Offensive caricatures of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005, which later on ignited Muslim protest world-wide and would, it seems, leave some serious repercussion on Danish economy.
Denmark has a total area of 16,639 square miles, and its population is approximately 5.4 million. As of January 2002, 84.3 percent of the population belonged to the official Evangelical Lutheran Church. Although only about 3 percent of the church members attend services regularly, most church members utilise the church for weddings, funerals, baptisms, confirmations, and religious holidays.
The second largest religious community is Muslim, constituting approximately 3 percent of the population (170,000 persons), followed by communities of Catholics (35,000), Jehovah's Witnesses (15,000), Jews (7,000), Baptists (5,500), Pentecostals (5,000), and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) (4,500).
There are also many communities with fewer than 3,000 members, including Seventh-day Adventists, the Catholic Apostolic Church, the Salvation Army, Methodists, Anglicans, and Russian Orthodox. The German minority in southern Jutland and other non-Danish communities (particularly Scandinavian groups) have their own religious communities. Approximately 5.4 percent of the population is not religious, and approximately 1.5 percent is atheist.
Denmark seems to pay a heavy price against the blasphemous act. Denmark's Jyske Bank has estimated that a one-year Arab boycott of Danish food products could result in lost revenues of dollars 322 million and the loss of as many as 4,000 jobs.
It is further estimated that if only Jordan keep boycotting Danish Products till next summer they will lose at least 36 billion EURO. Danish-Swedish dairy giant Arla Foods says the ongoing boycott of Danish products in the Middle East had so far cost it between 40m and dollar 50m. As the Muslim world refuses to buy Danish goods in protest over cartoons published in a Danish newspaper, Arla is losing dollars 1 million a day. Arla has also had to send home 170 employees across Denmark due to the impact of the reduced sales.
When asked by reports regarding the foreseeable loss the Danish economy in the wake of the cartoon controversy, the Danish Prime Minister replied: "First of all, I think it is much too early to make any assessment of the impact on the Danish economy.
Obviously, some Danish companies trading with Arab countries may suffer from the boycott of Danish goods. Whether this will be a long-term loss or an intermediate loss we don't know. Whether the companies will find new markets, we don't know. But in the short term, of course it has a negative impact. However, the Danish economy is very strong. The economic growth rate is very high, and unemployment is low, so I feel confident that we will recover soon from this, as we have other markets.
But I would like to underline that we very much appreciate our long tradition of trade with the Middle East, and would be very pleased to resume normal trade relations with Middle Eastern countries."
A Saudi Arabian company which owns some 60 stores throughout the country said it will not stock Danish products until Denmark's largest daily paper apologises for publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Al-Othaim Holding will also boycott any supplier that includes Danish goods. The company's president said his company's boycott could affect some 1.3 billion riyals (around 346 million dollars) worth of imports from Denmark.
Reaction by supermarket managers in Jeddah to the controversial cartoons published in the Danish and Norwegian media is it seems tangible. In some supermarkets, gaps with labels in English and Arabic indicate that Danish products have been withdrawn.
Meanwhile, supermarkets are pulling out Danish products from their shelves and have pulled out all Danish products from the shelves of our Panda supermarkets and hypermarkets. In their sales flyer covering January 25 to 31, Panda has included a photograph of Danish Feta Cheese with the words "Cancelled" in English and Arabic clearly overprinted. Danish food producers Arla Foods confirmed that the anger sparked by the cartoons had prompted a boycott of its products in Saudi Arabia.
For the past few days the stock price of Saudi Dairy and Foodstuff Companies has been slipping down. SADAFCO was established in 1976 with the formation of the Danish Saudi Dairy Company.
Although the company acquired the Saudi Danish Dairy Company of Riyadh in 1987 and in the early 1990s merged with Gulf Danish Dairy Company and Madinah Danish Dairy Company, thereby forming SADAFCO and becoming a 100-percent Saudi company, people still associate it with Danish companies.
Reports came from Turkey that a prominent pro-Islamic Turkish business group has decided to sever economic ties with Denmark over the publication of blasphemous cartoons and obviously Denmark is the hitman in this affair.
Iraq also responded quickly. Iraq's transport ministry said that it had frozen contracts with Denmark and Norway in protest against blasphemous cartoons published in the countries' newspapers. It may be remembered that Denmark has more than 500 troops in Iraq.
The Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims (Supkem) has warned Muslims against consuming Danish products and demanded the withdrawal of offending cartoons on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Supkem chairman, Professor Abdulghafur El-Busaidy, said printing and distribution of the caricature was done under the guise of freedom of expression and freedom of press and accused the newspapers of a hidden agenda against Islam.
In Nigeria, on February 6, 2006, the MPs passed a resolution ordering the Kano state government to call off negotiations with Denmark over a hydroelectric plant worth some $25m and to cancel the purchase of 72 buses from the country.
The Danish government is fighting back, urging European Union (EU) action over Iran's severing of trade ties with the European nation.
While stressing that the EU was still considering its response, European Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger did admit that "a boycott of Danish goods is by definition a boycott of European goods." An aggressive response from the EU may have damaging repercussions, as the EU is Iran's main trading partner, although only $204m of the $14.1 billion trade in 2004 was with Denmark.
Needless to say the commercial boycott is a significant tool which will inevitably affect the decision-making process in the relevant countries.
In this context, it is obvious that through boycotting Danish products, the consumers will put pressure on the merchants, who in turn will press the supplier, and the latter will put pressure on the manufacturers, which in the end will have an effect on the decision-making process of the pertinent country, given the fact all these pressures will be eventually directed against the newspaper.
Such being the case, if the Danish newspaper decides to go ahead and publish the caricatures against Prophet Muhammad, (PBUH), then the manufacturer will have no choice, but to stop advertising his products in the newspaper and the daily will lose its income.
Apart from the economic boycott of Danish products all over the globe, the promulgation of such filth is, rather, bound up with a shift by the European ruling elites to line up more squarely behind the neo-colonial interventions of US imperialism in the Middle East and Central Asia.
It is no accident that it occurs in the midst of the ongoing slaughter in Iraq, new threats against the Palestinian masses, and the preparations to launch sanctions, and eventual military aggression, against Iran. It is, moreover, a continuation and escalation of a deliberate policy in Europe, spearheaded by the political right and aided and abetted by the nominal "left" parties, to demonise the growing Muslim population, isolate it, and use it as a scapegoat for the growing social misery affecting broad layers of the working class.
Comments
Comments are closed.