06 February 2006

Why there will be no compromise

In a recent Newsweek interview with Flemming Rose (and whoever heard of a Dane with a name like that?), editor of the Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that originally commissioned the cartoons of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, that have caused such recent outrage in the Muslim world, he was asked:

You depicted Muhammad with a bomb in his turban...
These cartoons do not treat Muslims in any other way than we treat other citizens in this country. By treating them as equals, we are saying, "You are equal." We just asked Danish cartoonists to draw Muhammad as they see him. I did not ask for caricatures. I did not ask to make the prophet a laughingstock or to mock him.

Why do you think Muslims are expressing such outrage?
I think it's problematic if any religion—it doesn't matter if it's Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, any religion—tries to impose its own taboos on the public domain.
I think if any religion insists that I, as a non-Muslim, should submit to their taboos, then I don't think they're showing me respect. I think they're asking for my submission.

What does this controversy say about assimilation, or lack thereof, in Europe?
This is a clash of cultures and, in its essence, a debate about how much the receiving society should be willing to compromise its own standards in order to integrate foreigners. On the other hand, how much does the immigrant have to give up in order to be integrated?
...
I think that last answer was what Teddy Roosevelt had in mind about 'being American'. There is, from the Founding Fathers on down, a central tenet in defining America that requires tolerance, not just of the minority, but the majority as well. I'm sure that's what's got the religious fanatics in this country so worked up...

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