Hi Carsten Juste, (Editor of the newspaper that published the controversial cartoons.)
I read with interest your letter on your web page about the "No Holocaust cartoons....." I saw the interview that your cultural editor, Rose Flemming, gave to CNN where he offered to establish contact with the Iranian paper and then publish defamatory cartoons about Jewish and Christian faiths to balance the cartoons on Mohamed and Islam. I also saw the interview of your Prime Minister on CNN. Here are my thoughts. My wife and I would love to write a story on this whole saga from a Danish perspective, from a Muslim perspective and an American perspective. The title of the book would be "OOPS". I still cannot understand how a nice small peaceful Scandinavian country like Denmark, which never had any third world colony, could be the center of an international North-South controversy. I cannot believe that you appointed Flemming Rose as a cultural editor of your newspaper. What were you thinking? In hindsight, this was the first OOPS of the whole saga. Then you allowed your newspaper to publish your "tasteless media stunt", which of course was repeated by a few other newspapers in a few other countries. This shows that a few newspaper editors also love stunts, to perhaps increase their circulation. Congratulation on your decisions not to publish any more "tasteless media stunts" from your past published library or from Iranian papers. In pursuit of the whole story, I checked your web site (where I saw your letter) hoping to see the cartoons; which are at the center of this international controversy. Unfortunately I did not find any. Hmm, I wonder why? Mr. Rose during his current leave, should be made to read the book "How to win friends and influence people". I cannot understand how a discussion of sketches on Mohamed for a children's book becomes a caricature contest for a newspaper. Then perhaps your lack of knowledge or plain insensitivity (from past experiences) leads now to an international controversy. I think the Danish government as reflected by your Prime Minister's actions and interviews, badly handled the subsequent fallout. President Bush had some wise things to say about this controversy. Yet, our American Secretary of State managed to make "Rice Pudding" of this whole episode. I think the Muslims were "off the cliff" in their protests. To go to the point of having loss of their OWN life and property in protesting what someone 3000 miles away did or did not do is just insane. This whole episode, on both sides, is NOT a "Clash of Civilizations" but rather a "Clash of Chaos" which stems for ignorance and indifference, which has led to enmity. A lot of good can come out of this unfortunate episode. As a smart editor, I am sure you have noticed that many international incidents including wars, specially the current Iraq war, started off as a series of false beliefs or "OOPS" or as your web letter put it "Error of Judgement(s)". I wish you all the best. We would love to do the story on the story. Regards, Gilbert A. Lawrence,
