Press release from 'Nej til Krig', 5. February 2006

The peace movement warns against escalating the conflict

 

Press release

The peace movement warns against escalating the conflict.

The torching of the Danish Embassy in Syria shows how wrong things can go, when forces who want to escalate the conflict are allowed to control events. Jyllands-Posten, Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People's Party) and Dansk Front (Danish Front) have really succeeded in jointly creating the enemy images they themselves need.

We reject the demonisation of Muslims. The cartoons in Jyllands-Posten was the last straw to trigger frustration here: Since September 11th, 2001, Muslims have collectively been held responsible for all sorts of evil in the world, and have become targets for the self promotion of racist politicians.

In the Middle East the cartoons have triggered many years' accumulated discontent with foreign dominance and with their own regimes. Some of these regimes have seen their own interest in scoring cheap points on this account. Of course, this doesn't justify the torching of embassies and flags.

At the same time we, together with peace movements in Arab countries, want to say to Arabs and Muslims, that Danes are not evil people. A majority of Danes have for a long time demanded Danish troops home from Iraq. Tens of thousands have demonstrated against the Iraq War and against the world order of Bush, Blair and Fogh. In spite of the provocation from Jyllands-Posten and the policies of the government and Dansk Folkeparti (Danish Peoples Party), the vast majority of Danes want neither to mock Muslims nor to have conflicts with them.

We don't need enemy images nor scapegoats, but mutual respect. The global anti-war movement has been built around this principle.