Following Dr. Andrew G. Bostom's words, I, a non-Westerner, am also ‘both pleased and proud' to strongly support Mr. Lars Hedegaard and his activities to defend freedom of speech.
The late Mr. Uchimura Kanzo (http://d.hatena.ne.jp/itunalily2/20100111) appreciated Denmark as a model nation for Japan in 1894. The book has been widely read with much popularity and supports here in Japan. We should not forget its great legacy Denmark has traditionally shown for us.
Please see my another English blog (http://pub.ne.jp/itunalily/?monthly_id=201303). (Lily)
1. CBN News（http://www.cbn.com）
Malmö, Sweden: Growing Muslim Influence , 16 March 2009
by Dale Hurd, CBN News Senior Reporter
MALMO, Sweden -- A few years ago, the London Guardian newspaper called Sweden the most successful society the world has ever known. But Sweden today is being transformed by a large influx of immigrants from the Middle East.
Sweden's third largest city, Malmö, sits just across the water from Copenhagen, Denmark. To visitors, Malmö seems quiet, nice, maybe a little boring; in other words, quintessentially Swedish. But under the surface, Malmö has serious problems.
Click the player to see the report from CBN News Senior Reporter Dale Hurd followed by comments from Pat Robertson.
On Saturday when Israel played Sweden in a Davis cup tennis match in Malmö, an estimated 6,000 Leftists, Arabs, Muslims and anarchists protested the Israeli presence in the city, and hundreds attacked police. Almost no fans were allowed inside to watch the tennis series, because authorities feared disruptions or possible violence against the Israeli team.
Swedish City's Population One-Quarter Muslim
Massive immigration has made Malmö today one quarter Muslim, and stands to transform it into a Muslim majority city within just a few decades. One of the most popular baby names is not Sven, but Mohammed. Pork has been taken off some school menus. Want to learn to drive? You can attend Malmö's own "Jihad Driving School."
But despite Malmö's usually placid appearance, this experiment in multiculturalism has not gone well. In the Rosengaard section of Malmö, a housing project made up primarily of immigrants, fire and emergency workers will no longer enter without police protection.
Unemployment in Rosengaard is reported to be 70 percent. An immigrant-fueled crime wave affects one of every three Malmö families each year. The number of rapes has tripled in 20 years.
But Malmö has been so accommodating toward immigrant Muslims that a local Muslim politician, Adly Abu Hajar, has declared that "The best Islamic state is Sweden!"
Jews Cannot Walk The Streets
Don't ask Malmö's Jews to give the city the same glowing assessment. Jews who dare walk the streets wearing their yarmulkes risk being beaten up.
"It's true. Jews cannot walk the streets of Malmö and show that they're Jews," said Lars Hedegaard.
Hedegaard lives across the water from Malmö in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he was a columnist for one of Denmark's largest newspapers. He says pro-Israel demonstrations in Malmö, like the ones during the fighting in Gaza earlier this year, were met with rocks, bottles and pipe bombs from Arabs and Leftists.
"I was there for demonstration; a pro-Israeli demonstration with about 400 or 500 people," Hedegaard told CBN News. "Jews and non-Jews, and I came over to cover it. The police allowed, I'd say a hundred Palestinians or Arabs to shout and threaten and throw bombs and rockets at us. A homemade bomb landed about ten yards from me, and went off with a big bang. And now of course, I thought the police were going to jump these guys, get them out of the way. They didn't. They just let them stand there."
Swede Ted Ekeroth helped film the Arab-Left counter-demonstrations. He saw Arabs throwing rocks at a 90-year-old holocaust survivor.
"I filmed the police chief and asked him why are they not reacting to this," Ekeroth said. "Why are they not doing anything? And he simply answered, 'It's their right according to the Swedish constitution.' We apparently did not have the same right, because we were forced out of there. Our manifestation for Israel is always peaceful, and theirs is always the quite opposite -- Death, hate and killing of Jews. They come and they shout different slogans," he continued. "It can be everything from Arabic slogans inciting killing of Jews to in Swedish and Danish, 'Kill the Jews.'
