Writing at Frontpagemag.com, Bruce Bawer discusses Scandanavian press coverage of yesterday's attempt on the life of Lars Hedegaard. A veteran Danish journalist and historian, Hedegaard is editor of the new weekly newspaper Dispatch International, for which I am DC correspondent. I invite readers to visit our English-language site where all content is free this week in view of the apparent jihadist attack (with a gun) on a lion of liberty (who uses a laptop).
People should see exactly the kind of articles and opinon pieces that "causes" assassination attempts today in Europa Islamica -- Islamized Europe. I also invite you to subscribe to DI's English-language online edition, now more than ever, to support Lars, liberty and a free press (simply email Dispatch International and someone will contact you with subscription information: subscribe@d-intl.com). The media reaction, from here to there, illustrates why. We live in untenable, unbearable times due directly to the deep and wide incursion of Islam's culture of violence and draconian law into Western society and the media don't know how to or want to report it. This becomes terrifying clear in the reportage (or lack thereof) on a fellow journalist and historian -- who happens also, at age 70, to pack a powerful punch -- when he was very nearly killed this week most likely for refusing to bow to that culture and that law.
Not so our colleagues in the press, as case coverage demonstrates.
Bruce Bawer, a resident of Norway, highlights local media's perfectly disgusting reaction, which comes in two parts: demonizing Lars for writing "hateful," "reprehensible" things about Muslims, then standing by, smugly Voltaire-like, Lars's right to write such "hateful," "reprehensible" things. Yes, he's a sewer, they insist (to placate Islam), but let the sewer flow (to pat themselves on the back). How empty.
Bawer writes:
As with the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, journalists have taken the attempt to end Hedegaard’s life as an excellent occasion to smear the victim.
A subhead that appeared both in an article in Aftenposten credited to Kjetil Hanssen and the Norwegian Telegrambyrå, and in an article in VG credited to Bjørn-Martin Nordby and Harald Berg Sævereid, refers to Lars as a “krass” critic of Islam – krass being a word that can mean outspoken, harsh, or (yes) crass. Both articles (which were curiously full of such similarities) described Lars as “head of the so-called Free Press Society, a controversial association” – the controversy, of course, being that many members of the Danish media and academic elite think that the press shouldn’t be so free when the topic is Islam. ...
In other words, so many members of the Danish media and academic elite think as dhimmi -- non-Muslims who have accepted the restrictions and prohibitions of Islamic law in exchange for their continued stunted and debased existence -- "tolerance" -- at the whim of their Islamic masters. The media sneers only accentuate the media capitulation.
We see a more subtle form of sneering condescension in the American MSM, almost all of which -- The Blaze excepted -- seems to have relied solely on the the Associated Press account, which reports:
Hedegaard heads the International Free Press Society, a group that claims press freedom is under threat from Islam.
From the Huffington Post:
Lars Hedegaard, who heads a group that claims press freedom is under threat from Islam, told The Associated Press he was shaken but not physically injured in the attack at his Copenhagen home.
From the UK Daily Mail:
Mr Hedegaard, who heads up a group that claims press freedom is under threat from Islam, said the attack had left him shaken but not injured.
The AP accounts of the attack, not incidentally, are all that the Fox News website has seen fit to publish. This coverage still beats some of the MSM sites (CBS,CNN) which have posted zero. The Wash Post online carries the AP account, while the New York Times blog actually linked to a brief account on Jihad Watch for a while. (I took a screen shot since I knew they could come to their censoring senses.) The NYT now links to MSM-approved AP story at Fox.
Here's what it says:
A gunman tried to shoot a Danish writer and prominent critic of Islam on Tuesday, but missed and fled after a scuffle with his intended victim, police and the writer said.
Lars Hedegaard, who heads a group that claims press freedom is under threat from Islam, told The Associated Press he was shaken but not physically injured in the attack at his Copenhagen home.
Police said they were searching for the suspect, whom they described as a "foreign" man aged 20-25.
Other accounts included "Arab"-looking and Bawer notes "Pakstani" appeared in print as a description reportedly used by police.
Hedegaard, 70, said the gunman rang the doorbell of his apartment building on the pretext of delivering a package, and when Hedegaard opened the front door, the man pulled out a gun and fired a shot that narrowly missed the writer's head.
"The bullet flew past my right ear, after which I attacked him and punched him in the face, which made him lose the gun," Hedegaard told AP. He said the gunman then fled.
Hedegaard heads the Free Press Society in Denmark and its international offshoot, the International Free Press Society. He is also among the publishers of a weekly anti-Islam newsletter.
It's called a newspaper -- but the AP (and its many newsroom dependents) wouldn't know about that since newspapers are supposed to be very big on facts, logic and current events. Given that Islamization is, factually and logically speaking, the biggest current event in Europe and the wider world, Dispatch International does indeed cover Islam. To cover Islam these days is to cover the West's erosion, marginalization and obliteration -- erosion of freedom of speech, religion, conscience, the marginalization and coming obliteration of the indigenous cultures. While I do not speak for the editors, I would say that editorially speaking, Dispatch International opposes that erosion, marginalization and obliteration. The AP et al wouldn't know about that, either.
