60 Minutes on Denmark

On Sunday, 60 Minutes aired a segment on what's been happening in Denmark since the publication of the Mohammed cartoons (video available at Expose the Left). It was absolutely appalling. Bob Simon's report portrayed Denmark as a fairytale land of daydreamers who are guilty of bringing this chaos on themselves.

Who could ever imagine that this lovely little land would spark riots sweeping the Islamic world? Is it a quirk, a coincidence? Correspondent Bob Simon traveled to Copenhagen to find out and discovered that there is something really strange in the state of Denmark and that it’s no accident the firestorm started here.

[...]Ever since the second World War, the Danes have been pleased with their country, pleased with their generous welfare system and, above all, pleased with themselves.

The lines between fantasy and reality aren’t sharply defined around Denmark. The elite troops guarding the royal palace look like toy soldiers, the national symbol is a bare-breasted mermaid luxuriating in Copenhagen’s harbor and the capital’s streets are lined with homes that could be gingerbread houses.

Considering the heinous tone of the report, I was surprised that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's beautiful response to this question was included in the segment:

"You are on record as defending the paper, defending its right to publish. And your critics have said that defending them so strongly has served to further inflame the Muslim world. What’s your view on that, sir?" Simon asked Rasmussen.

"Well what I’ve done is to insist on the principle of free speech, the principle of free press. And I have made it clear that the government has no means whatsoever to interfere with a free and independent newspaper," the prime minister replied.

Of course, that was prefaced by the following statement from Toger Seidenfaden, a newspaper editor who works for the rival of the newspaper that originally published the cartoons:

"Because sadly enough, in the domestic political situation in Denmark, the logic was simple. As conflict between the biggest newspaper in the land and religious Muslims. On whose side am I on? It's very simple for a prime minister to answer: ‘I'm with the big newspaper,’" Seidenfaden says.

Among those interviewed was Ahmed Abu-Laban, the imam who spread the twelve published cartoons, as well as several fake, unpublished cartoons, around the Middle East, inciting the mayhem that continues today.

The Muslims felt totally rebuffed at home in Denmark. So the imam sent a delegation to the Middle East with a dossier of pictures, not only of the published cartoons, but of others that were even more offensive. One showed the prophet with the head of a pig.

Abu-Laban told 60 Minutes he had received these in anonymous threatening letters. But the dossier left the impression that those pictures had been printed in the newspaper.

"I guess what I'm getting at, imam, didn't you include these obscene cartoons as a way of really stirring up the pot?" Simon asked.

"We didn't give it to media. Don't forget this point," the imam said.

"I'm the media. And I have it," Simon replied.

It was the dissemination of that dossier which ignited the flames that are still burning today.

"You weren't getting any attention here before you spread the word. Now, you're getting attention and engagement. Do you think your mission was a success?" Simon asked.

"Yes. The whole world is engaged. I'm so positive," Abu-Laban replied.

Asked if he thought the casualties are worthwhile, the imam said: "I feel sorry. But we make cars and they make accidents. We build skyscrapers, but they collapse in an earthquake. This is life. We have maybe unexpected tragedies. And we have to live with them."

So, in a nutshell, the report portrayed Muslims as victims who were baited by the cartoonists, the newpaper, and ultimately shunned by Danes and their government. Nice, huh? That's today's MSM for you.

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