Van Ardenne-van der Hoeven on Freedom · 1 March 2006, 07:17 CET by Charles Vermeulen
Lots of things can be said about the opinion article of the Netherlands’s Minster for Development Cooperation Van Ardenne-van der Hoeven in the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat entitled ‘The Cartoon Crisis: a Distorted Picture’. Two statements will appear before the footlights in this in entry. To start with, the following statement:
First of all, something about logic. The minister tries to use the second sentence to explain the first. Obviously the second sentence does not explain the first. The West might indeed be ‘the birthplace of fascism and communism’, but that doesn’t imply that ‘the West does not hold a monopoly on the concept of freedom’. It only implies that besides ‘the concept of freedom’ other concepts exist in the West. Secondly, considering that she conceives ‘freedom’ as ‘the freedom to say what you think, but also to believe what you want’, it might not be that smart to make such statements in Middle East newspapers. For they are easily abused by the dictatorial governments in the region, as proof of the legitimacy of their regime and the ‘hypocrisy of the West’.
The other statement runs as follows:
In it the minister uses the phrase ‘fundamentalist secularists’ to typify the people who claim to be the defenders of freedom of expression. It might be true, indeed, that their motives aren’t always that noble and that their ways of furthering their goals are sometimes counterproductive, but to use the word ‘fundamentalist’ is implicitly equating them to the bomb throwing terrorists of Al-Qaeda. The minister shouldn’t avail herself of such methods to face her opponents in the debate, which is already rife with big words and oversimplified statements.
Why Flemming Rose 'Published Those Cartoons' · 20 February 2006, 20:09 CET by Charles Vermeulen
Thanks to Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, I was hinted on an opinion article written by Jyllands-Posten’s cultural editor Flemming Rose, in which he expounds why he ‘published those cartoons’. Today NRC Handelsblad published the article, translated into Dutch, on its frontpage, yesterday The Washington Post issued the English version on its website.
All demonstrations against terror · 11 February 2006, 18:19 CET by Charles Vermeulen
Yesterday night Dutch current affairs programme NOVA dedicated a whole telecast to the fuss caused by the Danish cartoons, entitled ‘De Botsing der Beschavingen’ (‘The Clash of Civilizations’). As to be expected, considering the subject of the night, the show was rife with big words and heated statements. Mohammed Cheppih, for a very short time president of the Dutch branch of the Arab European League (shortened ‘AEL’ – In Belgium and the Netherlands the ‘Arabisch-Europese Liga’) and one of the guests that night, put in his word too.
Half-way through the show, after making complaints about the way the Islamic world is treated by the West, Cheppih was asked by interviewer Jeroen Pauw if the biggest enemy of Islam aren’t the terrorists who discredit Islam time after time. Cheppih agreed that they are enemies of Islam too [besides the West]. But if this is true, Pauw wondered, why don’t we see people in Saudi Arabia or Syria demonstrating against terrorism. To which Cheppih replied, without batting an eyelid, that they do demonstrate! "Libanon is all demonstrations about terror. Syria is all demonstrations against terror. Think about the death of Hariri, in four days one year ago, there really are demonstrations against it, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Indonesia everywhere."
Bringing Democracy to the Middle East · 8 February 2006, 22:34 CET by Charles Vermeulen
In his article ‘Islam and Power’ Fareed Zakaria places the tumult in the Middle East about the Jyllands-Posten cartoons in a broader perspective.
arab world,
bush,
democracy,
fareed zakaria,
jyllands-posten cartoons,
middle east,
zakaria
The other Inflammatory Cartoons · 8 February 2006, 08:09 CET by Charles Vermeulen
abu laban,
andrew sullivan,
jyllands-posten,
jyllands-posten cartoons
Andrew Sullivan about the murder of Pim Fortuyn · 7 February 2006, 07:16 CET by Charles Vermeulen
In an article in the online edition of Time entitled Your Taboo, Not Mine by Andrew Sullivan about the ‘furor over cartoons of Muhammad’ the author wrongly suggests that Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was murdered by a muslim radical. Fortuyn was in fact murdered by environmental activist Folkert van der G.
andrew sullivan,
fortuyn,
pim fortuyn