In fact, they all actually join in, smearing Lars as a means of protecting themselves from any other bloodthirsty jihadists out there fervently seeking "martyrdom" by shooting a hole in an uppity dhimmi's head.
The AP report that US media have run with continues:
In 2011, he was convicted of hate speech and fined 5,000 kroner ($1,000) for making a series of insulting and degrading statements about Muslims.
First of all, this is a half-truth that conveys a falsehood. Lars was indeed convicted in 2011, but his conviction was overturned in a unanimous decision by the Danish Supreme Court in 2012. As a result, he does not stand convicted of anything; nor did he have to pay any fine at any time.
Second, "insulting and degrading" according to whom? Is it "insulting and degrading" to refer (in private conversation, in this case) to the demonstably, peculiarly high rate of sexual abuse of females in Muslim culture? One would think the sexual abuse itself is "insulting and degrading," not reference to it, but that assumes the press is functioning free of sharia. (Wrong.) The media here have not only accepted the Islamically correct view of such statements as a given, but disseminate that view as Islamically correct consensus. (Under Islamic law, it is prohibited to speak ill of Islam, even if the "ill" is true.)
It's all part of the marginalization, erosion and obliteration process.
The AP continues:
Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt condemned what she called a "despicable" act.
"It is even worse if the attack is rooted in an attempt to prevent Lars Hedegaard to use his freedom of expression," she said.
An appropriate statement and not bad for a liberal. But the AP just can't let it stand alone. There must be some extenuating circumstances that make assassination if not reasonable than understandable. ...
Hedegaard has expressed support for a range of outspoken Islam critics in Europe, including Swedish artist Lars Vilks and Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders.
Aha!
"Failed attack on my friend and Islam critic Lars Hedegaard in Denmark this morning. My thoughts are with him. Terrible," Wilders tweeted.
Wilders is his friend ... Aha again!
The Free Press Society said it was "shaken and angry," but "relieved that the perpetrator did not succeed."
Several Scandinavian writers, artists and journalists have been exposed to threats and violence from extremists since the 2005 publication of Danish newspaper cartoons of the [Islamic] Prophet Muhammad triggered an uproar in Muslim countries.
Now that we hit "B-matter" (secondary material), AP turns into its final nose dive.
It's a "Scandanavian" thing ...? "Exposed to threats"...? These are the Biggest Lies of all told to muffle the umistakable "clash of civilizations" -- which in real life sounds like gunfire or the heavy breathing of the hunted everywhere Islam threatens the life and livelihood of anyone who says No to its rule.
Far being a Scandanavian thing, it is also a French thing (Robert Redeker), an American thing (Molly Norris), a worldwide thing .... Pope Rage, Teddy Bear Rage, Koran Rage ... it goes on and on and on. Remember what happened in September 2012?
AP, having demonstrated it has no shame, offers instruction to other good dhimmi.
Many Muslims believe the prophet should not be depicted at all -- even in a flattering way -- because it might encourage idolatry
If self-respecting, the wire service would have stuck to its own traditional style: just plain "Mohammed," or even "their prophet," or the "Muslim prophet," not simply and unversally, "the prophet."
The story continues:
In 2010, a Somali man living in Denmark used an ax to break into the home of one of the cartoonists, who escaped unharmed by locking himself into a panic room.
This drastic underplay of the terrifying Dec 31 2009 attack on Kurt Westergaard is breathtaking. A Somali Muslim seeking to enforce sharia blaphemy law used the axe to try to break down the door of Kurt's panic room -- a tiny bathroom with a steel reinforced door -- where the elderly artist had fled with his five-year-old granddaughter in the nick of time, not to break into the house. Makes it sound like a burglary.
Last year, four Swedish residents were convicted of terrorism in Denmark for plotting a shooting spree at the newspaper that first published the Muhammad caricatures.
"Spree"? The "residents" (of Tunisian and Egyptian heritage) were found guilty of "plotting to kill staff" at the newspaper offices, and part of the evidence included tape of them discussing "martyrdom" and also, "at a prayer service in Denmark before their arrest, the men were heard on a surveillance tape saying: `When you meet the infidels, cut their throats.' "
Of course, maybe they were just practicing Islam by reciting from the Koran, 9 47:4: "When you meet the infidels, smite their necks."
One more Islamic "cause" and "effect" and the AP story peters out:
In Sweden, Vilks has lived under police protection after a drawing he made depicting Muhammad as a dog led to death threats from militant Islamists.
A drawing "led to" death threats (and attacks and assassination attempts not mentioned): How AP-Islamically natural.
Is there safety in media surrender?
Nope. Just surrender.