COMMENTARY: Yes, it could have happened here
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By Saska Snellman
In the movie Groundhog Day (1993), Bill Murray is forced to re-live the worst day of his life over and over again. It would appear that the same fate is shared today by the head of the Jyllands-Posten culture desk Flemming Rose, who is surely going over the events of September 29th, 2005 in his mind.
Dammit, we really should have gone another route with that picture thing!
I have discussed the images with colleagues from many other newspapers and magazines. Some have been understanding, some have blamed the paper, but most have found themselves admitting: yes, it could also have happened to us.
Jyllands-Posten wanted to make a critical piece on the relationship between Islam and freedom of speech. The topic was justified after the cases of Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and a host of other similar incidents.
In order to illustrate the feature, the paper decided to commission cartoon caricatures of Muhammad. I can just imagine the morning meeting where the idea was tossed into the air - and the general enthusiasm that it generated around the table.
Naturally the Danes wanted to be provocative, to stir debate, but they certainly had no wish to set the world ablaze.
The power of the written word or an image is often arbitrary. A thought that normally would not move anyone can sometimes kill people.
The furore that was thrown up by the pictures came as a surprise, even in Muslim countries. The Jyllands-Posten cartoons were published in a Jordanian paper already in November, without any great ado surrounding the incident.
On today's Sunday pages in Helsingin Sanomat there is a short piece about a book to be published by Gummerus [a Finnish translation of Barnaby Rogerson's The Prophet Muhammad: A Biography], on the cover of which was Muhammad's face. Now the cover is being redesigned.
As recently as last autumn, depicting Muhammad was not a taboo in Finland. It could easily have happened here.
Pah! No way, it could never have happened here! At least that is what many are now trying to demonstrate. They argue that Denmark is a right-wing country with an anti-immigrant stance and that Jyllands-Posten is practically a fascist mouthpiece.
So is this where were are building our wall now - between Finland and Denmark?
Previously the wall has stood between Europe and the United States. When the terrorists killed thousands of Americans on September 11th, 2001, there were those in Finland, too, who rushed to blame the victims.
"Under the Bush Administration, the U.S. positions on nuclear weapons and on climate change have been very arrogant. This is reflected in international relations, in the way the United States is seen in the world", commented Satu Hassi (Greens), then the Minister of the Environment, on the day after the planes hit New York and Washington.
So what next? Sweden? Well, but they have those neo-Nazis in Sweden, don't they, while in Finland...
Are we to expect that Finland's turn will come sooner than we imagine? It could happen here, too.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.2.2006
The writer is the head of Helsingin Sanomat's Culture Desk.
SASKA SAARIKOSKI / Helsingin Sanomat
saska.saarikoski@hs.fi
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| 14.2.2006 - THIS WEEK |
 COMMENTARY: Yes, it could have happened here |
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