09 October 2006
The youth organization of the People's Party, Denmark's third biggest political party has expressed regret over the actions of some of its members who had mocked the Prophet Muhammad during a camp held this summer. Despite the regret, the group said it was "OK to poke fun" at religious and political figures. The Danish People's Party Youth (DFU) organized a drawing contest among its members during its annual summer camp in August in central Denmark. Video clips showing the young politicians apparently under the influence of alcohol presenting one cartoon were posted on some websites. "It is bad style because it overshadows our political line," the youth organization's chairman, Kenneth Kristensen, told the "Associated Press" newswire, but added that he believed it "is okay to poke fun at Muhammad, Jesus or Bill Clinton. We must not put limits on ourselves."
One of the people shown on the video, a woman, is shown presenting a drawing of a camel, adding that it has "the head of Muhammad" and beer bottles as humps. The group laughs as the woman, who was not identified, explained the drawing. The story, first reported by the daily newspaper "Nyhedsavisen" last Friday, came in the aftermath of violent protests after twelve drawings of the Prophet Muhammad published last year that sparked violent protests in the Muslim world. Kristensen blamed the group's leadership for organizing the contest and Martin Knudsen, a member of the youth branch who shot the video, for posting the clips.
Zubair Butt Hussain, a spokesman for Danish group called Muslims in Dialogue, said the organization was "disgusted" by DFU's contest, but "not surprised.The Danish People's Party has through its history made a virtue to make humiliating and generalized statements about minority groups, especially Muslims." The moderate Muslim organization "believes that freedom of expression is every citizen's right but under responsibility both legally, ethically and morally," he said.