Political Alliance Against Israel
And like all over the Western world, some on the Left, along with Arabs and Muslims and anarchists, have formed a political alliance against Israel and Jews. They demonstrate together, and in Sweden, they vote together. Muslims are a core constituency of the Left.
The immigrant issue a big reason the right-wing Swedish Democrats are the fastest growing political party in the country.
Matthias Karlsson is the Swedish Democrats' Press Secretary
"In many parts of Sweden, people are, as I said, fed up," Karlsson said. "And they're being pushed too far and they want to make a stand."
Fascist and Bigoted?
Swedish Democrats, who stand for traditional Christian values and limits on immigration, have been stigmatized by the Swedish media as fascist and bigoted.
Erik Almqvuist is national youth leader for the Swedish Democrats.
"The media has tried to portray us as extremists, racists," he said. "People think we're almost inhuman"
Almqvuist faces regular death threats, and was almost killed recently in a Left-wing knife attack.
"The multicultural model in Sweden has polarized society," Almqvuist explained. "We have a political polarization. We have also an ethnic polarization. And the extremes are growing and it's harder and harder to get to consensus."
Hedegaard says as Malmö goes, so goes the rest of Sweden.
"I think the best prediction is that Sweden will have a Muslim majority by 2049, so we know where that country's going," he said.
CBN News was unable to get a response from Malmö's mayor, Ilmar Reepalu. But he told a Swedish publication that he does not think anti-Semitism is greater in Malmö than in other Swedish cities, and said that harassment of Jews is "not good."
CBN News also asked a number of Malmö Jewish leaders to appear on camera to discuss the climate of anti-Semitism. They all declined, with one saying it would only make the situation worse.
・Originally aired March 12, 2009.
2. American Thinker (http://www.americanthinker.com)
Lars Hedegaard Speaks to the Danish Free Press Society, 24 February 2013
by Andrew G. Bostom
Lars Hedegaard, a portrait of courage, tenacity, and wit, under even the most trying circumstances, delivered a remarkable address to the Danish Free Press Society on Thursday 2/21/13, just over two-weeks after surviving an assassination attempt. The video with English subtitles is embedded below, and a transcript provided thanks to Gates of Vienna.
Here are two extracts which capture Hedegaard's sense of humor, and truth-telling, both unvanquished:
So I was both pleased and proud to hear that one police officer said that the assassination attempt could possibly be motivated by jealousy. One could perhaps imagine that the approximately 25-year-old gunman's wife or one of his wives has a soft spot for me, which then prompted the desperate husband to shoot his rival...
In this country one is able to without the slightest risk stand up and pronounce that of course Sharia will be introduced with everything that it implies in terms of barbaric punishment and repression. One can also, without anyone touching a single hair on one's head, state that immoral women must have stones thrown at their heads until they die, and that Muslims who turn their back on Islam of course must be killed. But if you say or write that this is what Islam is all about then you are guaranteed to be accused of racism, risk criminal prosecution, and - as we have just witnessed - attempted murder.
Watch, and/or read it all.
Thank you. I have written down my speech and it will be published at Trykkefrihedsselskabet [Danish Free Press Society ] website, sappho.dk.
I've done this because there are journalists present here today. and they don't always fully understand what I'm saying.
I would also like to add that I have listened with great interest to those politicians and opinion-makers who are here today and I thank you sincerely for supporting freedom of expression. Your efforts help to keep the lights shining in a dark time. Having said that, I would like to point out that if you have read what I've written - I have written several books and many articles - then you will see that I have never expressed hatred towards any specific ethnic groups.
I do not hate Muslims, I differentiate between Muslims and the ideology of Islam. I will not go into further detail, but this can be verified by buying my books, or alternatively borrowing them from the library, and by reading my articles.
When I was informed that Trykkefrihedsselskabet had decided to organize this event, there were a few from that organization who advised me to show my softer side and exhibit more human emotions, which they apparently believe that I possess. Please don't be as hard as you usually are, they said. And I'll be the first to admit that in the past three weeks I have experienced the entire spectrum of emotions.
