Jyllands-Posten: “Egypt orchestrated prophet-campaign”
Jyllands-Posten, Saturday, February 18, 2006
Egypt orchestrated prophet-campaign
The Egyptian government played a greater role than previously known.
A memorandum from the Egyptian government shows that it began putting pressure on the Danish government immediately following the refusal of PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen to meet with the 11 Moslem ambassadors, Politiken writes.
The Danish ambassador was summoned to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry four days after the Danish refusal.
According to the memorandum which Politiken has in its possession, a high-ranking Egyptian official demanded that the Danish government distance itself from the cartoons "by publicly condemning ridiculing Islam or the prophet." The Danish ambassador was also warned of "a possible escalation of the matter," says the memorandum.
Former Foreign Minister Niels Helveg-Petersen thinks this is a liability to the Danish government.
Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller did not wish to comment. The Spokesman on Foreign Affairs for the Liberals, Troels Lund Poulsen has no information about the Egyptian memorandum and refers to Per Stig Møller.
Denmark did right in not giving into the pressure, too bad most of the media outlets around the world did not hold that same view. You can come check out the cartoons on my website at http://www.obber.com. I also created a game called Shoot Gallery, where you can try to gun down Osama Bin Laden for giving the Western world such a negative impression.
Comment by Curtis Stone — February 18, 2006 @ 4:12 pm