Editorial: From Copenhagen to The Hague

Thu, 03/27/2008 12:08 PM  |  Opinion

Looking at the European map, Copenhagen and The Hague seem a matter of a few hundred kilometers or a just few hours drive apart. But looking at the way the two capitals reacted to an incident involving their Muslim minorities, they could not be further apart.

In 2005, the Danish government vehemently defended as free speech the publication of a set of cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad in a local newspaper. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen refused to act against the Jillands-Posten newspaper, even symbolically, despite being urged by the Muslim community and representatives from the Muslim world, including Indonesia.

His refusal led to some violent anti-Denmark protests in the Islamic world. In Europe and elsewhere, the cartoons provoked debate on how far free speech could be tolerated when it involved hate speech, which is what the cartoons amounted to in the eyes of many Muslims around the world. There was not even a sign of remorse on the part of the Danish government, despite the damage the cartoons' publication has done to its own international standing, particularly in the Muslim world.

But even more damaging was the tension the controversy created within Denmark's own community relations. Like many other European countries, Denmark has a sizable Muslim minority largely due to immigration.

For the last three months, the Dutch government has made strong efforts to distance itself from the planned release of a documentary film by a right-wing politician, which would purportedly offend Islam.

The film has yet to be released (some have suggested it has not even been produced), but the publicly-announced intention of Geert Wilders to screen the film, supposedly depicting the Koran as preaching violence and likening it to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, has already created controversy in the Netherlands.

While continuing the European tradition of defending free speech, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has warned Wilders of the dire consequences of the film's release. Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen has even urged Wilders to desist his plan. The government is also looking at the possibility of prosecuting the politician on grounds of hate speech, but only after the release of the film.

The Dutch government's stated all Dutch TV stations had opposed the documentary, with none agreeing to screen it. This week, one of the largest global Internet Service Providers refused to host the website that would make the documentary available to a global audience.

We don't think the Dutch government, TV stations and the internet service providers have reacted out of fear of the repercussions from the Muslim world. After all, the Danish government survived the controversy.

But the Danish experience, including the ensuing debate about free speech, served valuable lessons for every one. One of these is the need for people to show greater tolerance and sensitivity toward others who have a different set of values, principles and cultures. This is especially true if you live in the same neighborhood or country.

With European population now made up of immigrants from all corners of the world, including the Muslim world, it has yet to come to terms with the reality of the racial, ethnic and religious diversity of its populations. Understanding and respecting the rights of these immigrants becomes the greatest challenge of the increasingly multicultural and multi-religious states in Europe.

This, rather than appeasing the Muslim world (we don't need appeasing anyway), must underline the policies of European countries in dealing with its minority Muslim communities. The growing Islamophobia is a problem for Europeans to deal with. The sooner they learn and accept the presence of Muslims in their own populace, the better it will be for them.

Indonesia, as the country with the largest Muslim population, can support this process of building understanding between the different religious communities, by sharing our own experience as a pluralist country.

We are not a perfect model for a multicultural society, as we have had our own share of communal conflicts in the past, but the fact that we have remained as one state for 63 years must count for something.

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