[Dean's World] Celia Farber: Orebro, City of Light

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Posted by Celia Farber:
Orebro, City of Light
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1188959171.shtml


   My father called me over to his computer screen this weekend and
   booted a link. "I am going to show you something literally
   unbelievable," he said.

   The text and photo materialized-- crowds of chanting Muslims,
   protesting something, and a headline about a newspaper editor who
   stood his ground, despite dire threats, protests, even arson. It took
   a moment before I realized what newspaper, in what city, in what
   country.

   My father clapped his hands over his head and we both hooted with glee
   as though we were looking at stupendous baby pictures of a close
   family member. "Look! Orebro!"

   (Dean can I have two dots over the first "O?")

   My hometown local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda in Orebro Sweden has
   made international news in a very unlikely new twist to a story we
   thought had faded: It began in early August when Swedish artist Lars
   Vilks had his work rejected from art exhibits across Sweden for its
   inclusion of three drawings depicting the prophet Mohammed in an
   unflattering light. From "Konstforeningen" in Tallerud to "Moderna
   Museet" in Stockholm, they all cited an inability to provide the
   necessary security to show the drawings--by all accounts "good" art.

   One of the drawings features the head of Mohammed on the body of a
   dog, and for some reason they call this a "rondell hund," which means
   "roundabout dog."

   (You can see the drawings if you Google "Lars Vilks."

   On August 19, Orebro's local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, (NA) a very
   fine newspaper by the way, published the drawings, and there was an
   immediate eruption, according to script. Hundreds of Muslims protested
   outside the newspapers offices in central Orebro; Death threats were
   issued against Vilks, ("We will slaughter you, and slit your throat")
   and bundles of Nerikes Allehanda were set on fire as they awaited
   distribution in a suburb.

   This last detail yielded a marvelous quote from a laconic local police
   chief, Thomas Ginghagen: "It was arson, yes. Newspapers don't erupt in
   flames all by themselves."

   So, in this post-Jyllands Posten climate, what would you expect
   Nerikes Allehanda to do?

   Grovel, of course.
   Send female politicians in swaddled in scarves and begging for peace.

   But no. A deeper ethic was buried beneath the floorboards of this
   deafening play about respect and religion and freedom of expression--
   far away from the glittering prizes of journalism's elite. The deeper
   ethic is the ethic that protects the outer limits, not the comfortable
   middle.

   The protests spread to Teheran, where angry mobs "raged" against
   Nerikes Allehanda, (which I would love to hear how they pronounced,
   just for fun)and the Iranian government delivered a formal protest to
   the Swedish Emmassy there. The Pakistani government followed suit.

   As tensions crackled, the dangerous diving for cover began: The CEO of
   Arla-Foods, the Swedish dairy giant that lost 100,000 kronor after the
   boycotts of Danish products following the Jyllands Posten riots
   declared in an editorial that NA had threatened the nation's safety
   and commited a crime under Swedish law, "Hets Mot Folkgrupp," which
   means provokation of a particular group of people. The Swedish courts
   ,meanwhile, decided rapidly that no law had been broken.

   NA's Editor in chief Ulf Johansson emerged, together with the artist
   Vilks, as a rare voice of sanity and courage. He met with leaders of
   Orebro's Muslim community and listened to their emotions.

   Then he came out and explained: "They say they are offended and I
   regret that, because our purpose was not to cause anybody any harm.
   But they are asking for an apology and for me to promise that I will
   never again publish a similar image...and that I cannot do."

   To me it sounds like a small bell. A distant and almost strange sound.

   "This could be," my father said, after he'd extolled Orebro's courage
   on the air that night, "another Field of Blackbirds in Kosovo, or the
   gates of Vienna where Europe twice before said to Muslim aggressors,
   "This far but no farther."

   I was in Orebro just the other week, walking, with my dear friend
   Peter Olsen, along the glittering "black river," past the old famous
   "Slott," (castle) and past the offices of Nerikes Allehanda, which
   explained its editorial position like this:

   "A liberal society must manage to do two things: On the one hand
   protect and uphold Muslims' right to freedom of religion and the right
   to build mosques. Second, it is also permitted to ridicule Islam's
   highest symbols--like that of all religions symbols. There is no
   contradiction between these two goals. In fact, they necessitate one
   another."

   Norway, in 1979, banned the Monty Python film "Life of Brian," citing
   heresy laws.

   Similar protests were raised in the US, but did not prevail.

   John Cleese quipped: "God can undoubtedly take care of himself."