The attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has prompted Denmark to increase security around the offices of newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which unleashed anger across the Muslim world nine years ago by publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
In a move that ultimately inspired Charlie Hebdo's editor, Jyllands-Posten commissioned a dozen Danish cartoonists in 2005 to depict Muhammad after a series of incidents it viewed as self-censorship over Islam.
"This sends a shiver down my spine," said Flemming Rose, the man who commissioned the cartoons for the Danish paper and now serves as its foreign editor. Rose said the staff at Charlie Hebdo – which reprinted the Danish cartoons in 2006 in a show of solidarity – "didn't shut their mouths [and] now they have paid the ultimate price".
In an editorial, Jyllands-Posten called yesterday's assault – which killed at least 12, including Charlie Hebdo's editor and three cartoonists – "an attack on us all . . . This is a French September 11." Rose published a book, The Tyranny of Silence, that aims to make sense of the reaction to the cartoons.
He has rejected attempts to label him a provocateur, justifying his actions instead as a defence of liberal values.
Feelings of intimidation
“I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in
Europe
caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam,” he said in the midst of the controversy. “The idea wasn’t to provoke gratuitously.”
Danish police have since foiled several alleged terrorist plots against Jyllands-Posten and some of the cartoonists involved. In one of the more harrowing incidents, a 28-year-old axe-wielding Somali Muslim tried to break down the door of Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who sketched an infamous drawing of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, as he reportedly cried "we will get our revenge".
The cartoons sparked controversy across the Muslim world in 2006, with protests from Copenhagen to Kabul and dozens of deaths. They also prompted considerable soul-searching in Denmark about Islamic extremism and freedom of expression.
Halal meat
The Danish People’s Party, an anti-immigration party, topped the polls in June’s elections to the European parliament and party leaders have been critical of Islam – from the building of a big new mosque in Copenhagen to serving halal meat in schools and hospitals.
Pia Kjaersgaard, co-founder of the party, reacted to the Charlie Hebdo killings by calling on Denmark to change its laws to allow for easier condemnation of those who encourage terrorism. Danish state television this week broadcast a documentary on the infamous Grimhøj mosque, based in Jyllands-Posten's home town of Aarhus, where leaders said they were in favour of the Islamic State and against democracy, and celebrated a Danish suicide bomber as a "hero".
Ms Kjaersgaard said she wanted to close the mosque, adding: “It is not fair that Danes in Denmark should be under police protection. (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015)