by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) Stating they were taking a defiant stand in defense of freedom of speech, newspapers in Denmark have reprinted one of the notorious satirical cartoons of Muhammed that caused a storm of violent protest in the Muslim world over two years ago.
The decision to reprint, taken on Wednesday by 15 Danish newspapers and one in Sweden, came in response to news that Danish police had arrested three Muslim men suspected of plotting to murder Kurt Westergaard, who drew one of the cartoons.
The papers thereupon reprinted that very cartoon, which depicts Muhammed with a bomb in his turban. Calling on U.S. Papers The California-based Ayn Rand Institute saluted the latest publication, and called on American newspapers to follow suit. "Now it is the turn of American newspapers and media outlets to show their solidarity with that ideal, and reprint all 12 of the original cartoons," said Elan Journo, a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. "Newspapers in Denmark grasp that nothing should be allowed to override freedom of speech," Journo said, noting that few US newspapers did the same.
"Their refusal to bow down in the face of murder plots should be a wake-up call to editors in 'the land of the free and the home of the brave.' Few U.S. newspapers - and none of the leading ones - dared to stick their necks out, let alone raise their heads, during the cartoons crisis two years ago. U.S. media outlets, who claim to cherish freedom of speech, should realize the need to uphold it as a principle without exceptions."
Arrests follow Denmark violence
Forty three people have been arrested after a sixth consecutive night of violence in immigrant neighbourhoods in Danish cities, police officials say.
On Saturday police arrested groups of youths in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Ringsted, Slagelse and other cities after they set fire to schools, cars and rubbish bins and threw rocks at frefighters.
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