Sadly, the newspaper has just given in. I sometimes wonder what it will take to wake people up.

Danish paper sorry for Muhammed cartoons

Oh, fuck. That's sad news.

The Guardian make it clear what side they're on, anyway:

"Mr Rasmussen, who was first elected after exploiting resentment of asylum-seekers, initially misjudged the mood by declining to meet ambassadors from 11 Islamic countries."

Firstly, no he didn't misjudge the mood; he judged it very accurately and responded appropriately. Ambassadors should have better things to do with their time, and prime ministers certainly do. Secondly, even if that completely un-backed-up statement about his election has some truth to it, what the fuck have asylum-seekers got to do with this? It's a trade embargo by the Saudi Arabian Government. Since when do governments seek asylum?

Jyllands-Posten statement: could be interpreted either a grovelling apology, or as "we're very sorry if you're offended, but we stand by what we did".

Thanks, Rob, it's always wise to go to the source when Al-Guardian is involved. As you say, it's not as much of an an apology as they make out, and it's interesting that the Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten statement refers to the fact that a number of far more offensive cartoons were being distributed, and falsely attributed to them, a statement ignored by The Guardian, as I suppose all slanders on the unquestioned moral integrity of the entire Muslim world must be.

More on the fake cartoon angle: it seems the BBC stumbled across them but either didn't notice or didn't want to notice (hmm, wonder which) that they were fakes:

More Mohammmed cartoon fun

Cox and Forkum have a new cartoon up: interesting because it is in itself, a cartoon depicting Muhammed, and it also depicts one of the cartoons in question. However, since C&F are not carried in any mainstream press that I am aware of, it's unlikely to cause the same reaction:

Image Problem

Help from an unexpected quarter: a French newspaper has republished all of the cartoons, together with its own one:

France enters Muslim cartoon row