JEDDAH, 30 May 2008 — A young Danish man has decided to make it his mission to apologize on behalf of other Danish people who were against the republishing of the provocatively insulting and blasphemous cartoons in a Danish newspaper that depicted Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). He’s even set up a Facebook profile called “Undskyld Muhammed” (“Sorry Muhammad”). The site boasts over 9,000 members.

Anders Botter, 27, currently works in Danish media: for The Danish Broadcast Corporation. Botter was commended recently in Abu Dhabi by receiving the Al-Mahabba Awards of 2008 for his initiative to promote understanding between cultures. The award is an annual event that is held to promote and reward artistic expressions of love for Islam’s most important prophet.

Talking to Arab News, Botter said the creation of the Facebook group was a direct response to several Danish newspapers decision to reprint the cartoons in February 2008 as an act of defiance against those that plotted to kill one of the cartoonists in retribution. He says this isn’t the way to go about protesting the actions of others who have hijacked the religion to justify murder. And he wants the world to know that not all Danes see this as the best way to address religious extremism in Europe.

“Being a Danish citizen I felt that the very dogmatic, black and white portrait of our nation, which the politicians and media had created needed an opposition,” he said.

He said that Denmark is a peaceful and tolerant country where freedom of religion and freedom of speech is accepted and should live peacefully side-by-side. “I wanted to make a statement, which very clearly underlined that one does not need to denigrate that which is holy to others, in order to emphasize the sanctity of the freedom of speech,” he said, adding “I also felt that many Muslims in Denmark needed to get some positive response from a Danish citizen, who is not Muslim but understands the feelings of Muslims toward the issue.”

He said that many Danes disagree with the publication of the cartoons and feel sorry for the fact that this cartoon-crisis got so much out of hand and had such grave consequences for Muslims and for the international interests of Denmark as a nation.

Regarding the general response to his initiative, Botter said that there have been a lot of supportive and positive reactions from Danish citizens — but also “obviously” there were some negative reactions.

“Not everybody agrees with my points of view — but this is not a negative thing, as the very mission of the (‘Sorry Muhammad’) movement is to emphasize that the differences between people, religions, politics and nations, should not prevent fruitful dialogue,” he said. “We need to accept our differences and work toward common goals. However, we do as citizens of this world have common goals and among these goals are peaceful coexistence. A goal, which is possible only if we accept our differences and try to build bridges of dialogue and compromise,” Botter said.