Reading List, Sat 4th Feb

1. Mathew Parris, in The Times:

"So they have thin skins. That shouldn’t stop us poking fun at them

WRITING yesterday of the decision by this newspaper and others not to publish those now-infamous cartoons poking fun at Islam, my colleague Ben Macintyre suggested that “this is not a matter of kowtowing to pressure”. With respect, I think it is."

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2. Charles Moore in The Telegraph:

"If you get rid of the Danes, you'll have to keep paying the Danegeld

It's some time since I visited Palestine, so I may be out of date, but I don't remember seeing many Danish flags on sale there. Not much demand, I suppose. I raise the question because, as soon as the row about the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Jyllands-Posten broke, angry Muslims popped up in Gaza City, and many other places, well supplied with Danish flags ready to burn."

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3. David Rennie, Weblog in The Telegraph:

"Last night, for the newspaper edition, I spoke at length to a spokesman for the group of Danish imams and activists who have done more than anyone else to bring the Mohammed cartoon row to international prominence...So I propose to print here more or less the entire contents of my notebook."

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4. Ibn Warraq in Der Spiegel (yesterday's edition):

"Best-selling author and Muslim dissident Ibn Warraq argues that freedom of expression is our western heritage and we must defend it against attacks from totalitarian societies. If the west does not stand in solidarity with the Danish, he argues, then the Islamization of Europe will have begun in earnest."

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