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HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY
David Keane*
ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION
The 2006 controversy over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in the
Danish newspaper lyllands-Posten was never resolved, and the issue has re-
emerged. An attack on the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, in June
2008, strongly associated with the cartoon crisis, killed six people. 2 Staff
from Danish embassies in Afghanistan and Algeria were evacuated in April
David Keane is a lecturer in law at Brunel University, West London. He is presently visiting
lecturer at Kadir Has University, Istanbul. He holds a BCL (Law and French) from University
College Cork, Ireland, and an LL.M. and Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law from the
Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway.
1. Isabel Johnson, Cartoons, PUB. OPINION Q 35 (July 1937).
2. Declan Walsh, Bomb at Danish Embassy Kills Six in Pakistan, GUARDIAN (London), 3 June
2008, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/03/pakistan.terrorism.
Human Rights Quarterly 30 (2008) 845-875 © 2008 by The Johns Hopkins University Press
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Vol. 30
2008 following a terror threat linked to the reprinting of the cartoons.3 The
reprinting was caused by the arrest by Danish police on 13 February 2008 of
three men allegedly plotting to kill one of the artists. The Guardian described
how the "damaging and emotive saga over the prophet Muhammad cartoons
4
was still simmering dangerously."
In October 2007, the far-right Danish People's Party unveiled an election
advertisement depicting a hand-drawn representation of the Islamic prophet
under the slogan "Freedom of speech is Danish, censorship is not."' The
advertisement was condemned by at least one Danish Muslim organization,
which termed it a "provocation." 6 On 17 September 2007, the Swedish
cartoonist Lars Vilks was taken to a secret location by the Swedish Secret
Service following an announcement by the purported head of AI-Qaida in
Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, offering a reward of $100,000 to anyone who
kills him. 7 Vilks had drawn a cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad's head
on a dog's body which was published by Nerikes Allehanda newspaper on
18 August.8 Sweden has received more than 18,000 Iraqi refugees in the past
year.9 As a result, the Swedish Prime Minister "has called for mutual respect
between Muslims, Christians and non-religious groups to try to avert a wider
conflict in the country." 10
The terms of the debate appear unchanged; freedom of expression
is once again in conflict with religious belief. The greatest champions of
freedom of expression in the context of the cartoons are, unsurprisingly,
the political party and newspapers involved. When asked by the news-
paper Nyhedsavisen why she used the image in December's election,
Danish People's Party leader Pia Kjaersgaard asked: "Why shouldn't we?
Is it forbidden? Self-censorship is bad." 1" In Sweden, "Nerikes Allehanda
published Vilks's drawings with an editorial criticising Swedish art galleries
for refusing to exhibit the cartoons." 12 Similarly, the editor of Jyllands-Posten
3. Roxanne Escobales, Denmark Evacuates Embassies After 'Concrete' Terror Threat, GUARD-
IAN (London), 23 Apr. 2008, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/23/
muhammadcartoons.afghanistan.
4. Robert Tait, Three Arrested in Denmark over Plot to Kill Muhammad Cartoonist, GUARD-
IAN (London), 13 Feb. 2008, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/1 3/
muhammedcartoonrow.
5. Gwladys Fouch6, Danish Election Ad Reignites Muhammad Cartoon Controversy, GUARD-
IAN (London), 25 Oct. 2007, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoonprotests/
story/O,,21 99006,00.html.
6. Id.
7. Swedish Cartoonist Gets Protection, BBC NEWS, 17 Sept. 2007, available at http://news.
bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middleeast/6999652.stm.
8. Id.
9. Louise Nordstrom, Artist Under AI-Qaida Death Threat in Hiding, GUARDIAN (London), 18
Sept. 2007, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,,2171380,00.html.
10. Id.
11. Fouch6, supra note 5.
12. Nordstrom, supra note 9.
2008 Cartoon Violence and Freedom of Expression
responsible for the cartoons stated: "Some Muslims reject modern secular
society. They demand a special position, insisting on special consideration
of their own religious feelings. It is incompatible with secular democracy
and freedom of expression, where one has to be ready to put up with
scorn, mockery and ridicule."13
Humorists in general, and cartoonists in particular, have more lati-
tude to attack established ideas, because the cartoonist "can say and do
things that the responsible statesman, and even the responsible journal-
ist, cannot say and do." 14 The cartoon is "an ideal medium for suggesting
what cannot be said by the printed word.""5 A cover story on political
cartoonists in Newsweek once noted that "[alcademics-and some politi-
cal professionals-are a little in awe of the freedom cartoonists enjoy to
commit outrages that would read like lunacy in print." 16 The author of the
piece, Jeff McNally, pointed out that he knew "many great cartoonists who
if they couldn't draw would be hired assassins." 7 Yet the cartoonist is also
a victim, vulnerable to retribution by state and private actors. Derso and
Kelen, in United Nations Sketchbook: A Cartoon History of the United
Nations, remark that "the role of the caricaturist in a democratic world
is something like that of a jester in a medieval court .... It is not known
that a court jester was ever hanged for a joke; or perhaps history does not
record such a minor event." 8
This article examines the history of cartoon satire in Section II, in or-
der to highlight the role cartoonists have played in challenging authority,
whether religious or political. Cartoons have also been vehicles for racial and
religious prejudice, and it is asked whether stereotypical or discriminatory
portrayals of racial and religious groups are to be tolerated in contemporary
discourse. Section III details the Danish cartoon controversy, outlining the
factual events and their legal implications. Section IV looks to the response
of the United Nations and whether the Danish cartoons are to be considered
a form of religious defamation or a form of racial discrimination, or indeed
whether they are to be protected under the aegis of the right to freedom of
expression. In conclusion, the dangers posed to both religious minorities
and cartoonists are considered.
