From Chicago Tribune
March 6, 2013
Lars Hedegaard is a Danish journalist who has made his name denouncing Islam, which he describes as “a totalitarian system of thought” whose adherents “rape their own children.” Last month, someone showed up at his door with a gun and fired a shot that missed him.
It’s just what you would expect of those crazy Muslims, isn’t it? Except that in the aftermath, Hedegaard found Muslims across Denmark were conspicuously un-crazy. They did not applaud the assailant or excuse his motives. Instead, they condemned the attack and upheld Hedegaard’s freedom to preach unhinged bigotry.
One group even rallied in Copenhagen to disavow such violence. A Dane whose family came from Afghanistan told The New York Times, “We don’t defend Hedegaard’s views but do defend his right to speak.”
Oh, but consider what happened last year when a far-right group marched in front of Berlin mosques carrying signs with caricatures of Mohammed, which Muslims consider forbidden. Sure enough, a subsequent bombing was blamed on Muslims — a bombing in Sudan. In Germany, however, imams asked the faithful to ignore the provocation, and they did.
