegian political, media and legal elites since the Rushdie affair and the ‘Mohammed cartoon crisis’ have created conditions in which minority protections against racist and discriminatory speech as guaranteed by Norwegian law, and Norwegian obligations under international law, have been rendered all but ineffective – in the name of stronger protections for freedom of expression. In the event, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism have not only often gone unchallenged, but have been amplified and disseminated both through the extreme rightwing presence on the internet, and in mainstream and respected Norwegian print media. The ideology of Anders Breivik, perpetrator of the massacre of 22/7/2011, was not isolated, but forms part of a larger and by many accounts growing phenomenon. Successive government commissions on freedom of expression in Norway have only exacerbated this tendency. This article explores the philosophical and political underpinnings of the freedom of expression debate in Norway and warns about the threat to liberal democracy and equal citizenship from the sanitising and mainstreaming of virulent far-right racism and extremism.

Does it Matter <u>How</u> One Opposes Hate Speech Bans? A Critical Commentary on <i>Libertt Pour LLHistoire</i>'s Opposition to French Memory Laws

This paper examines Liberte pour l'Histoire, a group of French historians who led the charge against that nation’s memory laws, in the process raising unique arguments not found elsewhere in the debate over hate speech law. Some of these arguments – such as a focus on how the constitutional structure of the Fifth Republic encouraged memory laws – advance our understanding of the connection between hate speech bans and political institutions. Other arguments, however, are more problematic. In particular, Liberte historians struggle to distinguish the Holocaust (which is illegal to deny) from the Armenian Genocide (which is not). The Liberte historians also quite hostile toward multiculturalism. While this reflects the French culture in which the historians operate, it is normatively quite unappealing. This is especially true given the existence of other, more inclusive European arguments against hate speech regulation, such as those of Danish cartoon publisher Flemming Rose and Maltese Judge Giovanni Bonello. There has to be a better, more inclusive way to oppose French memory laws.

Islamic corporate social responsibility (ICSR) concept: The case of 21st century Middle East

Markets are the place where buyers and sellers meet. The characteristics of such a place are almost universal, measurable, money is the medium, and the rules are mainly simple and flexible. Customers, partners and suppliers, competitors, and employees are the elements of the market environment. On the other hand, the non-market elements are everything that affects the market indirectly. Non-market strategy recognises that businesses are social and political beings, not just economic agents. A non-market strategy allows a company to shape the environment in which it operates, creating opportunities. Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility (ICSR) derives itself from core principles in the holy Qur’an. The three major foundational principles for ICSR are the vicegerency of mankind on earth, divine accountability and the duty on mankind to enjoin good and forbid evil. ICSR concept appears to be in close conformity with the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, but in many respects go further than the minimum standards adopted by this framework. MNCs should not underestimate the Middle Eastern region historical events of the Arab League boycott, the Danish cartoons and the ‘Arab Spring’ revolution. Admitting these, the ICSR concept will offers great opportunities for MNCs to invest and operate in the Middle East.

Aisha's Cushion: Religious Art, Perception, and Practice in Islam. By Jamal J. Elias

The popular and seemingly intractable belief that Islam forbids the use of figures in the visual arts is often the one detail that the average person “knows” about the arts of the Islamic world. Early twenty-first-century events such as the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in 2001 and the publication of the Danish cartoons in 2005, and ensuing media attention to Muslim reactions to this perceived defamation of the Prophet Muhammad, have done little to dispel this flawed notion. Jamal Elias' professed aim in this engrossing and ambitious book is to investigate “Muslim attitudes toward visual images” and to recognize the ways in which “visual objects and images have been and continue to be understood in various Muslim contexts.” He begins with the contemporary events just noted but in seeking the historical underpinnings for Islamic perspectives on image-making and viewing, he argues that scientific treatises on alchemy, optics, and dreaming, as well as philosophical writings may provide the answers, rather than the more predicable theological texts or works pertaining to aesthetics.

Performing identity: The Danish cartoon crisis and discourses of identity and security

The Danish cartoon crisis, which attracted international media attention in 2006, has largely been debated as an issue of freedom of speech, feeding into broader debates about the ‘clash of civilizations’. This article aims to explore the dominant discourses that performed a seemingly stable and consistent Danish identity at the domestic and external levels. Domestically, the discourse of a progressive Danish identity under threat from unmodern others was performed via discourses of a ‘culture struggle’ and a restrictive immigration policy designed to keep intact a narrow definition of Danishness. Externally, Danish identity and security was performed and defended via participation in the ‘war on terror’, democracy promotion and overseas development assistance, which became tools that were not simply associated with security in the liberal sense but also contained a spatial dimension designed to keep consistent the image of the complete nation-state. By adopting a discursive approach, the article aims to explore the performance of Danish identity that animated the cartoon crisis in order to highlight the complexities and contestations that animate ideas of self.