13. Quoted in Kevin Boyle, The Danish Cartoons, 24 NETH. Q. HUM. RTS. 185, 187 (2006).
14. Roy Douglas, The Political Cartoon Society, 19th Century Ireland and the Cartoonists,
available at http://www.politicalcartoon.co.uk/htm/history7.html.
15. Thomas Milton Kemnitz, The Cartoon as a Historical Source, 4 J. INTERDISc.HIsT. 81, 84
(1973).
16. Quoted in RANDALL P. HARRISON, THE CARTOON: COMMUNICATION TO THE QUICK 124 (1981).
17. Id.
18. ALOYSIus DERSO & EMERY KELEN, UNITED NATIONS SKETCHBOOK: A CARTOON HISTORY OF THE UNITED
NATIONS 9-10 (1950).
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Vol. 30
temper the impact of cartoons, because "no single cartoon could make the
package unacceptable to the buying public. Thus the cartoon lost its scur-
rilous and bawdy character as well as most of its viciousness and much of
its bite." 36 On the other hand, cartoons gained a much wider audience.
Harrison charts the rise of the political cartoon in Holland and England.
"The English artist William Hogarth (1697-1 764) is usually considered the 'first
cartoonist' in Western history," and was also "the first political cartoonist."3 7 Its
impact was quickly felt, and "the rage for caricature spread like an epidemic
through fashionable London."3 8 "Soon the cartoon, as a form of social protest
and political persuasion, spread throughout Europe, and eventually around
the world."3 9 Harrison describes some of the key early figures:
In Spain, Goya (1746-1828) established himself as a painter of great power. But he
also drew cartoons which put him at odds with the monarch, Fernando VII. After
repeated difficulties, Goya moved to France, where he died in exile .... In France,
Honor6 Daumier (1808-1 879) raised cartooning to a fine art-and it landed him
in prison. His caricatures of King Louis-Philippe as a bloated monster were not
appreciated by the monarch. After one prison sentence, Daumier ran into trouble
again for his cartoon attacks on the French legislature .... To a large extent, the
40
style and power of the political cartoon were set by Goya and Daumier.
Humor and cartoons have been used to portray racial prejudice in the past.
L. Perry Curtis describes how, in the notorious nineteenth century cartoons
which appeared in Punch magazine, "the facial angles of the Irish por-
trayed in English cartoons of the mid-Victorian period" were related "to the
scientific folklore of physiognomy."4 As Roy Douglas puts it, "Irish people
appear with almost simian features." 42 John Appel attributes the origin of
these "subhuman Celtic gorillas" to the illustrator George Cruikshank and
quotes his biographer who said that the etchings: "represent the native so
utterly brutalized and revoltingly savage in aspect and act that we wonder
some irate Celt has not, more Hibernico, settled the question with the artist
by knocking out his brains with a bludgeon, or furtively shooting him from
43
behind a hedge."
In the United States, political cartoonist Thomas Nast was the creator of
an "orang-outang Celt, all jaw and no brain." 44 He drew a "vicious cartoon
of St. Patrick's Day, 1867, showing ape-faced Irish thugs brutally clubbing
New York's finest," in the satirical magazine Puck.4 Appel documents how
this image had changed dramatically by the early twentieth century. He
describes the shift in caricature: "in 1884, Puck pictured St. Patrick as a
Catholic Bishop with a large bottle of rye whiskey in one hand, snakes un-
derfoot, his miter askew on a bearded, ape-like face. Within twenty years,
for St. Patrick's Day of 1904, he became a whimsical leprechaun, a friendly,
pixie-like creature." 46 Appel makes some incisive comments on the transfor-
mation of caricature: "Puck's Irish stereotypes remind us that such meanings
are subject to change and relatively speedy reinterpretation." 47 He grounds
this observation in the social mores of the time and cautions:
[W]hile ethnic caricature during the nineteenth century was paternalistic, not
infrequently degrading, and sometimes clearly hostile, it had not yet become
a systematic attempt to deny any group so caricatured a common humanity.
Unfortunately, before long, such attempts were made by men of education
and influence. The invention of an invidious, "scientific" rationale for denying
the worth and equality of certain groups, particularly Negroes and "new" im-
migrants, has made us justifiably wary of comic ethnic stereotypes, whatever
their original intention.48
Tracing the imagery of African-Americans in New Yorker cartoons, Ruth Thi-
bodeau describes how "prior to the civil rights movement, a cartoonist could
probably portray blacks in an openly stereotypic or derogatory fashion with
relative impunity. In particular, the depiction of blacks in subservient roles,
under conditions of segregation, or as 'savages' in jungle settings would have
49
raised few eyebrows among white viewers in the 1940s and early 195 Os."
