Rabbis condemn Danish cartoons

The Conference of European Rabbis (CER) condemned on Sunday the inflammatory Danish caricatures depicting Prophet Mohammad.

“The (Danish) public is divided over the issue,” Rabbi Bennett Melchior, former chief rabbi of Denmark and father of Knesset Member Michael Melchior (Labor), told Ynet.

“A sweeping majority believes freedom of expression is sacred. But the public is divided over the wisdom of offending a whole public. I am not sure the decision was right. In any case I hope we are beyond the zenith,” Melchior said.

France’s Chief Rabbi Joseph Sitruk issued a statement condemning all publications offensive to religious sentiment. Sitruk said publications that are meant to offend people’s religious sentiments should be prohibited.

“I understand the anger of Muslims. And I understand the anger among religious Muslims at publications like these. Publishing material that hurt people’s religious feelings should be forbidden in Denmark as they are in Syria,” he added.

“Yet we should in no way tolerate violent responses to these publications. We the Jewish people have witnessed anti-Semitic publications in many countries around the world,” he added.

CER Chairman Rabbi Aba Dunner, who is currently visiting Israel, said that “we expect a similar attitude from Muslims when horrific anti-Semitic caricatures are published in Muslim countries. We are publishing condemnation statements across the world and we hope we will be treated similarly.”

Rabbi Bennett Melchior told Ynet that "the small Jewish community here has felt no threat from the Muslim community. As a rule, we want to build bridges between religions and therefore we regret the situation has come to this.”

Ongoing crisis

Editors at Jyllands Posten had no idea that the publication of 12 caricatures depicting Prophet Mohammad on September 30 will trigger a chain of violent reactions which seem to have no end.

A number of European newspapers published the cartoons, including Norway’s Magazinette, France Soir in France, Germany’s Die Welt and Berliner Zeitung and El Pais in Spain.

After the publications, al-Qaeda affiliated group Abu Hafez al-Masri Brigades threatened Denmark on Wednesday with “bloody war” in reaction to insults against Prophet Muhammad.

In a message sent to the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi, the group warned of attacks in Denmark similar to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. The message comes in the wake of a series of calls for attacks against Denmark published on Jihadi websites.

“It is interesting that the story took four months to make headlines. In any case, from what I’ve heard, Muslim clerics in Denmark made false claims that more offensive caricatures have been published in Danish newspapers, causing an escalation,” said Rabbi Melchior.

‘Crises fosters positive things’

A Belgian-Dutch Islamic political organization posted anti-Jewish cartoons on its website in response to the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that appeared in Danish papers last year and offended many Muslims.

The cartoons were posted on the Arab European League's site on Saturday. It was not working Sunday morning because of exceeded bandwidth.

Rabbi Melchior hopes Denmark’s 3000-strong Jewish community will not be forced into turmoil.

“Until now I have heard nothing of the things said and published against European Jews in the caricature crisis. We live in calm like all Danes and we ask the extremists to forget about these reactions and contemplate living in peace. Sometimes crises lead to good things and I hope that the Muslim community will be able to act as it wants other to act,” he said.

Rabbi Melchior’s son, MK rabbi Michael Melchior, said Jews are always in a volatile position in Europe.

“I do not hide that I am extremely concerned that what happened will play into the hands of extremists on both sides, Muslims and Christians. Today I saw an article in the Tehran Times accusing the Jewish community for the publication of the caricatures with the aim to cause a split between Muslims and Christians. This serves those who are interested in escalation and in polarizing inter-religious relations in order to lead us to a war of cultures,” he said.

“But more than that, there are reports that some 200 Danish Muslims, headed by a Danish member of parliament and a good friend of mine, who have protested against the reaction of Muslims in Denmark. As a believer and someone who grew up on liberalism and freedom of speech, I believe we Jews can build a bridge between these two worlds,” said MK Melchior.

In Israel, a number of Jews and Muslims joined a demonstration in Nazareth against the caricatures and demanded the Israeli press does not publish the offensive material. The Islamic Movement Northern Branch said it would hold a demonstration outside the Danish embassy Monday morning.

Ilan Marciano contributed to the report