Aisha's cushion: religious art, perception, and practice in Islam

Media coverage of the Danish cartoon crisis and the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan left Westerners with a strong impression that Islam does not countenance depiction of religious imagery. Jamal J. Elias corrects this view by revealing the complexity of Islamic attitudes toward representational religious art. Aisha's Cushion emphasizes Islam's perceptual and intellectual modes and in so doing offers the reader both insight into Islamic visual culture and a unique way of seeing the world. Aisha's Cushion evaluates the controversies surrounding blasphemy and iconoclasm by exploring Islamic societies at the time of Muhammad and the birth of Islam; during early contact between Arab Muslims and Byzantine Christians; in medieval Anatolia and India; and in modern times. Elias's inquiry then goes further, to situate Islamic religious art in a global context. His comparisons with Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu attitudes toward religious art show them to be as contradictory as those of Islam. Contemporary theories about art's place in society inform Elias's investigation of how religious objects have been understood across time and in different cultures. Elias contends that Islamic perspectives on representation and perception should be sought not only in theological writings or aesthetic treatises but in a range of Islamic works in areas as diverse as optics, alchemy, dreaming, calligraphy, literature, vehicle and home decoration, and Sufi metaphysics. Unearthing shades of meaning in Islamic thought throughout history, Elias offers fresh insight into the relations among religion, art, and perception across a broad range of cultures.

'First Amendment' Pioneers in a European Land of Hate Speech Bans: Flemming Rose, Geert Wilders and <i>Liberté Pour L’Histoire</i>

Are global defenses of free speech possible? Or are such arguments necessarily local? To answer this question, this paper focuses on three European opponents of hate speech laws – Flemming Rose, Geert Wilders, and the French historians of Liberte pour l’histoire, a group opposed to Frances’ recent memory laws. Do these writers draw on experience of the United States in opposing hate speech bans? Or do they draw on specifically European (native) arguments? This installment focuses on Danish Cartoon publisher Flemming Rose (the full project will also include Wilders and the French historians). An examination of Rose’s recent memoir, The Tyranny of Silence (2010), shows that Rose draws quite heavily on his experiences living in the Soviet Union to craft a samizdat theory of hate speech regulation that shifts the focus from the harm hate speech can inflict on society to the harm hate speech regulation poses on the speaker him or herself. He also, despite temptation, lacks the skepticism typical of the American response to speech. Indeed, Rose barely mentions the American free speech canon in his book excerpt. Taken as a whole, Rose’s speech theory suggests the power of an adage borrowed from Tip O’Neil – all theories of hate speech regulation are local.

Romantic Liberalism: An Alternative Perspective on Liberal Disrespect in the Muhammad Cartoons Controversy

There is an increasing scholarly concern that liberalism comes into conflict with religious diversity. William Galston blames this tendency on ‘Enlightenment liberalism’, which places autonomous self-reflection at the heart of the liberal project. This article, however, proposes a culprit that is more prone to both disrespect and dogmatism: romantic liberalism, which idealises authentic self-expression. I develop this concept by revisiting the Danish cartoon controversy, allegedly a case of Enlightenment liberalism. This exercise reveals that Flemming Rose, the editor who commissioned the cartoons, invokes romantic rather than enlightened values in defence of the publication. In contrast to previous research, I show that Rose does not portray the disrespectfulness of the cartoons as a side-effect of trying to promote autonomy among Muslims. Rather, he argues in favour of artistic provocation as such, invoking a distinctly romantic understanding of freedom of speech, which in many ways runs counter to the ideal of autonomy.

Polarization or bridging? Responses of Muslim and non-Muslim organizations to criticism of Islam in the Netherlands

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, Islam has been a target of harsh criticism in the Netherlands, as in many other European countries. This article examines and analyses the way leaders of 10 Muslim and 11 non-Muslim organizations responded to criticism of Islam in the Netherlands in the period 2004–10. The focus is on the response to five episodes: the film Submission (2004), the Danish Cartoon Affair (2005–2006), the film Fitna (2008), the Internet film An interview with Mohammed (2008) and the Swiss ban on the building of minarets (2009). Several specific patterns of response are noted. The responses of Muslim organizations vary from resignation to defensive to offensive, and those of non-Muslim organizations from supportive to critical. These patterns are strongly linked to the organizations' leaders' framing of the situation, including the incidents themselves and other organizations, and their own mission and strategy, as well as, in the case of Fitna, to the policy of the Dutch government. All the organizations researched reject extreme forms of polarization and the mainstream Christian, Islamic and Jewish organizations in particular have strengthened their mutual ties in response to expressions of criticism of Islam.

