The letter from 11 ambassadors

Click on the title above, and you get to the letter from the 11 ambassadors for Middle East countries and the PA to the Danish Prime Minister October 12th.

To the left minister of culture Brian Mikkelsen, who is mentioned in the ambassadors' letter. At the Congress of his political party, the Conservatives, in September 2005, he started a new phase of his "cultural campaign" for "Danish values" saying:

"In the middle of our country - our own country - a parallel community is developing, where minorities are practising medieval norms and undemocratic ways of thinking. This we cannot accept. Here we have the new front in the cultural battle".

There is a slight exaggeration in the ambassadors' letter when they say "war" about Brian Mikkelsen's culture campaign. He uses the Danish word kamp, which is not war among nations, but rather a "battle". But he uses the word "front", which does have warlike connotations.

The letter has provoked a political storm against the government. The opposition claims that the government has given incomplete information about the contents of the letter and acted accordingly. The ambassadors are not only dissatisfied with the Jyllandsposten drawings but the whole climate of debate in Denmark. In his reporting the case to the Danish public Anders Fogh Rasmussen has stated that they want him to take legal action against Jyllandsposten. The ambassadors want him to "take all those responsible to task under the law of the land", which may mean something else than prosecution in court.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen turned it rather prematurely into a heroic struggle for freedom of speech, with himself in the role of valiant crusader for this basic human right, which - do not misunderstand me - we must do the utmost to protect. Without it, this blog might not be possible.

I'll soon be able to show you the fuck up fingers that were a culmination in the wider battle for Danish values.