First, of course, the shock of discovering that the man I thought was a postman turned out to be an armed man who wanted to put bullet in my head. Then the joy of learning that so many political leaders unequivocally condemned the assassination. And that so many newspapers did the same. The day after the assassination attempt, I was visibly touched when I read the editorials in Politiken and Ekstra Bladet - at least the first few paragraphs where emotional words described the inalienable right to freedom of expression and how wrong it was to try and kill me.
But I did not need very many Kleenexes to wipe my eyes. It turned out that the newspaper editors used the assassination attempt to reiterate to their readers what a miserable and racist creep I am. And when I was done reading about my case, I almost came to the conclusion that it would probably have been for the best of the country and for the future of humanity if the gunman had had better aim.
So I was both pleased and proud to hear that one police officer said that the assassination attempt could possibly be motivated by jealousy. One could perhaps imagine that the approximately 25-year-old gunman's wife or one of his wives has a soft spot for me, which then prompted the desperate husband to shoot his rival.
Almost everyone - friends and enemies alike - however, believe that the attack was a result of something I've said or written, and thus an attempt to silence me. It is also a theory that I'm inclined to support.
Since the inception of Trykkefrihedsselskabet in late 2004, we have year in and year out been accused of being xenophobic, racist, right-wing extremist and certainly not interested in preserving freedom of expression. The funny thing is that if one looks at the many guests that we have invited to Copenhagen over the years at least half of them have what we usually refer to as 'different ethnic backgrounds'. Individuals from Arab countries, Pakistan, India, China Russia, etc. - we've even also invited Swedes... But the media have with very few exceptions not been particularly interested in what has been said and discussed at these meetings, which anyone can attend and where anyone can speak. No one from Denmark Radio or the fine newspapers have bothered to come and report on what our many interesting guests have had to say. If someone from TFS on the other hand utters just a single thoughtless remark then they descend upon us like hawks. Can't you see what monsters we are and that our true intention is to establish a fascist tyranny with lynching and gas chambers and whatever else comes with it.
In the newspaper Politiken, I have been referred to as a habitual offender, and the newspaper's current cultural editor demanded a couple of years ago on Dutch television that erroneous opinions, i.e. opinions that are not shared by Politiken - should be banned and that she would like to see me prosecuted, something which the Danish state prosecutors have attempted with great zeal.
In this country one is able to without the slightest risk stand up and pronounce that of course Sharia will be introduced with everything that it implies in terms of barbaric punishment and repression. One can also, without anyone touching a single hair on one's head, state that immoral women must have stones thrown at their heads until they die, and that Muslims who turn their back on Islam of course must be killed. But if you say or write that this is what Islam is all about then you are guaranteed to be accused of racism, risk criminal prosecution, and - as we have just witnessed - attempted murder.
Those who hurl racism accusations against other people and demands that they must be deprived of their freedom of expression and have their opinions banned must surely feel very safe and secure. They simply cannot imagine that one day it may be their opinions that are banned, that they are the ones who will be hauled to the court - and God forbid that they are the ones who will one day open the door to a postman who turns out to be a murderer. They have nothing to fear from Trykkefrihedsselskabet, because we will at all times defend our opponents' right to freedom of expression.
But when we are already faced with a scenario where murder and death threats have become part of the political struggle - as is the case with Pia Kjærsgaard, Naser Khader, Kurt Westergaard and now me - how can one then be so sure that the violence will always go in one particular direction? How can we tell for sure that the bells, which today are tolling for the wicked, won't one day toll for those who perceive themselves as the good ones?
That's why I'm saying: is it not better to start listening to what people are actually trying to say, rather than stigmatizing them as outlaws who can be treated accordingly? Could it not be the case that those who in recent years have warned against the mass immigration of people who cannot and will not integrate into our society actually are deeply concerned about what is going to happen to Denmark and to our children? Could it not be the case that those who warn against the threat of Islamization are actually afraid of Islamization because they have seen what has happened in places wherever Islam has become prominent? That they are afraid of losing our most precious freedom, namely the freedom of expression? If it is lost, it will probably never be regained.
So therefore I ask questions, and I will continue to ask questions. And so therefore I speak, and I will continue to speak. Thank you.
(End)
