Muhammad cartoons in Scandinavia

Gone to the dogs
Sep 13th 2007 | STOCKHOLM
From The Economist print edition

Is it déjà vu all over again?


FOR the past few weeks Sweden has been poised for a replay of the Muhammad cartoon row in Denmark in 2006. Nerikes Allehanda, a provincial newspaper, published a crude sketch of the head of the prophet on the body of a dog. But despite a few flag-burning incidents in Muslim countries, some noisy protests in Sweden and a clutch of reprimands by Muslim governments, the response has so far been muted.

The affairs had similar incendiary ingredients: rude newspaper cartoons, outraged Muslims and secular Scandinavians insisting on freedom of speech. Yet there were also differences. Sweden had the benefit of hindsight. Denmark's sluggish response was a textbook case of muddled policy. The Danish case meant that the Swedes were acutely aware of the cartoons' inflammatory potential from the moment they appeared.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, waited weeks, not months, to publish an official statement that both defended free speech and expressed regret that people had been offended. And unlike Denmark's prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who haughtily declined to meet a delegation of Muslim ambassadors, Mr Reinfeldt took the initiative to invite them in for a chat.

The political context is also different. The “foreigner problem” has topped Denmark's agenda for six years; an anti-immigration party is the government's bosom ally. In Sweden there is more concern about jobs and money. And Sweden is a more inclusive place (the minister for integration is from Burundi).

And then there is the genesis of the cartoons. The Danish ones were the work of a dozen artists, commissioned by a big newspaper. The Swedish cartoons are by one man: Lars Vilks, a former art professor and maverick. Before now, his most famous creation was Ladonia, a fantasy country in a Swedish nature reserve. Mr Vilks claims that over 3,000 Pakistanis applied for citizenship of Ladonia in 2002 alone. All the more reason not to take him too seriously.