Danish Self-Censorship and Islam

Danes are great at executing their freedom of speech only when it comes to the public sphere. In the private sphere they're (in)famous freedom of speech morphed into something completely different - self-censorship.

I am not sure how to explain how it came to be this way but I will give it a try, with saying that is only my speculation. Freedom of speech, which they took so far - by some - also entail that one needs to form an opinion about a certain topic. It would be hard to voice it without having one. Now, having a right to speak and hold an opinion, apparently in Denmark also entails the right to not have your opinion challenged. So if one thinks that pink baby unicorns are the best thing that happened to Denmark, he has the right to voice it and not have it challenged. Challenging that opinion would by default cause a potentially unpleasant situation since a heated discussion could ensue and could potentially destroy hygge. Since voicing your opinion in person, will in a lot of cases imply social gatherings and social gatherings are all about a good atmosphere that is almost sacred in Denmark. People will simply refrain from stating their opinions if they know that it could potentially start a discussion, which would in turn make the hygge situation much less hygge. So, in this way, Danes morphed their beautiful freedom of speech into a self-censorship monster when it comes to private gatherings and parties.

But if you think about it self-censorship isn't such a foreign concept in modern society. A lot of things, in a sense of the word, became self-censored with the rise of awareness in political correctness. It is not considered appropriate to call the person of African-American heritage a ******, it is not ok to flaunt around casual nazi jokes, jokes about people with disabilities or sexsist jokes. As I write this, there is a huge debate going on in Denmark about sexism and a couple of high political figures stepped down from their posts because they were accused for sexism by their victims from 10 years ago. And they were not accused of rape or any other type of violation on that level, they were accused of inappropriate advances towards women. If you are a high appointed politician in modern day Danmark, you could end up with a resignation if you cracked a sexist joke out in public.

So self-censorship is socially accepted and self enforced in modern day Denmark. And as such it represents a self imposed and society imposed limits to the freedom of speech and that is not considered a problem. Because, we became aware that the aforementioned type of humor could be insulting to certain members of society and that is why it became a cultural norm to willingly refrain from voicing those types of opinions. 

But there is another debate/event that resurfaced recently in the world, Denmark included. The problem of Muhammad drawings that were originally posted by Jyllands Posten in 2005. They caused a global uproar among muslim population in the whole world and they are causing it again today as they were dug out again. Recent events got me wondering, if self-censorship became so widely accepted today in the most of the world, because we came to the realisation that certain words, opinions and actions could insult certain groups in our society and it basically became a cultural norm to refrain from voicing such opinions in public, like the ones I have mentioned earlier. And not a lot of people would be willing to step out and say, he has the right to voice his opinion about, (INSERT GROUP HERE) because it is his right to freely express his opinion, even though it is insulting to (INSERT GROUP HERE). How come that same type of willing, civilized type of self-censorship does not extend to Islam? 

So we will not crack nazi jokes because we know that it is insulting to people of jewish heritage, even though it is in our rights to free speech to do so. We will not call people of African-American descent ******* because we know that it is insulting to them, even though it is in our rights to free speech to do so. We will not crack sexist jokes because we know that it is insulting to women, even though it is in our rights to free speech to do so. But when it comes to words or actions that are insulting to people of Islamic cultural heritage, then it is considered appropriate because it is in our rights to free speech even though we know it is insulting to them. Why is it so? Why are they not deserving of the same considerations, awareness and political correctness just as women, people of jewish cultural heritage and people of African-American descent are? They get equally insulted or more. Is there some double standards here or am I missing out on something?

For our own benefit

Corona crisis shows just how fragile our modern day democracy and economy is, since it can be severely disrupted by a simple virus. Since it started countries slowly implemented limitations in many areas of our lives, for our own benefit. When corona struck Italy, within a week, most of European countries closed the borders, making traveling almost impossible, except in case of emergencies.

Freedom of movement within the countries became severely restricted as well as quarantine measures have kicked into effect. Public and state institutions closed down, most of the stores closed, people instructed to work from home if possible. Almost everything that isn't necessary for the minimal function of the society was put on hold, for our own benefit. Corona virus is here and we need to cut the lines of transmission, so we can put a stop to it.

Currently a lot of European countries declared emergency situation which means that the governments are ruling by the decree and have no real opposition because all are united in the goal of fighting the virus. That way, making decisions is a lot faster and more efficient, which is needed in these days if we want to put a end to the pandemic. Putting the democracy on pause isn't something the governments did willingly or lightly but they did it for our own benefit.

Sports events canceled, any form of public events canceled, like festivals, markets, conferences, religious ceremonies. All public protests are canceled and banned because we need to stop the virus from spreading, remember it is all for our own benefit.

The measures I have listed are pretty much standard measure implemented across Europe to fight the corona-virus from spreading. Some measures are unique for certain countries.

Serbia implemented a curfew, from 17 in the afternoon to morning and from Friday evening to Monday morning. Dog owners can go out for a walk with their dogs only between 23 o'clock in the evening and 1 o'clock in the morning.

Croatia banned commuting outside the place of residence, which is a direct breach of the Croatian constitution.

Hungary implemented a law that states that the quarantine can be lifted only with 2/3 majority vote in parliament which basically translates into, if Victor Orban doesn't wont the quarantine lifted it won't be lifted.

Denmark implemented a law by which they can take away private property from its owner if it is needed to fight of the corona crisis and they executed it. They have seized private hospitals in order to get access to their medical equipment. They also made it possible to ban gatherings of 2 or more people if needed, because Danish minister of health noticed that people have been naughty with upholding the quarantine. Danish state may be forced to put it into effect, for our own benefit.

Soon after the pandemic started WHO asked big international IT companies to help them out in a fight against misinformation about the Corona virus, so they started to filter out misinformation on the virus, for our own benefit.

I do not try to bring into question the reality or the severity of the Corona crisis, the world is fighting a pandemic and measures need to be taken. What is worrying is the ease with which human rights, modern democracy and economy are all being put on pause during the time of the pandemic. What is also worrying how everybody is calling for the restrictions to be put into place. There is one European country that is trying to fight of the virus without infringing on human rights and democracy and they are being criticized that they are not doing enough or that they are not taking the pandemic seriously enough. The country in question is Sweden.

What other measures that infringe on our rights will be implemented, for our own benefit? Will the countries also help WHO in the fight against the spread of misinformation by censoring the private media, for our own benefit?

Will we end up locked up in our apartments because we took a walk? Croatia is on a good trajectory, even now the police is chasing people back to their apartments if they see them on the streets?

Will kissing, hugging or any other form of close human contact become illegal and not just advised against?

If you think I am blowing everything out of proportions, think about what your life looked like 8 moths ago and ask yourself: did you expect it to look like this today?

If 2 years go by and you wake up one morning in April 2022 with your doors sealed shut, government officials bringing you food, after you haven't seen anyone for 6 months, just tell yourself that all the baby steps that led to this situation, that all made sense when they were brought into effect in order to fight the virus, were all implemented for our own benefit.