Denmark’s neighbour talks about the Cartoon conflict
The cartoons was not just a matter of freedom of press, but also a result of a Danish history and the public opinion of the ethnic Danes regarding the immigrants and at the moment the Muslims are seen as “The others”.
Denmark has a long history of nationalism in difference to Sweden. The Danish have considered immigrants as “The others”. The nationalistic parties are very strong and have been in the Danish government for several years. Just some years ago the Somalis were seen as “The others” because they were so different to the pale and blond Danish population. Now however the Muslims are seen as “The others” and discussed as a problem in the everyday life and population of the Danes. They do not follow Danish customs, traditions and do not share the same views. Jyllandsposten, the paper that first published the Mohammed cartoons have for a long period of time discussed the Muslims problem with assimilating into the Danish culture on their editorial page. We therefore see the cartoons as a continuation of this. The Danes were not only trying to save their own “culture”, one that supports the Freedom of Press regardless of religious respect, but also enemy-images of others that are interfering with the Danish culture. This was therefore a political way of creating “us” and “them”, and the problems in Denmark considering crimes, unemployment and social issues are mainly blamed on the Muslims today, before it was the Somalis but today it is the Muslims who are to blame.
The reason many Swedes have reacted to the Danish cartoons and the Danes opinions has to do with the Swedish view of tolerance and understanding. Swedes are very afraid of starting a conflict. However many Swedes reacted to the Danish publication and the Danish view of immigrants since in Sweden we discuss the topic of integration in a different way than Denmark. In Denmark integration is assimilation, to integrate you need to be able to assimilate and become Danish, otherwise you do not belong to the country.
The Danish and the Swedish are close, both geographical and culture wise. The Swedish have very good relations to Denmark but even so, there was only one paper that republished some of the cartoons for informative reasons. In Sweden the Freedom of Press is very important and we guard it very carefully. How ever, we do not believe that the Freedom of Press is under threat, nor our culture. We believe that we need religious freedoms, cultural freedoms and Freedom of Press and opinions to be truly free.
Posted in 2006-11: Freedom of Press| 02.11.06
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