Denmark as the Big Satan : Projections of Scandinavia in the Arab World and the Future of Multiculturalism

Summary, in English

During the winter and spring of 2006, Denmark and Scandinavia faced its most serious crisis since World War II. The conflict started as a Danish newspaper published a number of cartoons, some of which portrayed the prophet Muhammad. After the Danish government rejected their requests to censor the media, Danish Islamists distributed these pictures to some senior political and religious figures in the Middle East and requested their support against Denmark. To these pictures, they added a number of more offensive images, never published in any Danish newspaper in order to infuriate Muslims around the world. Muslim clerics, assisted by the governments of Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran caused the region to explode in protest and violent riots, in which 44 people were killed. Danish products were boycotted across the Muslim world; Scandinavian embassies were attacked and set ablaze in Syria, Iran, Lebanon and Indonesia. Islamists promised substantial rewards for anyone who would murder Danish and Norwegian peacekeepers, and Scandinavian UN forces were attacked in Palestine and Afghanistan. The Scandinavian countries and the EU are struggling to find a way to address the issue of radical Islam within their societies, and how to defend liberal democratic values from attacks from its enemies. This process may lead to a redefinition of values, a shift from multiculturalism to an embrace of the democratic western values upon which the European states are based.

• Author: Per Anders Rudling
• Publishing year: 2006
• Language: English
• Pages: 73-112
• Publication/Series: Review of European and Russian Affairs
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 3
• Links: https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/rera/article/view/174/111
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Carleton University - Centre for European Studies
• Topic: History
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1718-4835