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February 20, 2006
Denmark on "60 Minutes"
Well, I didn't see it last night, but I've just read the transcript and a slightly indignant review in "Politiken" of the segment on Denmark .
"When you use the freedom of speech to make jokes of other people's religions and you do it with the single purpose of demonstrating that you have the right to do so, then you are undermining the freedom of speech as I see it," [former foreign minister and newspaper editor Uffe] Elleman says.
No disagreement there.
I can see that the tone of "60 Minutes" will have ruffled a few feathers in Denmark, nothing that more progressive Danes and Muslims here haven't already figured out for themselves:
"Muslims make up only two percent of the population. Not much, perhaps, but enough to have spawned a backlash. Denmark now has the toughest immigration laws in Europe. And in the last five years, Danes have voted the ultra-rightwing People’s Party into the ruling majority. Since the cartoon controversy, support for this anti-Muslim party has grown to almost 20 percent. ...I'm scared," [Dr. Kamal] Qureshi [MF - a Danish Member of Parliament] replied. "I think there are a lot of Muslims that are afraid that they could be turned into scapegoats, and people would say that the reason that the world hates us is because you people are telling bad stories of Denmark. We have to take the ball away from the extreme groups in Denmark and put it in the middle where the rest of us are.
But that middle is fast disappearing into fantasies of fear. Many Muslims are afraid of being victimized. Many Danes are afraid their culture is under siege. Already, people with foreign values are converging on Denmark’s national symbols."
Now we're at the nub of the problem : erosion of cultural values, the old red herring for restricting immigration. Translation: "We don't like foreigners because they're different". I have heard opinions voiced in conversations with otherwise liberal Danes about Muslims which have shocked me - an almost visceral dislike and mistrust. But I've also had conversations with Danes who have no problem seeing Muslims as just another section of Danish society trying to get on with their lives.
But I haven't had any conversations with immigrants or descendants of immigrants which have been wholly positive about the experience of living in Denmark. Most have been a bit bemused about it, and the conversation usually proceeds along the lines of "Well, I've lived here for 25 years now, and my kids have grown up here, so what can I do?".
"Freedom of speech versus religious sensitivities. Conflicting forces which are doing battle everywhere. The Danes, in their picture perfect world, may have thought they were immune. Now they know better."
"60 Minutes" makes a fundamental error in this (rather sickly-sweet and condescending) summary. It assumes that the World at Large has neglected Denmark since 1945. But a sensible debate about how Islam fits into Western culture was going on. This is of course also one of the issues I have with "Jyllands-Posten" and where I also agree wholeheartedly with Qureshi. That debate was stumbling forward sub-optimally, but it was beginning to gain momentum. It has now been snatched out of the hands of the liberal middle in Denmark and grabbed by the hands of extremism in the World at Large. This is not an appropriate place for discussion of how Denmark's future society will be structured, especially when that discussion was at such a critical stage. That debate needs to be brought back home to moderate Danes and Muslims in Denmark, out of the gaze of "60 Minutes". Unfortunately, support for Dansk Folkeparti has now strengthened to 20% on the back of this, so I guess the debate will have to start from scratch while people get their common sense back.
Posted by daen at February 20, 2006 12:46 PM