HEDEGAARD & WESTERGAARD: DANISH CARTOONS, MO MOTOONS! UPDATE: EXCLUSIVE TO ATLAS: HEDEGAARD SAMPLE TRANSLATION!

Our dear friend Lars Hedegaard and his brave partner in crime, Kurt Westergaard (of Danish cartoon fame) are daring to exercise their right to free speech ….again. We love them for that.We stand gaard with you ….heh.

If you missed my video interview with Lars – part I, go here and part II here. I hope to have him on again when I return to New Jack city.

Danish Muhammad Cartoonist Returns with New Work

One of the controversial Danish cartoonists who sparked riots in the Muslim world in 2005 by drawing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad is set to return soon with new works reflecting on the incident.

Kurt Westergaard, the Danish caricaturist forced into hiding after the publication of his depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005, is set to return with a new set of potentially controversial drawings.

According to a report in the Copenhagen Post , Westergaard is expected to have 26 illustrations in a new book that compiles the sardonic columns by Danish writer Lars Hedegaard for the Berlingske Tidende newspaper

The paper writes that one of the drawings in the book features former Danish
Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, who spoke out against the original
Muhammad cartoons, kneeling with an inkwell that reads "freedom of expression."
A black-bearded man with a bomb in his turban is peering out of the inkwell.
Writer Hedegaard told the
paper there was "no intention to depict the so-called
prophet," but that people could always interpret drawings in different ways. He
said he expected no backlash as a result of the publication.

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Westergaard, 73, was forced to go into hiding
under protection from the official state secret service agency PET and had to
live in safe houses after a plot to kill him was uncovered. Last summer he
returned home, though he still remains under protection.

The cartoonist has repeatedly stated that he has no regrets about drawing the
original caricature for Jyllands-Posten. Westergaard has also said that
he is not anti-Muslim, telling SPIEGEL ONLINE
last spring: "I know a lot of Muslims living here in Denmark who accept
democracy completely and who live their religion as a very private matter. I
hope that all Muslims will adapt to secular society. There is currently friction
between Muslim and Christian culture. But I am quite sure that our Western
Democratic culture will prevail over the darker version of Islam. We must have
Islam-light."

Responding to the protests and deadly riots the caricatures sparked in the
Muslim world, Westergaard said: "If it hadn't been the cartoon, it would have
been a book or play or a film that would have provoked the protests. We have to
get through this period of friction between the two cultures. I hope that our
Muslim fellow citizens will understand what it means to live in a democracy.
Even if you are against the democracy, you can still live there, but you must
fight with peaceful means."

SPECIAL EXCLUSIVE FOR ATLAS READERS! Lars Hedegaard translates samples from the blockbuster book! But related: Translation of a Lars Hedegaard  (love the title, LH)

On the Peeing Front

While Danes are grappling with one of the heaviest social and human issues of our times, i.e. the shortage of female CEOs and board members, the pioneering country of Sweden has already attacked the root cause of sexual inequality – the fact that men stand up when they urinate whereas most women tend to sit down. This disparity gives rise to so many distortions that Malmoe’s Free Women’s University has just completed the three-day course in Upright Urination for Women. One of the university’s directors, Aasa Staahl, describes the procedure in the daily Sydsvenska Dabladet: You can either use a funnel-like device or you may direct the jet by means of a special squeeze with you fingers. And it is important for women to master this new skill, as many of them feel exposed when they have to pull down their pants and bare their bottom. The Free Women’s University has also taught its students to make special ”pussypanties” to replace the old ”cockpanties” – to use the university’s terminology.

Before we go ahead and introduce forced quotas on women for top positions in society, we would do well to consider if equality of peeing might not in itself solve many of the problems that have proved intractable up till now. The day may well dawn when men and women are able to use the same urinals and – who knows – cross jets.

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Fabulous! Here's more!

Cause for Celebration

Finally a modicum of peace seems to have descended over Jyllands-Posten’s Muhammad cartoons. Following his vain attempts to motivate the paper’s editors or at least the prime minister to apologize, the leader of the Islamic Faith Community, imam Abu Laban has resolved that it would be sufficient satisfaction if Jyllands-Posten together with five universities would arrange a special festival to celebrate the prophet’s many good qualities. This proposal is now being considered, but several university presidents have already stated that this is a very good idea.

May be it will turn into an annual event: the Danish universities’ Muhammad week.

Which leaves many institutions and media with an equal need to make their mark chagrined that others have monopolized Muhammad. But despair not. So far nobody has thought of celebrating Hitler’s birthday. He may have been hard on the Jews but that is all the rage these days. And like the prophet he had many admirable qualities. He didn’t like subhumans but loved dogs. He detested smoking and drinking and was nice to his female secretaries. He ate lots of vegetables, was fond of hikes in the mountains and despised Americans. If that isn’t cause for celebration, Roughly speaking doesn’t know what it would take.
M.P

Of course one would have to make sure that the two arrangements didn’t collide – especially because they would largely appeal to the same audience.