Thursday, September 07, 2006

Danish Muslim Convert wrote Letter to the Editor shortly before Arrest

The ethnic Danish muslim convert that we talked about in the last post, wrote a letter to the editor of The Politiken one and a half hours before Danish secret service police smashed the door to his appartment and arrested him on suspicion of being an accessory to terrorist plotting.

The letter to the editor was published in the Politiken this morning. In the letter the suspect Abdallah Andersen, Bøgeparken 236, Odense writes critically about an interview with Danish media darlings Karen Jespersen and Ralf Pittelkow that was published by the Politiken in its Saturday edition. Karen Jespersen is a former Social Democratic minister of Home Affairs. Ralf Pittelkow, a former marxist - later spin doctor for former Social Democratic prime minister Nyrup Rasmussen, is now political commentator at conservative Danish paper the Jyllandsposten. They are a couple and well-known for a "stand firm" attitude in the Danish debate on immigrants. Karen Jespersen, a former radical socialist, joined the Social Democrats in the beginning of the 1980's. She became an increasingly outspoken critic of the Social Democratic left's "soft" political line on immigration issues. As the Interior Minister of the social democratic governments of the 1990s she was increasingly isolated at the right wing of the party, especially after suggesting that asylum seekers should be placed on an island, away from Danish population centres.

On Tuesday a new book entitled "Islamists and Naivists - an Indictment" by Jespersen and Pittelkow was published by the publisher People's Press. The Saturday interview in The Politiken is about this book.

In his letter to the editor entitled Fanaticism Abdallah Andersen writes critically of the Jespersen-Pittelkow couple and their views on islam:

".... Karen Jespersen and Ralf Pittelkow write in the best Helle Brix style; islam is not only a faith, but as a religion it carries the seeds of a fanaticism that is threatening Western society." - He continues criticising the two for prejudice and ignorance about islam. He concludes, "yes, there is indeed fanaticism in Denmark", and he expresses his wish to ask the question: "Why are the Danes so xenophobic. The answer is quite obvious to us muslims living here".

In the interview in the Politiken with Jespersen and Pittelkow they criticize the "naivists" for being soft on islam. The interviewer asks: Who are the "naivists", and they reply:

"The muhammed drawings case was a decisive event. This was the first time you saw that a major part of the Muslim world demanded that islamic law should also apply in Europe. I.e. our rules about freedom of speech should be adjusted to islamic law, the Sharia. That was the crux of that conflict. A major part of those speaking in the Danish debate did not understand that. Those are the ones we call "naivists". "

This is quite clearly an interpretation of what happened in the cartoons crisis. Another possible interpretation might be that the "muslim world" just wanted some respect for their faith. It is typical of hardliners like Jespersen and Pittelkow that they see things in the worst possible light when it comes to understanding what islam and muslims stand for. In that way they probably help to make muslims an explosive issue in Danish politics. They stand for an intellectualised kind of "hate speech" that does not make the issue of immigration easier to deal with in Denmark. In that sense Abdallah Andersen's characterization seems quite relevant. According to the Danish papers Abdallah Andersen has written a number of letters to the editor. Whether this has been a factor in drawing the attention of the police to him, we do not know.

2 Comments:

Blogger Sophia said...

I am just asking myself why there is a convert in every terror plot ? I suspect that these are agents infiltrating Muslims. We had a convert also in CANADA. I am betting that these poeple will be the first ones to be released and anyway, given anti terror measures of secrecy we don' tknow what is happening to these people and how they are tried and on which basis.

7:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cosmic duck states: "This is quite clearly an interpretation of what happened in the cartoons crisis. Another possible interpretation might be that the "muslim world" just wanted some respect for their faith".

Apologists for Islamic Facism seem to be content with a poisonous double standard: Western societies are supposed to "show repect" to the extent of censoring free speech, but no corresponding respect by Isalmic countries of other cultures is expected.

Moderate Muslims around the world need our support in the fight against the radicals. Caving in to this double standard betrays our friends and encourages our enemies.

9:43 AM  

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