Clarke criticises Danish ‘mistake’ over cartoons
In a statement to The Guardian today, The British Home Secretary criticises Anders Fogh Rasmussen of not responding to a letter sent by the Ambassadors to protest the Muhammed cartoons:
Clarke criticises Danish ‘mistake’ over cartoons
Hélène Mulholland
Wednesday March 8, 2006The British government has accused its Danish counterparts of making “a serious mistake” in the way it handled relations with Muslim countries after the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, criticised the decision by the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to snub a request from 11 Muslim countries for a meeting after the cartoons were published in the Jyllands Posten newspaper in September.
Mr Clarke told a public meeting in Willesden Green - primarily held to discuss law and order issues - that Mr Rasmussen had not even responded to the request.
Admitting it was a “political point”, Mr Clarke said: “I think that was a serious mistake which you could not imagine happening in other countries … certainly not in this country. It is a question of respecting others, and that means do not provoke or challenge the deeply-held views of others.”
This is not true. Click the image below to see the full letter.
Now, would someone please explain what this NuLabour man is doing criticising honorable men?
Der står dog længere nede i artiklen:
Mr Rasmussen’s office disputed the claim that the prime minister had failed to respond to the ambassadors’ joint letter, which was officially received by the government in mid-October.
“The prime minister did respond with a kind letter dated October 21″, a statement said. However, it confirmed that Mr Rasmussen had chosen not to agree to the requested meeting.
Men den øverste del af artiklen manipulerer. Typisk Guardian.
Comment by Hodja — March 9, 2006 @ 11:05 am
Mr. Clarke is ill-informed. In the first place, the Egyptian Ambassador to Denmark helped stoke the fires of manufactured ‘outrage’ over the cartoons for which she was eventually recalled as per the accompanying link:
http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/02/breaking-news-egyptian-ambassador-to.html
Why would anyone expect Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen to meet with such duplicitous and insincere people as the imams who obeyed the Ambasadress’ injunction to create more of a stir over the cartoons? That would merely display weakness. Mr. Rasmussen did exactly the right thing and in light of subsequent revelations about the manipulation of this whole business behind the scenes by ‘interested parties’, I cannot fault him at all. Rather, more should be made of the Machiavellian goings on by the imams and the Ambassadress to Denmark.
Comment by foreign devil — March 9, 2006 @ 1:21 pm