A man has ben shot dead at Copenhagen’s Krudttoenden café, where a debate on free speech was underway.
The talk – called Art, blasphemy and the freedom of expression – featured an address by the French ambassador, the sight of Swedish artist Lars Vilks and the ghost of Salman Rushdie, who, though not there in person, was remembered for this being the anniversary of the fatwa that marked his life.
Helle Merete Brix, one of the organisers, says:
“I saw a masked man running past. A couple of police officers were injured. I clearly consider this as an attack on Lars Vilks.”
Speaking after the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo last month, in which 12 died, Vilks said: “This will create fear among people on a whole different level than we’re used to. Charlie Hebdo was a small oasis. Not many dared do what they did.”
Two gunmen escaped in a dark Volkswagen Polo and are still at large, according to local reports.
I was invited to Lars Vilks committee in Copenhagen to present Passion for Freedom London Art Festival. The committee is organized annually and happens on the anniversary of Salman Rushdie’s fatwa. The meeting started with a short introduction from one of the organizers followed by François Zimeray, the French ambassador, commemorating Charlie Hebdo and discussing the challenges that we face when it comes to the threats to freedom of speech and democracy in our countries.
After a short introduction, Inna Shevchenko opened the panel and started to talk about Femen and her work. She also discussed her close friendship with Charb, the editor of Charlie Hebdo, and how they both stood strong exercising their right to freedom of expression. A few minutes into her speech we heard separate bangs… It sounded like a machine gun..
After the shooting subdued everyone started to come together. We decided to continue with the presentation…Everyone thanked us that we continued. We will not surrender; they cannot kill all of us.
Free speech. No buts…
Anorak
Posted: 14th, February 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
CAN an Islamist change?
Michael Moynihan interviews Ahmed Akkari, who helped to whip up the frenzy riots during the Danish cartoon controversy. Akkari then changed his mind. He moved to Greenland – well away form his former friends:
There is no simple explanation for why he flipped, but Akkari’s time in Greenland, having emerged from the swamps of Islamism, was crucial. “In Greenland, I had space and time—and I had the public library. I started reading.” It was there, shrouded in Arctic anonymity, that he confronted his own prejudices, reading books of philosophy, history, and sociology, ultimately consuming—but, he admits, not always comprehending—Danish existentialist philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard.
“In 2011 for the first time I read an Islam critic.” It was the work of Nasr Hamed Abu Zayd, an Egyptian scholar exiled from his homeland and forced by an Egyptian court to annul his marriage for the “crime” of apostasy. His writings transformed Akkari. “He made me move further with my break from Islamism,” a system that he now views as “a way of controlling people. You use God, you use metaphysics, and that’s very strong.”…During the cartoon crisis, a popular Saudi imam told Al Jazeera that free speech was the enemy of religious faith: “The problem is that [the Danes] want to open up … everything for debate. That’s it. It begins with freedom of thought, it continues with freedom of speech, and it ends up with freedom of belief.”
It now seemed a prescient observation, because it was liberalism, the consumption of dissenting ideas—the very thing he had once dedicated his life to shutting down—that changed Ahmed Akkari. Jacob Mchangama argues that, for Akkari, the Danish tradition of free speech acted as a disinfectant. “The Akkari affairs shows the fallacy of the argument that we need to ‘compromise’ and be ‘pragmatic’ when it comes to free speech and religious sensitivities.”
Photo: Palestinian militants from the Popular Resistance Committees burn a Danish flag during a protest rally in Gaza City, Monday, Feb. 18, 2008. Dozens of militants of the Popular Resistance Committees protested Monday against Danish newspapers reprinting a cartoon lampooning the Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
Anorak
Posted: 23rd, September 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment
THE LSE Atheists, Secularists and Humanists Society (ASH) is accused of racism. The ASH’s alleged crime was to post a cartoon of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ “sitting in a pub having a pint” on its group Facebook page. The image is from the cartoon strip Jesus & Mo.
The LSE Student Union was upset. It issued a statement:
On Monday 16th January it was brought to our attention via an official complaint by two students that the LSESU Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society posted cartoons, published by the UCLU Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society, depicting the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus “sitting in a pub having a pint” on their society Facebook page. Upon hearing this, the sabbaticals officers of the LSESU ensured all evidence was collected and an emergency meeting with a member of the Students’ Union staff was called to discuss how to deal with the issue. During this time, we received over 40 separate official complaints from the student body, in addition to further information regarding more posts on the society Facebook page.
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Anorak
Posted: 24th, January 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)