Proposal to Teach Mohammed Cartoons in Danish Schools

Two major Danish political parties have backed plans to teach school children about the violence caused by the publishing of cartoons of Mohammed in Danish and French newspapers, calling it “and important part of history”.

Although the Danish People’s Party (DF) and Danish Conservative People’s Party may differ on exactly how the cartoons should be presented in the classroom, the former coalition partners are offering a drastically different approach to the presently ruling left-wing coalition.

A Conservative spokesman said: “The cartoon crisis, the Charlie Hebdo killings and the latest terrorist attack in Copenhagen on February 14 are such an important part of history they should have a permanent place on the school curriculum”.

A DF spokesman said the drawings should be shown and discussed in the classroom, and teachers should not hesitate in showing all students the art, which is considered blasphemous in the Islamic faith. TheLocal.dk reports the remarks of Alex Ahrendtsen, who said: “If you live in Denmark you should also be able to tolerate seeing the drawings”.

The Conservatives think including the pictures themselves in the lessons is too much, and would rather leave it to individual teachers to make that call. A spokesman for the party said whether the pictures were shown in class or not was irrelevant anyway, as “the students would go home and run a Google search because students are curious” after learning about them.

The Mohammed drawings are of particular significance in Denmark, as the caricatures of Mohammed started in the country, being published by the Jyllands-Posten in 2005. Reaction to the drawings was so strong, they were violently protested around the world, with embassies burnt and a number of fatalities reported. Newspapers around Europe republished the cartoons, with some such as Charlie Hebdo adding their own.

The staff of Charlie Hebdo were called out by name from their Paris office in January this year and executed by Islamist terrorists avenging the depiction of Mohammed. Breitbart London reported today the murdered staff have posthumously been awarded the ‘International Islamophobe of the Year’ award by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), a British pressure group which claims to campaign against terrorism by blaming the Hebdo staff for their own deaths.