Thibodeau finds that while clearly such depictions no longer appear in the
New Yorker, there is a continuing absence of minority representation in car-
toons. She asks: "Why aren't blacks being portrayed prominently for nonracial
reasons?" 0 She proposes that this under-representation may be a result of "the
desire of cartoonists or their editors to avoid appearing racist"; "cartoonists
face the risk of inadvertently invoking a stereotype associated with blacks
and, thus, may find themselves open to the charge of racism."5"
Recently, the Commission for Racial Equality in the United Kingdom
called for all book shops to stop selling Tintin in the Congo, a 1930s graphic
novel by the Belgian writer Herg ,5 2 describing it as follows: "This book
contains imagery and words of hideous racial prejudice, where the 'savage
natives' look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles." 3 Ast~rix, the other great
francophone cartoon hero, was recently declared "unfit to be official ambas-
sador for children's rights" by the French branch of the Defense for Children
International, 5 4 following the character's appointment by DominiqueVersini,
the state's Children's Defender, as the official promoter of the UN Conven-
tion on the Rights of the Child."5 Ast~rix was said to be "too French, too
violent, he perpetuates stereotypes and his outlook conflicts with the spirit
of the European Union."16 In Mexico, a series of postage stamps released in
2005 commemorating "the cartoon character Mimin Pinguin or 'little devil,'
a "dark-skinned black boy with 'exaggerated lips, large eyes, and somewhat
simian body language"' invented in the 1940s, was criticized as being "in-
sensitive toward black Americans.""7 Vicente Fox, then President of Mexico,
defended the stamps, stating that he found it "odd not to understand ...
this tribute the Mexican post office is making to Mexican cartoonists." 8 Op-
59
ponents pointed out that "Mexico is just in denial on race issues."
53. Lee Glendinning, Tintin's Congo Book Moved out of Children's Section in Race
Row, GUARDIAN (London), 12 July 2007, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/
story/0,,2124395,00.html. The book was moved out of the children's section and into
the adult graphic novels section in UK Borders bookshops as a result. Current editions
of Tintin in the Congo include a foreword noting the colonialist attitudes prevalent at
the time.
54. Charles Bremner, Asterix is Harmful for Children, TIMES(London), 1 June 2007, available
at http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles-bremner/2007/06/the-cartoon-exp.
html.
55. Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted 20 Nov. 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, U.N.
GAOR, 44th Sess., Supp. No. 49, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989) (entered into force 2 Sept.
1990), reprinted in 28 I.L.M. 1448 (1989).
56. Id. Versini called the fuss "a storm in a teacup." She added: "We thought that the ad-
ventures of Astdrix would enable us to speak to children about their rights with humour
and tenderness."
57. Taunya Lovell Banks, Mestizaje and the Mexican Mestizo Self- No Hay Sangre Negra,
So There Is No Blackness, 15 S. CAL. INTERDISC.L. J.199, 202 (2006).
58. Id.
59. Id. at n.28.
60. Coupe, supra note 33, at 66.
61. Id. at 65-66, 74.
2008 Cartoon Violence and Freedom of Expression
satire and "as early as 1521 had set an example of pictorial polemicism
in his collaboration with Melanchthon and Cranach in the production of
Passional Christi und Antichristi." 62 Similarly, seventeenth century satirists,
"[Ihike [their] medi[e]val predecessors .. .had no mawkish hesitation in
parodying Biblical texts." 63 Coupe remarks:
The marked preponderance of political over purely religious satire in our period
reflects the changing mood of the age-theological questions no longer predomi-
nate in men's minds as they did in Luther's day, but have been largely translated
into political issues, and the priest now plays a r6le distinctly subordinate to
64
that of the statesman in the moulding of human affairs.
He distinguishes between the religious satire of Luther's time and the political
satire of today by underlining the differing aims of the satirists:
[P]olitical satire is usually wise after the event and seeks to set a coping stone
on the defeat of a foe by ridiculing him ...religious satire had no such happy
purpose, however.., it was the direct expression of great emotional tension-
tension which was usually brought about initially by political events-but its
psychological function was not to release tension by means of laughter-rather
the opposite. In the first place the issues involved were much too serious to
admit of genuinely humourous treatment . . .the Order of Jesus and all it
stood for could not be overcome by a stroke of the sword. The religious satirist
commented not so much on individual events as on more or less permanent
states and his work is not the expression of relief and some measure of human
sympathy, however slight: it is the product of intense detestation. 65
Geipel notes how illiteracy was the norm during the Reformation, and as a re-
sult Catholics and Protestants alike made copious use of crude woodcuts:
In these gauche and invariably artless forerunners of the propagandist cartoon,
we see Papist, Lutheran and Calvinist alike held up to ridicule and undergoing
a gamut of outrageous indignities. These abusive and often obscene clapper-
claws appealed enormously to a primitive European population hysterical with
66
religious mania.
Coupe sees the end of an epoch of religious pictorial satire in the period
around the Thirty Years' War, which "began with the Lutheran Reformation
and drew its inspiration from the iconographical traditions of the late Middle
Ages."67 "Caricature was a device which simply had not been discovered at
the time" and "it was only in the more democratic atmosphere of Holland
75. Id.
76. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Major Anti-Semitic Motifs in Arab Cartoons: An Inter-
view with Jol Kotek, 1 June 2004, available at http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-21 .htm.
77. Id.
78. Id.
79. Id.
80. Id.
81. Id.
82. Benson, supra note 72.
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Vol. 30
Ovadia Yosef, saw a cartoon in Yeted Ne'eman, the flagship journal of the
"Lithuanian wing" of the Ashkenai Haredim. 83 The cartoon was denounced
as an "anti-Semitic cartoon that would not have shamed any anti-Semitic
paper in the world," and resulted in "Shas announcing its resignation from
the religious lobby in the Knesset."8 4 The symbols used in the cartoon were
"loaded with anti-Semitism and racism of the sort Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox
feel about Sephardi Haredim." s
There is no contemporary official tolerance for racially offensive cartoons.
