Court rejects Danish Muslims’ defamation lawsuit

A DANISH court yesterday dismissed a defamation lawsuit against a newspaper that first published the Prophet Mohammed cartoons that touched off protests in the Islamic world.

The City Court in Aarhus rejected claims by seven Danish Muslim groups who said the 12 drawings printed in Jyllands-Posten were meant to insult the prophet and make a mockery of Islam. Islamic law forbids any depiction of the prophet, even positive ones, to prevent idolatry.

“It cannot be ruled out that the drawings have offended some Muslims’ honour,” the court said. But it added there was no basis to assume that “the purpose of the drawings was to present opinions that can belittle Muslims”.

Jyllands-Posten’s editor said the decision was a victory for freedom of speech. The Danish Muslims who filed suit said they would appeal the ruling, which was criticised by some Muslim leaders outside Denmark.

The newspaper published the cartoons on September 30 last year, with an accompanying text saying it was challenging a perceived self-censorship among artists afraid to offend Islam.

The caricatures were reprinted in European newspapers in January and February, fuelling protests in the Islamic world. Some turned violent, with protesters killed in Libya and Afghanistan.

Jyllands-Posten’s editor in chief, Carsten Juste, said the ruling confirmed the newspaper’s “incontestable right” to print the drawings.

“Everything but a pure acquittal would have been a disaster for the press freedom and the media’s possibility to fulfil its duties in a democratic society,” Mr Juste said.

He did not see an end to the controversy, saying, “There are radical people in this world that simply don’t want this case settled.”

Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the Muslim plaintiffs, told Danish radio that they would appeal.

In Syria, where a mob attacked and set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in February, Mohammed Habash, a legislator who heads the Islamic Studies Centre in Damascus, said the ruling would “widen the gap between the Western and Islamic world”.

One of the cartoons showed the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse.

The court said some of the drawings could be perceived as linking Islam to terrorism, but added the purpose was to provide social commentary rather than to insult or ridicule Muslims.

The seven Danish Muslim groups filed the defamation suit in March, after Denmark’s top prosecutor declined to press criminal charges, saying the drawings did not violate laws against racism or blasphemy.

The plaintiffs had sought €25,000 in damages.

The lawsuit said the cartoons were published “solely to provoke and mock not only the Prophet Mohammed but also the Muslim population”.