Muslims have noted with concern that the values of tolerance are eroding and there is now shrinking space for others’ religious, social and cultural values in the west… The running of the footage affected the sensibilities of civilized people and religious beliefs of one fifth of humanity.

— A statement issued by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, an association which includes 57 member states, referring to footage recently aired on Danish television and on the Internet which showed members of the Danish Peoples’ Party (DPP) in a contest to draw cartoons mocking Islam. The members of the right-wing party who appear in the video were young, drunk, and at a summer camp over a year ago when the footage was taped. Martin Rosengaard Knudsen of the artists’ group Defending Denmark, which produced the video, denied charges of being needlessly provocative and defended the group’s reason for producing the video: “This is not an example of something that is meant to provoke. This is an example to show how things are in Danish politics.” And rightly so — to ignore the social and political milieu that contributes to this anti-immigrant racism in Denmark would only abstract and sensationalize the issue even more.

Mimi Hanaoka