This leads to the question whether future generations will view cartoons that
are religiously offensive in a similar vein. Harrison notes that: "The editorial
cartoon has had a long and honorable history. But its social and psychologi-
cal impact remains obscure. The editorial cartoon appears to be increasingly
humorous, increasingly popular and perhaps increasingly angry."8 6 Is the
current defense of cartoons, such as those that appear in Jyllands Posten
and Nerikes Allehanda, which stereotype or attack members of a religious
group, akin to the tolerance of racist cartoons in the previous century?
From the point of view of the cartoonists, their profession has always
been under threat. Donna Arzt describes two recent instances of repression
as a result of cartoons:
In Saudi Arabia, two newspaper editors were sentenced to prison and to hundreds
of lashes for printing a comic strip from the syndicated series "B.C.," which
facetiously questioned the existence of God, while in Iran, a cartoonist and
his magazine editor were similarly sentenced for a drawing of a soccer player
87
adjudged to resemble the late Ayatollah Khomeini.
It is not just in Saudi Arabia and Iran that cartoonists are threatened. In
Spain, two cartoonists from the satirical magazine El Jueves were fined in
November 2007 for depicting Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia having
sexual intercourse; slandering or defaming the royal family in Spain carries
a penalty of up to two years in prison. 88 On 21 July 2003, the US Secret
83. Ettinger, Yair, Cartoon Spat Prompts Shas to quit Knesset Religious Lobby, HAARETZ, 16
Oct. 2007, available at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/913196.html. The cartoon
is described as follows: "a man dressed in shorts and sandals wearing a skullcap and
trimmed black beard, representing a Shas follower, in cahoots with a secular person
representing Kadima. Wearing a big grin, the two were dumping a rock labelled '2008
cuts' on the head of a Haredi man." It was prompted by confrontation over the 2008
state budget and its allocations to religious institutions.
84. Id.
85. Id. (citing Shas spokespersons).
86. HARRISON, supra note 16, at 125.
87. Donna E. Arzt, The Role of Compulsion in Islamic Conversion: Jihad, Dhimma and
Ridda, 8 BUFFALOHUM. RTS. L. REv. 15, 42 (2002).
88. Spain Royal Sex Cartoonists Fined, BBC NEws, 13 Nov. 2007, available at http://news.
bbc.co.uk/7/hi/world/europe/7092866.stm. "'Do you realise,' says the crown prince in
the cartoon, 'if you get pregnant this will be the closest thing I have done to work in
my whole life.' lIt]referred to an announcement by the government that it would pay
Spanish couples for each new baby they had."
2008 Cartoon Violence and Freedom of Expression
Service went to the offices of the Los Angeles Times attempting to speak
with its conservative political cartoonist, Michael Ramirez.8 9 The previous
day, the newspaper had published a cartoon by Ramirez:
[It] was a takeoff on the famous Pulitzer Prize winning photograph showing
South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily executing a Viet Cong
prisoner in the streets of Saigon. The cartoon showed a man who resembled
General Nguyen with a gun aimed at the head of a caricature of George W.
Bush. This time, the executioner wore a uniform with the word "Politics" on
it, and the scene took place against the background of Iraq .... Ramirez later
commented that the cartoon was not intended to be an attack on President Bush,
but rather to condemn those persons who sought
90
to use the current situation in
Iraq to assassinate the President's character.
Noting that a cartoon image of "a foreign individual holding a gun to the Bush
caricature's head was enough to trigger a Secret Service investigation," Lauren
Gilbert concludes that "recent attempts by the federal government to chill
the speech of political cartoonists and satirists are particularly disturbing."91
Historically, cartoons have been crucial in portraying dissent against un-
just regimes, whether religious or political. William Marcy Tweed, one of the
"four men [who] controlled New York City" in the late nineteenth century,
was famously ruined by the cartoonist Thomas Nast.92 He declared: "I don't
care so much what the papers write about me-my constituents can't read;
but, damn it, they can see pictures!" 9 The power of the cartoon is undisputed.
Questions arise as to when that power should be curtailed-and by whom.
A. Jyllands-Posten
89. Lauren Gilbert, Mocking George: Political Satire as "True Threat" in the Age of Global
Terrorism, 58 U. MlAMi L. REv. 843, 849 (2004).
90. Id. at 849-50.
91. Id. at 885, 886-87.
92. Johnson, supra note 1, at 39.
93. Id. at 39, 42.
94. Robert Post, Religion and Freedom of Speech: Portraits of Muhammad, 14 CONSTELLATIONS
72, 76 (2007).
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Vol. 30
Muslims "visited Cairo, Damascus, and Beirut, with a forty-three page dossier
regarding the cartoons." 0 4 The role played by the Danish Muslims in rais-
ing awareness of the cartoons has led to accusations that they in some way
cultivated offense among Muslims, and provoked the subsequent reaction.
Sune Laegaard, while not advocating this position, summarizes:
Another problem is that of strategic misuse, e.g. if people deliberately take of-
fence and cultivate ability to do so or circulate offensive utterances ... thereby
settling the issue by the sheer number of offended people (as was arguably
what happened when representatives of Danish Muslim associations travelled
to the Middle East to gain05
support for their domestic struggle by disseminating
the offensive cartoons).'
