Jihadists vs. Intellectual Freedom

In an article on its English language website, the German magazine Der Spiegel reports that a jihadist group has called for violence against all the European newspapers that published the controversial set of cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed:

The publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper in September eventually sparked violent demonstration in the Islamic world, where millions were offended by the caricatures. European consulates were set on fire in Damascus and Beirut, people were killed at demonstrations in Afghanistan, and Danish products were boycotted for weeks in the Middle East. Then things quieted down again and the crisis seemed to have passed. But has it?

A special issue of the online journal of Ansar al-Sunna, which means "Supporters of Sunni Islam," could respark the flames. The online journal has taken the unprecedented step of listing dozens of European newspapers that reprinted the Muhammad cartoons. The list inludes German dailies such as Die Tageszeitung, the Berliner Zeitung, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt.

Terrorism experts who follow the site believe the journal's authors are trying to motivate potential assasins to engage in acts of retaliation. There's nothing new about this tactic. Terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri don't give orders to engage in specific terrorist attacks. Instead, they orchestrate Islamist violence by means of violent demagoguery, counting on their followers to act on their own initiative.


(link courtesy of LGF)


As I have stated before, radical Islamists don't just seek to destroy intellectual freedom in the Islamic world, they wish to destroy it in the West as well.