GagWatch

A little over a week ago two Dutch companies, fearing a boycott of their products took out advertisements in Jordanian newspapers distancing themselves from the film Fitna.

Now Heineken has withdrawn (via) a television ad from the Spanish television station La Sexta after the station broadcast a satirical series which made fun of the Roman Catholic Church.

Heineken withdrew the ad after the Christian group Hazte Or called for a boycott of all companies which do business with La Sexta.

Following Monday’s announcement by Amsterdam’s chief public prosecutor, Leo de Wit, that no case will be brought against Geert Wilders in the Netherlands for either discrimination or incitement to hatred, the Jordanian justice authorities have started preparing a criminal case against the right wing MP over his film, Fitna.

A Jordanian judge has ruled that there is a case to answer. A number of procedures will have to be followed before any indictment is issued and this is likely to take a considerable time.

The complaint has been brought by organisations which believe the film constitutes an incitement to hatred of Muslims. They have already launched a campaign to boycott Dutch products, blaming the government in The Hague for not prosecuting Wilders.

Jordan’s justice authorities have announced that they are not aiming to arrest the Dutch MP, who leads the rightwing Freedom Party. They say the decision to prosecute was taken in order to send a signal to the Netherlands.

Earlier this month, a Jordanian Muslim group filed a lawsuit against Geert Wilders as a protest gesture over Fitna.

The group - which calls itself Rassoul Allah Yajmana, or The messenger of God Unites Us - was formed in February to campaign against anyone who mentions Muhammed and has also filed a lawsuit against 17 Danish newspapers for reprinting the Mo-toons earlier this year.

The Jordan public prosecutor has decided to charge Wilders over the film, in which he expressed his concern about what he called the Islamization of the Netherlands and the spreading of Muslim fundamentalism in Europe. Dutch Foreign Minister, Maxime Verhagen appears to be taking this threat seriously and, on Thursday, met with Wilders to discuss the consequences of the decision.

Wilders said he and Verhagen discussed whether it was likely that another country that he might visit would extradite him to Jordan.

Theoretically, Jordan could file an extradition application through Interpol to a country that Wilders might visit.

Demonstrating a disconnection from reality that only the religious can achieve, several Islamic countries - including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia - are demanding (via) that the Dutch government prosecute Geert Wilders on the basis that his film, Fitna, on the basis that it somehow violates their human rights.

According to Omar Shalaby, the delegate from Egypt (last election, political prisoners), the decision by The Hague District Court last week, which said the lawmaker’s right to free speech and role as a politician allow him to freely voice his criticisms of radical Islam and the Koran:

This ruling may suggest that the judiciary is out of touch with the relevant international and regional obligations and jurisprudence in the field of human rights.

It is probably a lot more accurate to say that Shalaby, and the rest of these Islamic delegates who have done so much to undermine the U.N. Human Rights Council, are out of touch with the meaning of the phrase “human rights.”

Iran, whose president recently attempted to cast doubt on whether the September 11th attacks actually happened, claimed that the film is “vivid example of Islamophobia and incitement to religious hatred,” and demanded that the Netherlands change their laws to give special protection to Islam.

Back in the real world, the Dutch embassy in Pakistan has been temporarily relocated because of security worries. Officials are looking at how to tighten security around the vacated embassy building so that staff can return.

The Fitna bandwagon just keeps on rolling. Indonesia are leading the pack at the moment, banning broadcasts of the film and barring Geert Wilders from entering the country.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged fellow Muslims in the country on Monday night not to use violence, vandalism or conduct a sweep against opponents in protests against the film, saying Islam and other religions never allow such a way.

But he also insisted that “world leaders have a moral obligation to prevent religious or cultural defamation,” which they don’t.

In Malaysia, the country’s national religious council called the film an insult it Islam and called for a boycott of Dutch products.

And a group of 53 Jordanian MPs have delivered a petition to their government in Amman, demanding that it break all diplomatic ties with the Netherlands. They also want the Dutch ambassador expelled from the country.