Kenneth Anderson is far more accusatory:
Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those
who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of
democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown
dictatorships. . . .It was the arrogant Danish mullahs who patiently hawked
those cartoons around the world (yes, don't worry, they are allowed to exhibit
them as much as they like) until they finally provoked
1 6
a vicious response against
the economy and society of their host country. 0
On 19 October 2005, a group of Muslim ambassadors requested a meeting
with Danish foreign minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to discuss the car-
toons. This request was refused.' °7 Kevin Boyle, in a reference to Rasmussen's
conduct and the subsequent decision not to prosecute the editor of Jyllands-
Posten, argues that "[this lack of official response led Danish Muslim groups
to internationalise their protest." 08 He also warns that "it should be noted
that there is considerable evidence that the escalation was encouraged by
some States." 0 9 Carens accepts that manipulation took place but questions
the overall relevance of this: "Of course, the Muslim leaders who lied and
manipulated deserve criticism for their actions, but that does not affect the
question of whether Jyllands-Postenacted badly and whether ordinary Mus-
lims are right to feel aggrieved." 10 He draws parallels with Cold War politics
whereby "[the former Soviet Union published a lot of propaganda about the
treatment of African Americans in the United States, some of it true, some
104. Id.
105. Laegaard, supra note 99, at 488.
106. Kenneth Anderson, Remarks by an Idealist on the Realism of The Limits of International
Law, 34 GEORGIA J. INT'L & ComP. L. 253, 267 n.28 (2006) (quoting Christopher Hitchens,
Stand Up for Denmark! Why Are We Not Defending Our Ally?, SLATE,21 Feb. 2006,
available at http://www.slate.com/id/2136714/.
107. Saloom, supra note 103, 6.
108. Boyle, supra note 13, at 187.
109. Id.
110. Carens, supra note 96, at 37-38.
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Vol. 30
of it false ... .The distortions and political uses of Soviet propaganda did
not mean that African Americans had no legitimate grievances." "'
A meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Mecca
in December 2005, which was intended to examine sectarian violence,
was dominated by the cartoons. The conference issued a statement: "[We
express our] concern at the rising hatred against Islam and Muslims and
condemned the recent incident of desecration of the image of the Holy
Prophet Mohamed." 12 Western media has attributed the subsequent reaction
to the dissemination of the cartoons at this meeting in particular:
The meeting in Islam's holiest city appears to have been a catalyst for turning
local anger at the images into a matter of public, and often violent, protest in
Muslim nations. It also persuaded countries such as Syria and Iran to113
give media
exposure to the cartoon controversy in their state-controlled press.
The OIC called on the United Nations to intervene, and in particular, to draft
"a binding resolution banning contempt of religious beliefs and providing
for sanctions to be imposed on contravening countries or institutions."' 1 4 The
immediate UN reaction to the call was positive, with the UN High Commis-
sioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbor, initiating an investigation.
The media in Europe reacted otherwise. In January 2006 the Norwegian
newspaper Magazinet re-published the cartoons. There followed a wave of
re-publication in February 2006, with five European newspapers following
the Norwegian example: Italy's La Stampa, Germany's Die Welt, Spain's El
Periodico, the Netherlands' Volkskrant, and France's France Soir.15 France
Soir ran a front page cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian gods
floating on a cloud, with the Christian deity commenting: "Don't complain,
Muhammad, we've all been caricatured here." 16 Copies of the newspaper
were confiscated in Morocco and Tunisia, and its editor, Jacques LeFranc,
was sacked. Newspapers in the United Kingdom and the United States did
not publish the cartoons.1 7 Governments in predominantly Muslim countries,
including Jordan and Yemen, brought criminal proceedings against editors who
published the cartoons. " 8 Malaysia enacted a law declaring it "an offence for
anyone to publish, produce, import, circulate or possess the caricatures."' 1 9
There were many motivations behind the decisions to reprint the cartoons.
Human Rights Watch describe some of them: "giving their readers a first-hand
opportunity to judge the cartoons themselves, showing solidarity with the
Danish newspaper, provoking further controversy, or even reflecting hatred
towards Muslims." 20 UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Doudou DiL-ne,
notes how re-publication came almost directly after Jyllands-Postenhad issued
an apology for the cartoons on 30 January. 21 He states: "In re-publishing
the Danish cartoons at the very moment when Jyllands-Posten apologized
for the offence they might have given, these newspapers signalled that they
preferred confrontation to dialogue with the domestic and foreign Muslim
constituencies that took exception to the cartoons." 122 Tariq Modood also
concludes that "republication of the cartoons across23continental Europe...
was deliberately done to teach Muslims a lesson."
Irrespective of the reasons, "by February 2006[,] an extraordinary outcry
had spread to the Muslim world at large."' 24 In Damascus, Syria, protestors
"torched the Norwegian Embassy and the Danish embassy." 2 ' In Lebanon,
"[tihousands of protestors packed the streets of Beirut. . . setting the Danish
26
consulate on fire." It "escalated into fights between Muslims and Christians."
Lebanon's Interior Minister, Hassan al-Sabaa, resigned, and the ten-story
Danish embassy was completely destroyed. In Tehran, the Danish embassy
was also attacked by violent protestors, and riots in Pakistan and Afghanistan
led to deaths. Indeed, "[a]ccording to one estimate, 139 people have died"
27
as a result of the cartoon controversy'
118. Background Briefing, Human Rights Watch, Questions and Answers on the Danish
Cartoons and Freedom of Expression (15 Feb. 2006), available at http://hrw.org/english/
docs/2006/02/15/denmarl 2676.htm.
