Europe's Light House

Over sixty years ago, when Hitler’s tanks rolled across Germany’s northern border, the people of Denmark found themselves in a dire situation. Soon, the Gestapo started implementing its racial laws, repeating the same pattern “successfully” implemented in each country under its grip. It started with a seemingly small demand: a yellow star to distinguish the local Jewish population. While it did not appear to be an outrageous initial demand for the rest of Europe, it was for the small kingdom of Denmark. King Christian decided he would be the first to wear the yellow star, not because he was Jewish, but to show that every man or woman born in that land was equal. Denmark passed this test with flying colors. Only a tiny percentage of its Jewish population was imprisoned and at the same time the Nazi’s reliance on local anti-Semitism to carry out the Holocaust was exposed. Today, Denmark finds itself in the spotlight again, after a local newspaper published a cartoon satirizing the unwillingness of artists to draw portraits of the prophet of Islam to illustrate a children’s book. So the people who once proved to the world, the value of solidarity and equality, must now prove that when it comes to liberty they also stand their ground. Is there not a double standard here? The Arab media is the world’s biggest purveyor of anti-Semitic cartoons. Flags of other countries are burned and desecrated; swastikas are often equated to the Jewish star or with the American flag, not to mention the daily fare of anti-American and anti-Semitic propaganda on TV. It is ironic that oppressed societies can take the liberty of committing such acts, while they demand from free societies to moderate their own freedom of speech. A few days ago, when the Prime Minister of Denmark was asked to apologize for offending the Islamic religion, he answered that a whole country cannot be held responsible for what its newspapers choose to publish. It seems that Islamic societies have a hard time comprehending that a head of state has little to say about what is published. The western world solved these issue in the seventeen hundreds, as summarized by Voltaire: “I do not agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it”. Does that mean Muslims, cannot do anything when they feel offended by something published in the news? Of course not: they too can write a letter to the editor.