# Muslim boycott of Danish goods **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 30, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209 "2006-01-30T15:31:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/101 "2006-02-02T20:54:51Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Nothing wrong with highlighting the similarities but let’s be very clear that the threat levels are signifcantly different. That is, there is a very real chance that people will be killed over these pictures. As much as you may dislike the Christian right they are no where near the very real threat posed by radical Islam. Agreed. But what **gum** asked in the post that I quoted was not whether the “threat levels” of Muslim and non-Muslim protests were the same, but whether there were **any** murders or bomb scares or death threats as part of non-Muslim protests. And as far as bomb scares and death threats go, at least, the answer is certainly yes. > [@Lochdale](#): > > Moreover, this current controversy goes to the very question as to whether moselms can integrate into western democratic society. I don’t think that’s the fundamental question, simply because the answer is trivially “yes”. After all, I personally know quite a few Muslims who have very successfully integrated into western democratic society, so obviously it can be done. The questions that I think are really at the core of this issue are, “Can **non-democratic, repressive Islamist societies** co-exist with (or in) democratic nations that maintain free presses and secular governments and so forth? And if so, how?” ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/102 "2006-02-02T21:39:39Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I don’t think that’s the fundamental question, simply because the answer is trivially “yes”. After all, I personally know quite a few Muslims who have very successfully integrated into western democratic society, so obviously it can be done. I know many who have no integrated. The issue comes down to numbers. Simply, keep the numbers down and there is a much better chance of integration. > [@](#): > > The questions that I think are really at the core of this issue are, “Can non-democratic, repressive Islamist societies co-exist with (or in) democratic nations that maintain free presses and secular governments and so forth? And if so, how?” I agree but as for the solution, see above. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/103 "2006-02-02T22:01:24Z")
**Kimstu** , but no-one was murdered, right? As for > [@](#): > > \*“Can non-democratic, repressive Islamist societies co-exist with (or in) democratic nations that maintain free presses and secular governments and so forth? And if so, how?” \* Why don’t you open up a new debate on that. We’re talking idiotic censorship here. A group of London based muslims called Al Ghurabaa has warned the Danes for the ‘Theo van Gogh’ effect… [http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=435926](http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=435926) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/104 "2006-02-02T22:46:58Z")
> [@gum](#): > > Kimstu, but no-one was murdered, right? Not that I ever heard. However, as I said before, I don’t think it’s okay to go around issuing threats of bombing and murder as long as you stop short of actually offing people. Threats of violence aren’t as bad as acts of violence, but they’re still completely unacceptable as forms of protest in a free society. > [@gum](#): > > Why don’t you open up a new debate on that. Well, I’m not much of a thread-starter, and I was simply responding to **Lochdale** ’s opinion as to what the crux of the issue is here. However, I don’t mind at all if somebody else wants to use my questions as the basis of a new thread. ---
**Author:** ![bottomgun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c2a13f/32.png) [@bottomgun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bottomgun)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/105 "2006-02-02T23:15:53Z")
It seems that some Muslims are speaking out against the threats of violence, and (unlike the French) here in Canada we didn’t even need to insult thier holy Prophet for them to do it too. See how nice we all are here. [**Violent reaction as offensive as Muhammad cartoons, Canadian Muslims say**](http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20060202/ca_pr_on_na/cda_prophet_drawings) > [@](#): > > TORONTO (CP) - Cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist are deeply offensive, but so is the violent reaction to the drawings from Islamic extremists, Canadian Muslims said Thursday. > > Outrage over the cartoons, first published in Denmark in September and reprinted in other European countries, has been spreading along with ominous threats throughout the Islamic world. “The protests in the Middle East have proven that the cartoonist was right,” said Tarek Fatah, a director of the Muslim Canadian Congress. > > “It’s falling straight into that trap of being depicted as a violent people and proving the point that, yes, we are.” > > The uproar has also sparked a fierce debate about the deliberately provocative nature of editorial cartooning and the limits of free speech in democratic countries. > > While quick to defend freedom of expression, Canadian Muslims said the cartoons are reminiscent of the anti-Semitic depictions of Jews common in European periodicals before the horrors of the Second World War. > > “Now, it is the Muslim community that has taken up their place,” said Fatah. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/106 "2006-02-03T04:47:37Z")