119. Id.
120. Id.
121. Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and All Forms of Discrimination: Situation
of Muslims and Arab Peoples in Various Parts of the World, Report by Mr. Doudou
Dibne, Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 62d Sess.,
Provisional Agenda Item 6, T 27, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2006/1 7 (2006) [hereinafter Situ-
ation of Muslims and Arab Peoples].
122. Id.
123. Tariq Modood, The Liberation Dilemma: Integration or Vilification?, 44 INT'L MIGRATION
4, 5 (2006).
124. Background Briefing, Human Rights Watch, supra note 118.
125. Protestors Burn Consulate over Cartoons, CNN, 5 Feb. 2006, available at http://www.
cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/02/05/cartoon.protests/index.html.
126. Id.
127. Post, supra note 94, at 72 (citing Cartoon Bodycount, available at http://web.archive.
org/web/20060326071135/http://www.cartoonbodycount.com). Randall Hansen also
gives the same figure: "When the protests finally ended, some 139 people were dead."
Randall Hansen, The Danish Cartoon Controversy: A Defence of Liberal Freedom, 44
INT'L MIGRATION 7, 10 (2006).
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Vol. 30
Tariq Ramadan describes how "[miost people around the world, ob-
serving these excesses, are perplexed: what sort of madness is this, they
ask?"128 He depicts the "fracture [that resulted as] not between the west and
Islam but between those who, in both worlds, are able to assert who they
are and what they stand for with calm-in the name of faith, or reason,
or both-and those driven by exclusive certainties." 1 9 The violent protests
were accompanied by peaceful demonstrations in many states, including
Denmark, Belgium, and Tanzania. Saloom writes, however, that "the violent
protests have greatly overshadowed the peaceful demonstrations."' 30
Denmark has regulated against hate speech since 1939 "in response to the
growing racism and anti-Semitism emanating from Hitler's Germany."1 31 In
1971, it amended its Penal Code to fulfill the requirements of Article 4 of the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimi-
nation (ICERD), 32 which it ratified the same year. Following this amendment,
section 266(b) of the Danish Penal Code, the "racism clause," considers it
an offense whereby "a group of people are threatened, insulted or degraded
on account of their race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religion or sexual
orientation." 133 The "blasphemy clause" of the Code makes it a criminal of-
fense to publicly mock or degrade the religious beliefs or worship of any
religious community. 34 According to Laegaard: "The racism clause protects
persons, or groups of persons, against defamation, whereas the blasphemy
clause protects those religious sensibilities of believers that are connected
to dogmas or rituals deemed central to their religion, but not religious sen-
35
sibilities in general."
Lene Johannessen notes that in the wake of the Penal Code amendments,
there were initially relatively few prosecutions, 3 6 and states that "[i]n 1985,
the existence of violent racism in Denmark was unknown to the public at
128. Tariq Ramadan, Cartoon Conflicts, GUARDIAN (London), 6 Feb. 2006, available at http://
www.guardian.co.uk/cartoonprotests/story/0,,1 703496,00.html.
129. Id.
130. Saloom, supra note 103, at 12.
131. Lene Johannessen, Denmark: Racist Snakes in the Danish Paradise, in STRIKINGA BALANCE:
HATE SPEECH,FREEDOMOF EXPRESSIONAND NON-DISCRIMINATION 140 (Sandra Coliver, Kevin Boyle,
& Frances d'Souza eds., 1992).
132. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, ad-
opted2l Dec. 1965, art. 4, 660 U.N.T.S. 195 (entered into force 4 Jan. 1969), reprinted
in 5 I.L.M. 352 (1966) [hereinafter ICERDI.
133. Quoted in Boyle, supra note 13, at 189. See Danish Penal Code §266(b).
134. See Danish Penal Code §140.
135. Lagaard, supra note 99, at 486.
136. Johannessen, supra note 131, at 141.
2008 Cartoon Violence and Freedom of Expression
large." "37' She points to an article by the cultural anthropologist Jacques Blum,
published in the newspaper Aklueton 28 January 1985 with the "arresting title"
Racist Snakes in the Danish Paradise, as beginning the process of "awakening
complacent Danish public opinion to the new and growing phenomena in
their country of racism, xenophobia and violence directed against foreign-
ers. " 1 8 This awakening resulted in the prosecution of a journalist, Jens Jersild,
in 1985 for aiding and abetting the dissemination of racist speech. Jersild's
prosecution reflected "[t]he media's concern to force a country justly proud
of its liberal plural ethos to accept that things had changed." 39
Jersild successfully challenged his prosecution in the European Court of
Human Rights. 4 °The material in question was an interview with an extremist
group called the Greenjackets, in which they expressed racially discriminatory
viewpoints. The prosecution was widely considered to be harsh and unfair,
given that Jersild did not share the Greenjackets' opinions and the serious
context in which the interviews were conducted. Denmark subsequently
amended the law concerning media liability in 1992,141 pre-empting the
ruling of the European Court. The Jersildcase may have left a residual wari-
ness of hate speech prosecutions in Danish media and society.
No prosecutions resulted from the publication of the Danish cartoons.
According to Kevin Boyle, "[a] formal complaint to the police alleging vio-
lations of the Criminal Code was investigated by public prosecutors who
decided that there were no grounds for prosecution." 42 This would be largely
due to the fact that "[w]hile there is a strong consensus in Europe on the
legitimacy of the restriction of racist speech, there is less over the question
43
of speech that involves targeting the religious beliefs of others."
