Jan 2015
SAFS.CA: REVIEW OF FLEMMING ROSE, THE TYRANNY OF SILENCE
“…It is not clear how much of the outrage can be attributed to the mere fact of printing drawings of
Mohammed and how much to perceived insults in the cartoons. Rose analyzes the competing
Muslim positions on depictions of Mohammed. These range from acceptance such depictions
appear in Muslim art to neutrality concerning non Muslims’ activities in this regard, to the fury
of the “grievance fundamentalists” (in Rose’s apt phrase), whose position is that no one
anywhere can be allowed to contravene the strictest interpretation of any Islamic tenet or even
custom. It was this segment of Muslims that produces the murderers, would be murderers,
bombers, and rioters who violently assault any critic of any aspect of Islamic pr
actice. The cases of Theo van Gogh, Salman Rushdie, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali are only the best
known instances of people living in Europe whose words have brought them death or a life under constant threat…”
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Read more about SAFS
Mohammed and how much to perceived insults in the cartoons. Rose analyzes the competing
Muslim positions on depictions of Mohammed. These range from acceptance such depictions
appear in Muslim art to neutrality concerning non Muslims’ activities in this regard, to the fury
of the “grievance fundamentalists” (in Rose’s apt phrase), whose position is that no one
anywhere can be allowed to contravene the strictest interpretation of any Islamic tenet or even
custom. It was this segment of Muslims that produces the murderers, would be murderers,
bombers, and rioters who violently assault any critic of any aspect of Islamic pr
actice. The cases of Theo van Gogh, Salman Rushdie, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali are only the best
known instances of people living in Europe whose words have brought them death or a life under constant threat…”
Read the review
Read more about SAFS
Los Angeles Review of Books: Avant Charlie: Flemming Rose and The Danish Cartoon Crisis
“...The Tyranny of Silence is not an apology; it is one man’s narrative among many. “In the open society,” Rose writes, “history moves forward through the exchange of new narratives.” He explains that during a conversation with Salman Rushdie in 2009 he came to understand that “what differentiates open and closed societies is the right to tell and retell our own and other people’s stories.” Any attempt to prevent those stories from being told is not simply a restriction on free speech; it is an assault on human nature. “When we spoke,” Rose recalls, “Rushdie observed that from childhood, we use storytelling as a way of defining and understanding ourselves. It is a phenomenon that derives from a language instinct that is universal and innate in human nature.”
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Harvard Political Review: Self-Censorship: The Hidden Gag Order
“...A related set of events transpired in 2005, when a series of Prophet Mohammed caricatures were published in Denmark. The reactions from some members of the public were much worse than anticipated: death threats were issued, a widespread boycott of Denmark was initiated, Danish embassies were set on fire, and several protest-related deaths resulted. Flemming Rose, who commissioned the 2005 cartoons as cultural editor of the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, recently released his book on the so-called cartoon crisis. In The Tyranny of Silence, the man principally responsible for the Danish cartoons’ publication writes about his new life as an object of hatred and about his free speech philosophy, in a manner that would immediately make any free speech libertarian nod...”
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Washington Free Beacon Review: Flemming Rose’s ‘Tyranny of Silence’
“Free speech does not enjoy such popular support elsewhere, a hard reality underscored by the hail of bullets directed at French satire publication Charlie Hebdo last week. The bullets were intended to silence outspoken critics of Islam. They served their grisly purpose in 12 cases and counting. But terrorists have not yet managed to silence Danish journalist Flemming Rose, although they would sorely like to. Rose’s vigorous defense of free speech, The Tyranny of Silence, has recently been translated into English from the original Danish.
The translation could not have come at a better time.
When reached for comment on the Paris attacks, Rose told the Washington Free Beacon that “Charlie Hebdo was the only European paper that hadn’t internalized the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Since 2008 it has been the only paper that continued to insist on their right to do religious satire. Frankly, my book and its thesis has become more urgent than ever. The people behind the mass murder in Paris want to impose a global blasphemy law to protect their religion against criticism, the want to establish a tyranny of silence…”
“The lesson for us: if you give in to intimidation, you will not get less but more of it because you show the perpetrators that it works.”
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The translation could not have come at a better time.
When reached for comment on the Paris attacks, Rose told the Washington Free Beacon that “Charlie Hebdo was the only European paper that hadn’t internalized the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Since 2008 it has been the only paper that continued to insist on their right to do religious satire. Frankly, my book and its thesis has become more urgent than ever. The people behind the mass murder in Paris want to impose a global blasphemy law to protect their religion against criticism, the want to establish a tyranny of silence…”
“The lesson for us: if you give in to intimidation, you will not get less but more of it because you show the perpetrators that it works.”
Read more