> [@bottomgun](#): > > It seems that some Muslims are speaking out against the threats of violence, and (unlike the French) here in Canada we didn’t even need to insult thier holy Prophet for them to do it too. See how nice we all are here. > > [**Violent reaction as offensive as Muhammad cartoons, Canadian Muslims say**](http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20060202/ca_pr_on_na/cda_prophet_drawings) Good grief, no the moslem community in Europe has not taken the place of the Jewish community in early 20th century Europe. This was not an action taken in concert with the government. It was satire. So even while they allegedly disavow violence they are claiming victimhood. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/107 "2006-02-03T05:07:55Z")
Originally posted by **bottomgun** , > [@](#): > > - > > Canadian Muslims said the cartoons are reminiscent of the anti-Semitic depictions of Jews common in European periodicals before the horrors of the Second World War.\* Well, they’re wrong, actually. Anti-Semitic depictions of Jews are still made. By Arabs. [http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-21.htm](http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-21.htm) Also: If we’re going to Godwinize… There are more mutual goals between the Nazi’s and Islam. You know, Hatred towards the Jewish and the wish to kill them all, hatred towards the homosexuals, the certainty that _they_ - the muslims - are the übermenschen and we, the unbelievers, are just untermenschen and therefore of no value at all, etc. etc. Btw: Did you know that ‘Mein Kampf’ is a bestseller among muslims? * * * In other news, New Zealand: Wellington newspaper The Dominion Post will publish one of the Danish cartoons. Dominion Post editor and chair of the Commonwealth Press Union, Tim Pankhurst, told Radio New Zealand that while a final decision was still to be made, the paper would probably print at least one of the cartoons tomorrow. He said it was an issue of solidarity and supporting press freedom. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/108 "2006-02-03T08:06:31Z")
> [@gum](#): > > Btw: Did you know that ‘Mein Kampf’ is a bestseller among muslims? No, I did not know that. Do you have a cite? Since MK is under the copyright of the Bavarian State for a few more years, I find that hard to believe. I have never seen a translation of MK into Arabic. I have never heard any Arab discussing MK in Arabic or English (of course, they might have been reading and speaking in German to throw me off). Really? MK is a bestseller here? Do tell! I am always eager to learn about the country I live in. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/109 "2006-02-03T08:27:16Z")
Not Saudi Arabia. Turkey. [‘Mein Kampf’ becomes bestseller in Turkey](http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43380) Anyway. I’m personally willing to go to the largest Christian church in Saudi Arabia and issue an apology on behalf of all Denmark (or at least Faroe Island). ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/110 "2006-02-03T09:11:01Z")
[Turkey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_%28nation%29#Demographics) Population 69,660,559 (July 2005 est.) Mein Kampf [number four on the best-seller list of the D&R bookstore chain, selling over 50,000 copies. (March 19, 2005)](http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43380) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/111 "2006-02-03T10:18:19Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Now a new organisation “Moderate Muslims” has now been created by a number of other muslims, which say they’re not represented by those Imams - they’re even demanding the Imams apologise to the Danish state for their behaviour. One of the founders is a world leading scientist in stem cell research (see, I didn’t even know Denmark had world famous scientist which was also an immigrant from the Middle East), another a leading politician, but most are just ordinary people. If all this noise is what it took to get these groups of Muslims up on the barricades and present another face and public voice of Muslims, it has all been worth it. That really is fantastic news. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/112 "2006-02-03T10:18:45Z")
I started a long discussion of copyright law on this subject. I regret to report that the copyright seems to have fallen into limbo of late due to an obscure court ruling. That is educational. Still it is unheard of here. Trust me. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/113 "2006-02-03T10:48:38Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Us expats are odd birds. All the Americans (and the one Dane) I talked to thought it is a reasonable and measured response to what was a deliberate provocation. It will die out after a while, but the consumers here have sent their message. Nothing wrong with that. Thanks Paul. I meant your Saudi colleagues. Apologies for lack of clarity. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/114 "2006-02-03T13:19:12Z")
Well, **Paul in Saudi** , I _meant_ Turkey as well, but while Googling for ‘muslim mein kampf’ I found some interesting cites. “Middle East Media and Research Institute \<[www.memri.org](http://www.memri.org)\> has just released more details on the sale of Adolph Hitler’s Mein Kampf in eastern Jerusalem and the Palestinian autonomy. The Arabic translation is being distributed by Al-Shurouq, a Ramallah-based book distributor, and is now in 6th place on the Palestinian best-seller list. The cover of the book shows a picture of Hitler, a swastika, and the title in both German and Arabic.” & “Mein Kampf was translated into Arabic (and many other languages) in the 1960s and has been popular for decades in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, the Palestinian terrorities - even in Indonesia and the Muslim far east.” & "By showing that Mein Kampf and the Qur’an were authored by the same spirit, and that their motives, mission, and means were indistinguishable, I will have made exposing and rebuking Islam relevant, as Mein Kampf led to the Holocaust and the brutal death of 55 million people. Mein Kampf and the Qur’an were comprised of the same raw material and crafted in the same fashion." These and other facinating facts about that badly written, filled with the author’s selfpity, hatemongering book, you’ll find here: [http://www.factbites.com/topics/Mein-Kampf](http://www.factbites.com/topics/Mein-Kampf) ---
