I'm looking at the pictures of our burning embassy....

[ertmann|CPH]

...and a deep dispair seems to have overwhealmed me.

I have lived in another country with a different culture and mindset, I have felt the ugly face of racism on my own body and soul, and because of this, allways vigurously defended our minorities, allways spoken out when I saw racism, I have sung in the choir of voices against the Danish Peoples Party and their pittyfull misunderstood anger against another culture. I even voted for a muslim in the last elections to make sure their voice was heard in parliament.

Today my voice have faded, how can I preach that Islam is a tollerant and peacefull religion, when anyone can turn on their television and see that I am wrong? Hijackings, deaththreats, vandalism, flag burnings, jihads, fatwahs, boycotts, as far as the eye can see, from London to Jakarta, the very people I have defended are now shouting that I must die.

They are angry, or atleast they claim to be, because a newspaper have depicted their profet with a bomb in his turban, thereby labeling him, and i turn, all muslims as terrorists. That we are punishing a whole religion because of the acts of a few, yet they are themselves guilty of punishing a whole nation because of the acts of a single editor.

We can not applogize, even if we wanted too, can't they understand? our constitution prohibits it, so in order to do so, we would have to ammend the constitution, which has not been changed since 1953, it would take months, and more important, it would require a referendom, which would not pass, because our liberal freedoms are as heartfelt and deeply rooted, as the muslims love for their profet, so appologizing is in the hands of this single editor, since we can not force him due to our laws - And he obviously doesn't want too.

It is, by the way, the same freedoms, protecting him, that insures that Abu Laban, and the fundamentalists of Hizbu Tahir, week after week, can attack their Danish hosts in their friday prayers. It's the same laws that makes the Nazi party able to denounce the holocaust on their radio – and we tollerate such attrocities exactly because these freedoms are so important to us, and not just a convinient way to degrade muslims.

Speaking of tollerance, It's hard for us to take allegations of intollerance seriously, atleast from the large number of Arab officials and religious leaders who has condemned us, as they themselves bans symbols of christianity, punishes homosexuals by death, and rarely condemns acts of terror and extremism against the west in the name of the religion, which they claim to be peaceful and tolerant.

Our critics must understand that the publication, was a reaction to an explosive tension between the muslims living here and native Danes, which Arabian citizens can't possibly begin to understand, it's a problem that urgently needs to be adressed, In Denmark the traditional way to deal with such matters, are through satire and irony, you see it everywhere, and it's part of what it means to be Danish. I do understand that this is very far from the Arabic mindset, but this was after all published in a Danish newspaper, in Danish, and never ment for the outside world to see.

Which leads me to my last point, why should we as secular/christian society adhere to the rules of a religion we do not follow? what gives muslims the right to come to our country and scream for special treatment, especially as the majority of our middle eastern immigrants have come here to escape the oppresive regimes of their home countries - should they not tolerate the price for these freedoms? In other words what gives a muslim the right to force his values and the rules of his religion upon me any more than I have the right to force my secular values upon him?

I am not the only one to ponder about this - So when the searchlights of the mass media has turned onto other stories and the demonstations of the middle east have faded, the hardworking moderate muslims of Denmark will feel the full rage of the counter reaction, and I am quite certain there will be one, they will be alone in eye of the storm, I will no longer stand up for them, and so I'm afraid, will no one else.