...And lost by inaction.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. "
- Edmund Burke

The cartoons mocking Mohammed and Islam have caused such an international incident that it is hard to keep track of it all, and therefore, with my limited time and ability, I leave it into more proffessional hands. However, the waves caused by the rock cast into the pond are finally reaching even remote, little Finland. Via, Sweden, naturally.

The Finnish Nationalist organisation, Suomen Sisu, has published the disputed images as a protest to a severe violation of the freedom of expression by the Swedish authorities. Suomen Sisu announced on their website, that this was an act of solidarity towards the Swedish political party Sverige demokraterna, whose website was offline recently until the images were removed. The Web site was inaccessible when I wrote this article.

The largest daily of Finland, Helsingin Sanomat, commented the move as a follows (translation by me):

"Suomen Sisu, a self-designated nationalist organisation, say they published the images on their web site as a protest to the Swedish government. According to Suomen Sisu, the Swedish security police and foreign ministry shut the web site of the Sverige Demokraterna and their party newsletter, the SD-kuriren, after they had published the disputed caricatures.

However, the web site was shut only for a short period of time and were re-opened once the disputed image had been removed. The service provider, Levonline, shut down the site, not the Swedish security police or foreign ministry."

However!!

According to the Local, the case isn't as simple as Helsingin Sanomat makes it seem. According to them, the decision wasn't entirely up to Levonline as the citation above would suggest:

"The website of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) reopened on Friday morning, after the far-right party removed drawings of the prophet Muhammad. The site had been taken down by its hosting company after requests from Sweden’s foreign ministry and security service, Säpo."

Interesting...

"Söder had been contacted on Thursday afternoon by Levonline’s deputy CEO Anna Larsson, who told him that threats had been received against her company and its staff and she therefore wanted him to move his party’s website.

'It didn’t sound plausible that threats would have been made against a website hosting company and its staff – the threats should really have been made against us, who published the pictures, ' said Söder.

'I was later told by a journalist at Dagens Nyheter that [Larsson] had changed her story, and more or less admitted that the foreign ministry and Säpo had been applying pressure.'"

This is where it gets really interesting:

"Levonline’s Anna Larsson confirmed in an interview with Swedish Radio that the foreign ministry and the security service were behind the closing of the party’s website."

"Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds denied on Friday that the government had applied pressure on Levonline."

It would seem that someone is lying. And just by the way, Suomen Sisu is being investigated whether its publication of the images was illegal. Big brother is watching.

So, the proverbial excrement has really hit the fan. Massive demonstrations around the Middle-East, a French editor was sacked for printing the cartoons in France, several Arab countries have withdrawn their diplomatic representation in Denmark, Palestinian Islamist groups have threatened Danes and Norwegians and they are declared valid targests as are any diplomats from these countries. Muslims in Finland have joined the boycott and condemn Denmark and Islamists in London have threatened Denmark and said "see what happened to Theo Van Gogh". What happened to Theo Van Gogh, that we all know. It is the perfect example of the contradiction (one of them) of Islam: it is a Religion of Peace and Tolerance, but call it violent or treat it in a negative light, you will be stabbed/shot/beheaded in broad daylight. Or your nations citizens will be threatened with murder and your nations embassies will be threatened with bombings.

Now, according to the free Finnish newspaper Uutislehti Sata, the former Editor of the Danish newspaper Politiken, Herbert Pundik, suggested that a large Mosque should be built in Copenhagen to appease the Muslims. Mhm. Perhaps Munich is to host another infamous conference?

How can multiculturalists hope to live with large Muslim minorities within their societies, when it clearly limits the freedom of such societies, freedom being another foundation in the ideology of the multicultists? They don't, because certain freedom is intolerance, naturally, and the victims of such intolerants must be appeased by, let's say building a Mosque in the capital of Denmark. Logical?

Finnish Social Democrat and Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja was also quick to criticize Denmark. It seems that everyone is forgetting that the Danish government does not control the media, Denmark is country founded on Western Values after all. Why are they all forgetting this? It is understandable behaviour from the Islamic world, as they have it very differently, but that our very own European politicians, even the UN, are ready to limit freedom of expression to appease religious fundamentalists, it is absurd. It goes to show that they, too, have forsaken the values over which so much blood has been spilled. They are nothing short of traitors. Instead of teaching the Muslim world a lesson by standing by their principles, they continue their policy of appeasement, and the Muslims will get what they want, but it will not be enough and never will until we ourselves say "stop!".

So far Denmark and the Danish government has acted admirably. Hats off to them.

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On the 30th of September 2005 the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. Mohammedans raised a storm of protest and two artists went into hiding after receiving death threats. Islamic organisations demanded an apology from the Danish government and the incident turned into a world-wide diplomatic issue. The OIC (the Organisation of the Islamic Conference), the Council of Europe and the UN all criticised the government of Denmark for not taking measures against the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen defended the freedom of the press and free speech and stated that any measures, if appropriate, could not be taken by the government but only by a court of law. Meanwhile in Islamic countries Danish flags are burned and Danish products are taken off the shelves. Several countries have withdrawn their ambassadors from Denmark and armed men attacked the office of the EU in the Gaza strip.