**Author:** ![Tikster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@Tikster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikster)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/115 "2006-02-03T13:26:06Z")
Since I’m also Danish, I might as well chime in… (even though my comments seem insignificant compared to others in this thread). For the record, what I’ve seen on the news, people in some arab countries do not even have the choice to boykott or not - the stores have done it for them. So the “look, our people are boykotting you because you offended them” doesn’t ring as true to me as it would, if the population had an active choice. Plus, boykotting back would not get us anywhere (in my mind). I do think it’s time someone did a reality check and calmed down. I’ll admit I’m dumbfounded by the large differences in mentality, just a few thousand kms’ apart. This is 2006, right? I’m not all that political, but these cartoons were published in the fall - and only now, after Danish Imams travelled to muslim countries to raise a stink do we have this crisis. Thanks a lot, guys. Guess you don’t like living in Denmark, what with it’s free press, free choice of religion and welfare and everything… I guess what sums up my feelings on the subject is that it’s very surreal. -Tikster Also ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/116 "2006-02-03T13:29:50Z")
_Mein Kampf_ is also a bestseller in India, but not specifically among Muslims: rather, it’s promoted by some of the Hindu-nationalist organizations that approve of Aryan-supremacist theories about the natural superiority of the Indo-European “race”. (It probably also has something to do with general anti-British sentiment.) You can go into the most respectable, ordinary, tourist-guides-and-fluff-novels bookstore in almost any major Indian city and find a big old copy of Hitler’s book sitting right out there on a prominent shelf. Very odd experience. Just shows you that what seems to us in the West like a natural, universal loathing and rejection of everything Hitler ever said or did is not necessarily reproduced in the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/117 "2006-02-03T13:31:42Z")
I’m not going to comment on the shitty book, the person who wote it, nor who reads it, but do want to point out that **gum** ’s quotation was copied from a site called [phrophetofdoom.net](http://phrophetofdoom.net), a site that: > [@](#): > > …is a critical review of the Islamic scriptures designed to expose what Muhammad was really like and why Islam shouldn’t be tolerated. And therefore might not be the most impartial of websites. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/118 "2006-02-03T13:31:53Z")
Up to 300 militant Indonesian Muslims went on a rampage in the lobby of a building housing the Danish embassy in Jakarta. Shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest), they smashed lamps with bamboo sticks, threw chairs, lobbed rotten eggs and tomatoes and tore up a Danish flag. No one was hurt. Palestinian gunmen seized and later released a German on Thursday, and a hand grenade was thrown into the compound of the French Cultural Centre in the Gaza Strip. The editor of a Norwegian magazine which reprinted the Danish cartoons said he had received 25 death threats and thousands of hate messages. A Jordanian editor was sacked for reprinting them, despite saying his purpose had been only to show the extent of the Danish insult to Islam. “Oh I ask God to forgive me,” Jihad Momani wrote in a public letter of apology. :rolleyes: French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy condemned the protests. “I am totally shocked and find it unacceptable that – because there have been caricatures in the West – extremists can burn flags or take fundamentalist or extremist positions which would prove the cartoonists right,” he told LCI television. [http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-03T114139Z\_01\_L03545299\_RTRUKOC\_0\_UK-RELIGION-CARTOONS.xml](http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-03T114139Z_01_L03545299_RTRUKOC_0_UK-RELIGION-CARTOONS.xml) So true, Mr. Douste-Blazy, Bravo. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/119 "2006-02-03T13:38:43Z")
Yes, **Tikster** , It’s 2006. Weird, huh. > [@](#): > > _Guess you don’t like living in Denmark, what with it’s free press, free choice of religion and welfare and everything…_ Ah! But they DO like welfare and everthing, correct? **jjimm** [http://www.factbites.com/topics/Mein-Kampf](http://www.factbites.com/topics/Mein-Kampf) gives the facts. Are you disputing factbites? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209/120 "2006-02-03T13:41:09Z")
[Factbites is a search engine](http://www.factbites.com/why_use_us.php). > [@](#): > > Factbites searches for matches on the basis of your whole topic area, not just your keyword. This means that it can return relevant, informative results on your topic that don’t necessarily mention the word you searched for! The results are no more nor less correct, or impartial, than any other search engine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-boycott-of-danish-goods/342209.md?page=7)