The attempt to organise a boycott (via) of Danish products in Saudi Arabia is still rumbling on and Hatim Misfir, a government official in the country, has trotted out the old canard about freedom of press and expression being okay as long as no-one uses it.

Last week, French cartoonist Plantu appeared to endorse this position, expressing concern over renewed tensions between the West and the Islamic world after the republication of the cartoons. Making the rather bizarre assertion that you can somehow kill people with cartoons, Plantu claimed to be advocating “the right to nuance.”

Nuance, of course, is the one thing that those making the threats seem to lack as is evidenced by the news (via) that several men who share the same name as the cartoonist whose life was threatened have also been threatened. There are 81 people in Denmark called Kurt Westergaard, several are now under police protection from stupid people taking offence.

Not surprisingly, none of the Dutch public or commercial TV channels are willing to broadcast Geert Wilders’ Koran bashing film, Fitna. According to the Volkskrant, Wilders is insisting that anyone who screens part of the film must screen the entire 10 to 15-minute feature, a condition no broadcaster is willing to meet. Wilders is now planning to release the film over the internet.

However, a majority of Dutch people do want the film to be shown - even though they fear it will stoke tension with Muslims. A poll for RTL television found that 54% of the 600 people questioned thought the film should be broadcast although 76 percent expected it to increase tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims and 74 percent saw worsening relations with Arab nations.

And, although Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen have been trying to talk Wilders out of releasing his film, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that he will support the Netherlands if it comes under attack because of film.

More honourably, Alexander Pechtold of the social liberal D66 has said that Europe must publicly explain the values of freedom of expression and democracy in order to prevent a backlash to the film.

He may want to start in Egypt, where Danish and Dutch filmmakers were barred from an international children’s film festival in Egypt because artists in those countries “insulted Islam”.

First the good news. Aleksandr Sdvizhkov, the editor in Belarus who was jailed for publishing the Muhammed cartoons back in 2006 has been released.

More than a 1,000 (mainly small and local) Danish websites were hacked by some individual calling himself United Arab Hackers and reportedly from Saudi Arabia. The websites of international companies based in Denmark, such as Lurpak and Carlsberg, were not affected.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is threatening to expel Danish organizations, snub its officials and boycott the country’s products in reaction to the republished cartoons. Denmark’s foreign aid minister is considering whether this might have consequences for Danish aid (130.2 million kroner last year) to the African country.

Bahrainis took to the streets and the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe jumped on the bandwagon.

With thanks to Media Watch Watch (twice) and The Comics Reporter.

Updated

The Vatican and the Al-Azhar university in Cairo have issued a joint statement condeming (via) the republication of the cartoon but studiously avoiding any mention of the foiled murder plot against the 72-year-old cartoonist which prompted the republications.

The Times of India (via) reports that hardline Egyptian cleric has jumped on the latest Mo-toon bandwagon by demanding a boycott of Danish products.

“Regrettably, Muslims start potently with these issues, then they relax gradually as the strong (supporters) get weaker and the enthusiastic (supporters) get lazy,” said el-Qaradawi during a press conference aired by Al-Jazeera television.

That’s one way of looking at it. Another point of view is that most Muslims are adult enough to realise (eventually, in some cases) that a bunch of cartoons you haven’t seen being published in a country you have no intention of visiting isn’t the most important thing in the world.

The Comics Reporter (via) has a lengthy and depressing update of the state of the second run of the Muhammed Cartoons conroversy.

In Egypt…

• Four international newspapers were banned by government officials for recent republication of the images. Two of the papers have never printed the cartoon
• The Danish Ambassador to Cairo was summoned by the Egyptian government to listen to another rant
• Thousands of students protested
• And two football matches have been cancelled.

Elsewhere…

• Yemen has suspended friendship with Denmark’s parliament
• In Jordan, the lower house of Parliament fails to recognise that freedom is a value