Last summer I had arrived on Viby Square
in a suburb of Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark,
and everything seemed quiet and peaceful. Suddenly two men
appeared in my field of vision. They were big sturdy fellows
with golden chains around their necks and their upper arms
showed signs of dedicated weight training. They were
obviously not ethnic Danes and they were heading directly
towards me.
In the last couple of years I had
developed a habit of keeping a watchful eye on my
surroundings, so I had already noticed them from afar. Now
they were hastily approaching and I became terribly nervous.
They stared at me and I was convinced they wanted to kill me.
There was no chance of escape. I was on my way to my car,
but it was parked so far away that I would not be able to
seek shelter there.
The two men were now right in front of me
and one of them asked: "Are you Kurt Westergaard?"
I confirmed that I was. I had no
intentions of trying to escape that fact. I take full
responsibility for the cartoon, which has created such a
stir, since it is precisely a protest against fundamentalist
violence.
Before I knew it something occurred that
radically changed the scenario: "Could we please take some
snapshots of each other next to you?" one of the hefty guys
asked with a friendly smile. Of course I agreed and they
took turns photographing each other standing next to me.
When they had taken their photographs, they thanked me
politely and left.
The whole incident took less than a
minute, but it felt longer, because I had been through the
sudden turbulent emotional change from peace and quiet to
anxiety and subsequent relief. When I returned to my car I
was dead tired. The encounter with the two men with the
golden chains had taken a much greater toll on my body than
the one hour exercise regimen I had just completed in a
nearby fitness centre. I later reported the incident to PET.
They found it interesting and left it at that. To me it was
also an interesting and positive experience, since I
normally find it difficult to get in touch with Muslims. I
have contacted influential Imams and leaders of various
migrant associations, but they have never wished to speak
with me and that distresses me.
I would like to have a dialogue, but in
normal circumstances I cannot even get close to ordinary
people who are Muslims. In the gym for instance, when I
approach an exercise machine next to a Muslim working out,
he leaves when he sees me.
Perhaps the Muslims are afraid of their
religious leaders, their words, and condemnations. However,
the Muslim authorities seem to be content with this
situation. At least that is the impression I get, when they
decline an invitation to dialogue.
Occasionally someone shouts at me in the
street, telling me that I will burn in hell. It seems an
old-fashioned almost biblical attitude when someone
threatens you in this way. Then I ask the person if we can
discuss the issue here and now or if we should wait till we
meet again in hell. But more often than not the person in
question does not understand this type of humor.
Actually it is quite tragic when human
beings hate each other for religious reasons. I have not
been threatened in this way since I went to Sunday school as
a child. In the name of Christ I was warned that I would go
to hell, if I did not do as I was told and lived my life
according to the Christian laws. My Sunday school experience
gave me a religious trauma, which forever made me detest
fundamentalism. Hence it seems paradoxical that I, of all
people, have been subjected to such violent, spiteful, and
hostile acts, since I considered myself to be a very calm
and peace-loving man.
