Abstract
During and after what became known as ‘the cartoon crisis’ in the early months of 2006, many observers noted how the crisis should be understood as an expression of a growing Islamophobic tendency in Danish society. While such an interpretation undoubtedly is correct it fails to explain how both this Islamophobic tendency and the crisis must be seen as contemporary expressions of a long-lasting estrangement in Danish society between forces respectively sympathetic and adverse to modernity. In this article it is argued that Muslims in the Danish context today have become signifiers of current modernity, in the shape of globalization. This perspective provides a clearer understanding of the dynamics of the crisis in the Danish context as it explains why publishing the cartoons made sense to many groups in Denmark who came out both for and against this act.
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Notes
“Sweden FM quits over cartoon row” BBC online, March 21, 2006. “Freivalds avvärjade svensk Muhammedkris” Sydsvenskan.se, February 23, 2006.
“Profile: Roberto Calderoli” BBC online, February 18, 2006.
In the European scope, this is often explained from current encounters of European states and populations with new groups of Muslim immigrants. However, each such European context is of course particular and should be considered as such. One fundamental difference between the Danish case and some other cases where there have been confrontations of different kinds between some groups of Muslims and other parts of society is the colonial backgrounds to these states. While Dutch, French and British societies have for centuries had colonial encounters with large groups of Muslims (in for instance Indonesia, North Africa and the Indian subcontinent respectively), Danish colonial expansions in West Africa, the West-Indies, and India did not encompass large groups of Muslims.
Or at least that was the case until quite recently. It can be argued (see Linde-Laursen 1995) that Danes from the late 1980s/early 1990s in some ways started to recognize modernity not as a goal for societal development, but as an already passed phase.
A lengthy discussion of what ‘Europe’ means is not necessary here. It should be recognized that today many European processes are driven by the EU. However, large parts of Europe are not active participants in the EU and, consequently, are not parts in the development of EU policies. Furthermore, this does not mean that these non-EU parts of the continent do not experience effects of adopted EU policies. The relation between conceptions of the EU and Europe, thus, is complex.
“Flere indvandrere gifter sig dansk”, Politiken.dk, June 16, 2007.
I do not like this word; however, the alternative will reference religion, and I would like to make the point here that ‘religion’ in itself is of course a Western and modern categorization.
This point can be stressed by pointing out, that when the cartoons were first published in Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005, they were accompanied by an editorial declaring that Islam should not any longer be spared from “insult, mockery and ridicule” as parts of normal Danish public debate. An overview of Danish press coverage of the crisis by Berg and Hervik provides plenty of examples supporting the interpretation made here (2007); however, it lacks the historic context and background that I argue is essential if we are to understand the cartoons in the Danish context. The editor who published the cartoons later strongly maintained that this conception of religion and insult, indeed, was the foremost reason for publishing the cartoons (“Satirteckningars uppgift är att vara kränkande” by Karen Söderberg. Sydsvenskan B6–B7, July 21, 2007).
The implicit reference here to US McCarthyism is of course intentional. During the Cold War, Communists were often depicted in the West as none-national ‘internationalists’. Additionally, such individuals were often depicted as believers rather than as political beings. On both accounts there are consequently parallels with how Muslims are today often depicted in Danish and other Western media.
“In quotes: Jack Straw on the veil”, BBC online, 6 October 2006.
“Satirteckningars uppgift är att vara kränkande” by Karen Söderberg. Sydsvenskan B6–B7, July 21, 2007.
As well as of course at the personal expense of all Danes, Muslim or not, who have married a non-EU or non-Nordic citizen and now have to realize the very limiting immigration legislation that the Danish parliament has passed. Interestingly, many couples consisting of one Danish and one non-EU spouse, who are not allowed to settle in Denmark, end up making their home in southern Sweden; this process is facilitated by Nordic and EU rules protecting the free circulation of labor.
For instance: “Fogh tar avstånd – inte Kjaersgaard” Sydsvenskan.se, October 9, 2006; “Denmark rocked by new cartoon row” BBC online, October 10, 2006; “Pia K: Muhammed-ydmygelse var fjollerier” Politiken.dk, October 9, 2006.
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Linde-Laursen, A. Is something rotten in the state of Denmark? The Muhammad cartoons and Danish political culture. Cont Islam 1, 265–274 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-007-0022-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-007-0022-y