…the row over those Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed will continue to rumble on. Last week, inevitably, an EU functionary decided to get involved.
With a thundering declaration in favor of free speech?
Not really.
The Copenhagen Post has more:
“The Commission’s vice-chairman, Franco Frattini, called the newspaper’s decision to publish the twelve cartoons as ‘thoughtless and inappropriate’ in a time when animosity towards Islam is on the rise. ‘Honestly, these kinds of drawings can add to the growing Islamophobia in Europe,’ Frattini said. ‘I fully respect the freedom of speech, but, excuse me, one should avoid making any statement like this, which only arouses and incites the growing radicalization.”
Regular readers may remember that this is the same Frattini who last year considered introducing an EU-wide prohibition on displays of the swastika. At the time Frattini seemed curiously unwilling to accept the idea that if that particular symbol of totalitarian mass-murder was to be banned, so should the hammer-and-sickle. In the end the idea of banning the swastika was dropped, but not before leaving the impression of Frattini as a man with a poor understanding of the right of free speech – but a very good grasp of double standards.
Judging by these new reports nothing much has changed…