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Nordics
find generosity no shield from Muslim wrath
Reuters ^ | 2/6/6 | Per Bech Thomsen
Posted on 02/06/2006
12:25:32 PM PST by SmithL
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - For
years, Scandinavian countries have been among the most generous with aid to the
Muslim world, but that generosity has stood for little in the scandal over
cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
In the past week, Scandinavian
embassies have been set ablaze in Syria and Lebanon and bans have been put on
Danish exports, creating a row that threatens to unravel the substantial
goodwill Scandinavia had in the Middle East.
Despite the vast contributions
Nordic countries have made, analysts suspect Denmark's heavy-handed approach to
immigrants may be one reason behind the Muslim backlash. And they worry that it
could take a long time for reputations to recover.
That's bad for Scandinavia, but
it may also be bad for aid recipients such as the Palestinians, just as they
face a crunch over funding following militant group Hamas's election victory.
"The general perception in
the Arab world of the Nordic countries as tolerant and generous has suffered a
huge blow," said Ole Woehlers Olsen, a senior advisor at the Danish
Institute for International Studies.
The region's reputation for
generosity was not undeserved.
Norway brokered the Oslo accord
between Israel and the Palestinians in the early 1990s; Norway and Sweden are
the top single donors of aid to the Palestinians after the United States; and
Denmark launched an "Arab initiative" in 2003 to promote
understanding. Its presidency of the European Union helped set up the
"roadmap" for Middle East peace.
"That is why is has hurt so
much to see the pictures of flags being burned and all the threats against the
people who are there to help the Palestinian people," said Fathie El-Abed
of the Danish-Palestinian Friendship Association.
THOUGHTLESS ACT
Denmark, where the cartoons were
first published, has been the focus of anger.
Jyllands-Posten, a conservative
paper in a country whose government won power partly by making it tougher for
immigrants to get in, commissioned the cartoons for a debate on whether it was
acceptable to censor the media to avoid offending Muslims, thereby giving
Muslims special treatment.
Later published in a small
Christian paper in Norway and now in papers all over Europe and beyond, the
cartoons snowballed from a local debate about censorship to a global row about
free speech and relations between the West and the Muslim world.
"It was not a deliberate
provocation by Jyllands-Posten. It was thoughtlessness based on ignorance about
the fact that it would hurt a lot of people," said Olsen.
But the suspicion that it was an
act of provocation is hard to dispel because of the political context in Denmark,
where the center-right government has flexed its muscles on immigration, even
restricting the entry of foreigners married to Danes.
Prime Anders Fogh Ramsussen came
to power in 2001 on a campaign to curb the immigrant numbers, egged on by his
openly anti-immigrant allies, the Danish People's Party, which wants to expel
some imams accused of whipping up anti-Danish sentiment.
Aid agencies and experts say
that if the situation continues to deteriorate, it is the Palestinians who
stand to lose most if ties with Scandinavia are damaged beyond repair.
The crisis comes just as the
Palestinians face a funding crisis after Hamas, a militant Islamic group, won
elections. Norway has been a particularly strong Palestinian donor.
"This is an important role and
particularly now because it is such a big issue whether Hamas will get enough
funding," said Henrik Thune at the Norwegian Institute of International
Affairs.
Sweden has tried to show
solidarity with Denmark while distancing itself from the cartoon row itself and
stressing the role its foreign aid agency SIDA plays in the Middle East.
"We support development in
the Palestinian territories where we are helping with financial support for
healthcare, education and infrastructure," said SIDA spokesman Jon
Hedenstrom. "That is well known in many parts of the Middle East."