Foreign Minister Tuomioja: EU countries have to work together over Danish cartoon crisis

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According to Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja (SDP), the European Union member states should jointly condemn and rebuff the use of violence, threats, and interference with commercial relations related to the Muhammad cartoon incident.
      Tuomioja stresses that freedom of speech is not something that can be bargained for, nor can it be relative. Tuomioja commented on the rumpus caused by the Muhammad caricatures published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Internet site on Thursday.
     
Tuomioja also criticises Denmark for not reacting more quickly to the indignation caused by the drawings.
      "An apology does not violate anybody’s freedom of speech. This is definitely not the time to deliberately add to the mistrust between great cultures and religions and provoke extremists on either side", Tuomioja outlines his view.
      "More than likely, the whole issue would have been over and done with a long time ago, had the Danish government said already in the autumn what they have said now."
     
The Minister describes the fuss that has arisen over the images as excessive, and the entire current impasse as an outright crisis.
      In September, the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published 12 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, in which he was depicted, among other things, as an Islamic terrorist.
      The fallout since then, and particularly in the past week or so, has been considerable and widespread, with threats against Danish and Norwegian citizens and interests in the Middle East, extensive boycotts of Danish goods, and further threats against European newspapers who have subsequently published the images in the name of press freedom.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Foreign Minister Tuomioja: Denmark should have reacted earlier to cartoons (2.2.2006)

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