The Danish Public Prosecutor examined the two strands of the claim
and found that the cartoons did not infringe either of these clauses. On the
question of blasphemy, he found that:
Even though . .. the fact that some of the cartoons were satirical caricatures of
the Prophet Mohammad, and that as such, given the central role of Mohammad
for Islam, they might imply ridicule of or express disdain for Muslims' religious
beliefs or worship in the sense protected by the blasphemy clause, . . . a con-
crete interpretation and evaluation of the cartoons led the Public Prosecutor
to the judgment that the cartoons did not, after all, constitute an infringement
44
of the clause.1
137. Id.
138. Id. at 140.
139. Id.
140. Jersild v. Denmark, 298 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) (1994), reprinted in 15 HuM. RTS.L.J. 361
(1994).
141. Johannessen, supra note 131, at 143.
142. Boyle, supra note 13, at 187.
143. Id. at 189.
144. Cited in Laegaard, supra note 99, at 486.
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Vol. 30
145. Id.
146. Id. at n.7.
147. Id.
148. Id. at 489.
149. Id.
150. Id.
151. Id.
152. Id.
153. Post, supra note 94, at 78.
154. Otto Preminger Institut v. Austria, 295 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) (1994).
2008 Cartoon Violence and Freedom of Expression
on representation of the Prophet is not contained in the Koran and there have
been images of Muhammad published in the past in Islamic manuscripts
albeit with his features obscured." 16 3 He attributes the reluctance on the
part of the illustrators who were approached by Kre Bluitgen to an aware-
ness of "the deeply rooted stricture in Islam that the Prophet should not be
drawn, a stricture that underscores the reverence in which Muhammad as
God's messenger is held by believers." 164 This reluctance, however, was not
based "solely out of respect for the Muslim faithful, but more from fear of a
165
violent reaction."
Saloom believes that this stricture or tradition prohibiting images of
Mohammad stems from the early history of Islam, which she states is "vital
to an understanding of the current cartoon controversy."1 6 6 In inner Arabia,
before Mohammad's revelation, idol worship was commonplace among
the pagan Arabs. Mohammad's message was that "idols could have no
place in the religion of Islam," and therefore "Islam presented a shift from
idol worship to the focus on the tawhid or oneness of Allah."16 7 Thus "the
Qur'an clearly prohibits idolatry and idol worship. The connection between
the cartoons and idolatry cannot be easily understood outside the histori-
cal context where Muhammad brought the message of Islam to the pagan
Arabs." 16 8 She concludes that "the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is
prohibited under Islamic law." 169 Hence there has been "condemnation of
the cartoons from both Sunnis and Shiites."1 7° Tariq Ramadan also stresses
that "representations of all prophets are strictly forbidden," and directly links
this to the avoidance of "idolatrous temptations." 1 71 As a result, "to represent
172
a prophet is a grave transgression."
There are difficulties in the interpretation of Europe's residual laws on
blasphemy. "An immediate comment," writes Boyle, "might be that in the
aftermath of this affair there should be serious scrutiny of surviving offences
of blasphemy in Europe."1 73 He finds it "anomalous" that a legal official is
able to determine whether the cartoons ridiculed "the doctrines or worship"
of any religion. Laws on blasphemy were designed to "prevent challenge to
State endorsed Christian truth" and their continued existence "offends both
The United Nations is divided on the issue. The strongest condemnation of the
cartoons has come from the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Doudou
Dine, who did not hesitate in labeling the cartoons racist. By contrast, the
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, has taken
a far more muted approach to the issue of defamation of religion.
Diane found that "the cartoons illustrated the increasing emergence
of the racist and xenophobic currents in everyday life." 7 9 He also stressed
that the political atmosphere in Denmark contributed to a "context of the
174. Id.
175. Danish Penal Code § 266(b).
176. Boyle, supra note 13, at 190.
177. Danish Penal Code § 266(b).
178. Id. § 140.
179. UN News Centre, Racism and Racial Discrimination on Rise Around the World,
UN Expert Warns, 7 Mar. 2006, available at http://www.un.orglapps/news/story.
asp?NewslD=1 7718&Cr=racis&Crl.
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Vol. 30
180. Id.
181. Report Submitted by Mr. Doudou Diane, Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance: Addendum, Defama-
tion of Religions and Global Efforts to Combat Racism: Anti-Semitism, Christianophobia
and Islamophobia, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 61 st Sess., Provisional Agenda
Item 6, U.N. Doc. ECN.4/2005/18/Add.4 (2004).
182. Id. 20.
183. Id. 30.
184. Boyle, supra note 13, at 191 (citing Report to the Economic and Social Council on the
Sixty-First Session of the Commission, Draft Report of the Commission, Rapporteur: Ms.
Deidre Kent (Canada), U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 61st Sess., Agenda Item
21(b), U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2005/L.10/Add.6 (2005)).
185. Boyle, supra note 13, at 191.
186. Id.
187. Situation of Muslims and Arab Peoples, supra note 121, 23-32.
188. Id. 28.
2008 Cartoon Violence and Freedom of Expression
cultures and civilizations that divides the world into secular, democratic and
civilized countries that protect freedom of expression, and obscurantist, retro-
grade and backward States that enshrine religious freedom and the position of
religion in society. . . .This line of argument . . . draws on the same spirit of
caricature as the drawings in the Danish newspaper. 95
The report links in to the earlier document which examined not only Islamo-
phobia, but anti-Semitism and Christianophobia. It notes that It] he criticism
of the cartoons by Jewish and Christian community leaders indicates, first
of all, a deeply-held belief that the cartoons exemplify the increasing trend
to defame all religions and the prevailing ideological climate of intolerance
towards religion itself and religious practices."' 96 In conclusion, he identifies
underlying causes for increasing Islamophobia,
[A]s symbolized by the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish news-
paper:
- The precedence of political and ideological considerations over religious
factors;
- The general increase in defamation of religions . ..
