The "Comic Wars"

A round-up of coverage from European newspapers.

By Julia Gronnevet, Campus Progress
Friday February 10, 2006

It’s a story that’s been germinating in Denmark and parts of the Islamic world since the summer. The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, a gravely insulting act of blasphemy to some Muslims. The story escalated in the last few weeks more quickly than anyone could have imagined, with enraged demonstrators torching Scandinavian embassies in Syria last week, diplomatic pressure from several Muslim countries and boycotts of Danish products in large parts of the Islamic world. Many European newspapers have since reprinted the cartoons. European newspapers find themselves in the awkward position of—in some ways—being a cause of the riots, but also the ideal place to debate the situation. Discussing at least five angles in four languages, here’s a round-up of what some major European newspapers are saying about the cartoon-conflict this week.

Jyllands-Posten, the paper that sparked the row, leads with a story headlined “New Foreigners More Difficult to Integrate.” The article is in Danish, of course, and placed directly underneath a box containing all of the paper’s coverage related to ‘The Mohammed Affair’. The headline leads to a brief story, outlining a study that says new immigrants (or refugees) take longer to find work than they used to after completing their education.

Politiken, Denmark ’s most important national newspaper, leads with new developments in the cartoon riots. Its chilling headline is taken from a demonstration in Gaza after Friday prayers: “Bin Laden, attack again!” The story itself is a round-up of where in the world protesters are still burning the Danish flag. The rest of the front page is littered with other news events and riots-related stories.

The slightly left-wing Information leads with a story headlined “Conflict over caricatures paralyses Nordic aid to Afghanistan”—surely an effect nobody could have predicted would result from something as innocuous as cartoons. The story states that all international aid-work in Afghanistan is at a standstill, and 11 people have lost their lives so far in demonstrations and conflicts related to the cartoons. The Taliban is doing its utmost to fan the flames of the conflict in the hope of returning to power in the country.

Weekendavisen, one of the best Scandinavian weekly newspapers, has picked a piece headlined “My Mosque” as its top story. The piece is about the fragmented Muslim community in Denmark, with its Sunni, Shia, Turkish and Arab populations. Other featured stories are a meditation on pictorial representations of world religions, and a lengthy editorial titled “Tolerance and respect is not the same thing”.

The Norwegian daily Klassekampen doesn’t feature the cartoons in its news, but editorializes on Danish—and European—racism and ignorance, as revealed both by the cartoon controversy, and the re-election last year of Fogh Rasmussen as Prime Minister of Denmark on a platform that includes limits on immigration.

Le Monde, of France, hasn’t devoted editorial space to the cartoons since last week, but the debâcle is still covered in the analysis and comment sections. Henri Tincq reaches back to the Salmon Rushdie affair almost twenty years ago and draws parallels between what’s happening now and then.

After about a week of exhaustive coverage, The Guardian (Britain) has let the cartoon stuff drop to midway down a very long page with a comment titled “This is not a cartoon war” which argues that the real issue is European Islamophobia.

The major Belgian newspaper Le Soir doesn’t mention the cartoons at all on its front page, but publishes a long story about a protocol appealing for peace and calm signed by thousands of Danes. This is related to a similar appeal launched in Paris, where political and religious leaders have asked people to “take this crisis seriously, and avoid amplifying it by use of the simplifications and generalizations that have caused this escalation.”