Jyllands-Posten: “Danish Imams’ false pictures were misleading”
Jyllands-Posten, Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Danish Imams’ pictures were misleadingly attributed
by Lars Nørgaard Pedersen
The Danish Imams didn’t differentiate between which pictures were published in Jyllands-Posten and which pictures they had added to 43 pages they toured the Middle East with.
Spokesman for the Danish Imams Ahmed Akkari repeatedly claimed that they had marked which pictures where the ones they added and which were published. Among the added ones was the much discussed pig photograph.
Professor Helle Lykke Nielsen from the centre for Mideast Studies at the University of Southern Denmark has studied the document and she concludes that no differentiation was made and that one is inclined to think that the extra photograps had been published in Danish newspapers.
"The claim Akkari makes that their own photographs which hadn’t been published were were seperate from the rest is flat wrong. No other interpretation of the document seems plausible than to conclude that the extra photographs had in fact been published. This knowing or unknowing manipulation seems very serious to me. Their photographs have undoubtedly been a contributing factor to the uproar."
Organizations mixed up
Her review of the document also reveals that the document has no definite author, that the number of organizations supporting it is not clear and that cartoons from the back of Weekendavisen are claimed to have been published on the front page.
Ahmed Akkari "does not wish to comment".
