Back in 2005, Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set the gold standard on defending free speech when, on being approached by perpetually aggrieved Islamic ambassadors hoping for official redress against Jyllands Posten (Cartoon Rage was just kicking in), he refused to hear their plaints, explaining to them and the world that it was not his place, as prime minister, to interfere with free speech in Denmark.
“This is a matter of principle. I will not meet with them [the ambassadors] because it is so crystal clear what principles Danish democracy is built upon that there is no reason to do so…As prime minister, I have no power whatsoever to limit the press – nor do I want such power.”  (continue reading: Free Speech, Then And Now/Brussels Journal)
Free Speech Death Watch Alert: “Danish FM meets top Muslim cleric to defuse cartoon tension,” by Samer al-Atrush for AFP, October 13:
Danish FM meets top Muslim cleric to defuse cartoon tension
Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen
CAIRO — Denmark’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that the hurt caused to Muslims from cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed was “very regrettable,” after she met Egypt’s top cleric to defuse tensions caused by the re-publication of the caricatures.
Lene Espersen said she and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, discussed “how to make sure that the great religions of the world can live peacefully side by side.”
The meeting followed the publication last last month of a book carrying the caricatures, entitled “The Tyranny of Silence.” (AFP)
How dare this dhimmi Lene Esperson appear before the Grand Imam of Al-Azahar bare-headed and not in a burqa with only one eye showing. For this brazeness she should undergo the punishment of clit-cutting followed by two hundred lashes. That will teach you, you dhimmi
was this a discussion on “how to make sure that the great religions of the world can live peacefully side by side” in the west or in islamic countries?
* “how to make sure that the great religions of the world can live peacefully side by side.”
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)
As a female and a westerner, I find Islam offensive and diametrically opposed to western rights and civilization. I also find attempts at appeasing an institutionalized, irrational theopolitical ideologists absolutely insane and contrary to every belief that we westerners hold dear.
edit..2nd sentence, remove “an”.
The problem is not Islam. A functional, rational, self-confident Western civilization could handle the cultural primitives and psychos falling on their faces five times a day, begging the Almighty not to kill them (too). But the problem of course is that we no longer have a functional, rational, self-confident Western civilization.
Soloview, you hit the nail right on the head. It is our fault for not insisting our political masters do the things it will take to rid the Islam evil from all the western nations. This includes big business and banking and media. They have all got to work together, but sadly money is their master.