- The worldwide crisis of identity ... [and];
- The inadequacy of international law, particularly international instruments
on human 97
rights and combating racism and discrimination, in matters of
religion.'
At its twenty-fourth meeting in June 2006, the newly-formed Human Rights
Council decided to request the Special Rapporteur on Racism and the
Special Rapporteur on Religion to report to its next session on incitement
to racial and religious hatred and their recent manifestations.19 8 The joint
report, Incitement to Racial and Religious Hatred and the Promotion of
Tolerance, was submitted to the second session of the Council in Septem-
ber 2006 and was the first time the special rapporteurs had collaborated
on a specific issue. 99 The positions taken by the special rapporteurs were
decidedly different. For the Special Rapporteur on Racism, in line with his
previous writings, "the increasing trend in defamation of religions cannot
200. Id. 4.
201. Id. 6.
202. Id. 8.
203. Id. 14.
204. Id. 21.
205. Id. 8.
206. Id. 42.
207. Id. 47.
208. Id. 49.
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Vol. 30
209. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted 16 Dec. 1966, G.A. Res.
2200 (XXI), U.N. GAOR, 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, art. 20, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966),
999 U.N.T.S. 171 (entered into force 23 Mar. 1976). On the meaning and reach of
Article 20, see MICHAEL G. KEARNEY, THE PROHIBITION OF PROPAGANDA
FOR WAR IN INTERNATIONAL
LAw (2007).
210 ICERD, supra note 132, art. 4.
211. Jahangir & Dine Report, supra note 199, 48.
212. Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based
on Religion or Belief, adopted 25 Nov. 1981, G.A. Res 36/55, U.N. GAOR, 36th Sess.,
Supp. No. 51, U.N. Doc. A/36/51 (1981), reprinted in RICHARD B. LILLICH, INTERNATIONAL
490.1
HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS (1990).
213. Jahangir & Diane Report, supra note 199, 49.
214. Id. 47.
215. Id. 66.
216. Id.
217. See Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 Entitled
"Human Rights Council," Report of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or
Belief, Asma Jahangir, Addendum: Summary of Cases Transmitted to Governments and
2008 Cartoon Violence and Freedom of Expression
does not appear in the main body of her report. Although the cartoons are
ostensibly religious in character, the Special Rapporteur on Racism has
investigated the controversy in far greater detail. Similarly, the Special Rap-
porteur on Racism has taken a more clear and adversarial stance.
Denmark has come before the UN treaty-bodies only once since the
publication of the cartoons. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination examined Denmark's seventeenth periodic report and issued
its concluding observations in October 2006. The Committee confirmed
that the cartoon controversy comes under its purview and referred to "the
refusal by the Public Prosecutor to initiate court proceedings in some cases,
including the case of the publication of some cartoons associating Islam
with terrorism." 18 The Committee recommended:
The State Party should increase its efforts to prevent racially motivated of-
fences and hate speech, and to ensure that relevant criminal law provisions
are effectively implemented. The Committee recalls that the right to freedom of
expression carries special duties and responsibilities, in particular the obliga-
tion not to disseminate racist ideas, and recommends that the State party take
resolute action to counter any tendency to target, stigmatize, stereotype or profile
people on the basis of race, colour, descent, and national or ethnic origin....
Bearing in mind its general recommendation 31 (2005) on the prevention of
racial discrimination in the administration and functioning of the criminal
justice system, the Committee also requests the State party to remind public
prosecutors and members of the prosecution service of the general importance
of prosecuting racist acts.219
The recommendation is worded in the usual style of the Committee, which
is always conciliatory and rarely highly critical. The Committee linked the
Danish cartoons with prosecution and the need to pursue prosecutions in
cases of racist acts. While it is not stating that the cartoons were racist, or
that Denmark ought to have prosecuted the editors, it is nevertheless ex-
pressing its competence to assess the issue and highlighting the Prosecutor's
refusal to initiate proceedings. The Danish Penal Code's, "racism clause,"
rather than the "blasphemy clause," must therefore be considered the ap-
propriate provision for assessing whether the cartoons entailed criminal
liability. Some implicit support for two aspects of Di~ne's position can, as
a result, be read into the Committee's observations: first, that the cartoons
are not a purely religious matter and can be examined under the aegis of
Replies Received, U.N. GAOR, 4th Sess., Provisional Agenda Item 2, 123-28, U.N.
Doc. A/HRC/4/21/Add.1 (2007).
218. Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 9 of the Convention,
Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,
U.N. GAOR, Comm. for Elim. of Racial Discrim, 69th Sess., 31July-1 8 Aug. 2006, U.N.
Doc. CERD/C/DEN/CO/1 7 (2006).
219. Id.
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Vol. 30
racial discrimination, and second, that the decision not to prosecute is one
which engages ICERD Article 4 and could potentially be a violation of the
requirements of that provision.
V. CONCLUSION
228. Id.
229. Boyle, supra note 13, at 188.
230. See the comments of Carens in this regard: "In democracies, minorities need more
protection from majorities than majorities need from minorities. Some commenting on
Muslims in Europe ... seem to forget this elementary feature of the logic of democracy.
It matters that Muslims are a minority." Carens, supra note 96, at 40.
231. Post, supra note 94, at 82.