Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-15-Speech-3-018"
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"en.20060215.2.3-018"2
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". – Good morning, little EU! Globalisation has indeed arrived. I never thought that other people could burn the Danish flag with such passion. On freedom of expression we will never give in. Freedom of expression and freedom of religion both need to be respected.
The editor of
has apologised for the feelings raised. He would not have published the cartoons today. Some Danish imams have distributed the cartoons they do not like. Why feel so offended by cartoons you spread to as many as possible?
The Danish Prime Minister has rightly refused to take responsibility for the content in our newspapers, but when 11 Arab ambassadors ask for a meeting, it is a duty for a prime minister to meet them. He should have explained that freedom of expression is limited by the Danish courts, not by the government. He should have advised on how to write to the special press authority to have its judgement.
Blasphemy is a crime under the Danish penal code. Every local editor must show global responsibility. Cartoons in a newspaper can spread via the internet and global media like wildfire. Several people have been killed.
The Danish Foreign Minister had an excellent press conference when the Danish embassies were burning. He talked of dialogue and generosity instead of animosity. People could be put in jail in Denmark for burning the Koran. I could not agree more: generosity instead of animosity. We must learn to respect and cooperate with Muslims, even if we will never surrender freedom of speech.
My group warned against making fundamental rights a part of EU law. Sensitive judgements on freedom of expression and religious rights must be decided locally under international frameworks decided by the United Nations and the European Convention on Human Rights. We can offer dialogue in the new joint Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly. We can amend our exchange programmes to allow Europeans to visit the Arab world and young Arabs to visit us. We can open our markets more to their products, make peace and prosperity in the Middle East a priority, but state-sponsored trade boycotts against Danish products must be raised by the EU in the WTO.
Islam is not about the Danish Constitution. Danish imams have no right to appeal to other nations. Muslims may use the Danish courts in the same way as all other citizens. If it is not enough, go to the European Court of Human Rights here in Strasbourg. Indeed, globalisation has arrived. We all need to open our minds. There is no easy one-way ticket back. We will all have to change a bit to live in a global village. A third world war can be started by a little cartoon, as the First World War was started when a young student shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. A student’s shot – or a satirical cartoon – may not be the reason, but let us take the message. We must all live together on this globe. We have no other globe available yet.
It is on this planet that we must all live."@en1
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