Responsibility to Protect from Words and Deeds: Sovereignty, Vulnerability, and Entrepreneurial Politics

Reconciling the individualist of free speech and press with measures to reduce the likelihood of violent reactions to what may be said and published has an analogue in the new international doctrine, “responsibility to protect” — R2P. In both cases, a sovereign subject asserts the right to autonomy, claiming that this right supercedes whatever injuries might result from its exercise. Sovereignty and individualism are related conceptually through their emphasis on agent autonomy and structurally with regard to their foundational role in Western modernity. Their origins are recounted in narratives of minority wrested with great effort from dominant groups. This history assures their privileged status as norms and helps to explain why it is difficult to limit their extreme expression by thoughtless or unscrupulous agents. Equal difficulties stem from the collateral damage almost invariably produced by limitation strategies. In this essay, I explore dilemmas and tensions arising from an absolute adherence to the norm of negative sovereignty in the context of the insurgency in Libya, and the unobstructed exercise of what I call expressive rights as illustrated by the Danish cartoon controversy. As with much of life, there is no satisfactory “wholesale” resolution to either dilemma, but I suggest “retail” strategies for managing the exercise of autonomy and ameliorating the damages from intervention and failure to intervene.

Corporate reputation and communication: The case of ‘Arla Foods’ and Prophet ‘Muhammad’ cartoons

Abstract This article examines product boycotts driven by religious and political reasons, and develops insights regarding how corporations may respond to minimize the impact of such boycott calls. Conclusions show that Arla Foods was late in interpreting the signals of a crisis, so it could not identify possible dangers and deal with it in good time. Crisis prevention was not an active area of Arla’s Crisis Management Plan in the Middle East in the years before the Cartoon Crisis. Moreover, issues management did not receive adequate attention before the crisis. Arla neglected the prevention stage and only fully started their crisis communication when the crisis was well underway. The lack of preventive measures taken meant that Arla’s aggressive communication strategy was mainly used in a reactive fashion throughout the crisis. The research findings suggest that the company lacked local representatives; Arla also did not engage in a continued two-way communication with its Middle Eastern stakeholders, overlooking the fact that opinion leaders play an important role in influencing the opinion and behaviour of consumers in the Arab countries.

EU to the Rescue? EU Support in National Foreign Policy Crises and the Danish Mohammed Cartoon Case

This article attempts to understand the response of the EU to the Danish Cartoon Crisis that took place in early 2006. The puzzle is that at first, the EU only provided support for Denmark in relation to the immediate implications of the crisis - suggesting that the Member States disagreed on fundamental aspects of the crisis - but, after one month, the EU provided support to Denmark apparently accepting the official Danish view of the crisis in terms of principles. The article applies a constructivist framework for understanding the EU's response to national foreign policy crises in an analysis of the EU's response to the Danish Cartoon Crisis. The analysis indicates that the framework is useful for understanding how the EU responds to crises in general. The character of the response depends on the degree of EU acquis in the area of the crisis. The impact of the Lisbon Treaty and the broader implications of the framework are discussed.

News Value, Islamophobia, or the First Amendment? Why and How the Philadelphia Inquirer Published the Danish Cartoons

The typical framing of the United States in the Danish cartoon controversy is driven by the refusal of most papers to republish the cartoons. On this view, American journalists, unlike their European counterparts, focused narrowly on the cartoons' which -- even at the papers that published the cartoons -- ruled out the anti-Muslim stereotypes that accompanied the running of the cartoons in Denmark and Europe. This paper puts this frame to the test by looking at the debate that unfolded after the Philadelphia Inquirer ran the turban cartoon. While editor Amanda Bennett defended her decision as what newspapers do, a detailed review of the articles that ran in the paper, the letters the paper received, and Bennett's own justification of her actions suggest the debate was much broader than the news value paradigm suggests. In particular, the debate had an Islamophobic edge reinforced by the failure of the Inquirer to discuss the initial framing of the cartoons in Denmark. This suggests that the image of the United States as narrowly focused on news value needs revision.