The Foreign Service Journal, April 2006

12 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 6 tests, and withdrew its ambassadors and staff from Lebanon and Syria. Embassies around the world were the focus of demonstrations and protests. Danish citizens have been advised to avoid countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia in light of threats issued by Islamic funda- mentalist groups. Across the Middle East, supermar- kets stopped carrying Danish prod- ucts. Arla Foods, a Danish company whose sales in the Middle East aver- age $430 million a year, has been forced to cancel all production in Saudi Arabia. A spokeswoman stated that the company lost $20 million in several days of the boycott. Denmark threatened to demand compensation from Saudi Arabia under the World Trade Organization, but the Saudi government claims the boycott is not an official movement, an assertion the WTO has accepted. The Iranian gov- ernment has suspended all trade with Denmark. Denmark’s exports to the Middle East region average $1 billion annual- ly, and the boycotts are expected to affect this sum dramatically. Some analysts view the boycotts as an attempt by Middle Eastern and North African companies to expand their own market shares. Danish authorities hastened to try to control the damage. Copenhagen announced several measures ( http: / /www.um.dk/NR/rdonlyres/FF0D 01B8-67F3-4A5C-8E25-07E69 ABBAD48/0/StatementByTheDan ishMinisterOfForeignAffairs.pdf ). The government has invited promi- nent Muslim scholars and clerics to attend a conference on Islam, and is planning a festival to celebrate and bring exposure to Islamic culture and religion. It has also pledged to make donations to the Alliance of Civiliza- tions, a United Nations body dedicat- ed to fighting prejudice. The Organization of the Islamic Conference ( http://www.oic -oci. org/ ), in conjunction with the Euro- pean Union and the U.N., issued con- demnations of both the cartoons and the violent backlash they created. The OIC is seeking assurance from the E.U. that Muslim beliefs will be respected in the future. Pope Bene- dict XVI expressed the same senti- ments while speaking to the Moroc- can ambassador. After initially issuing a sharp criti- cism of the drawings for inciting reli- gious or ethnic hatred through the State Department on Feb. 3, the Bush administration turned to con- demnation of the violence that had been unleashed. Though the controversy generated by the cartoons appears to have ebbed, at least temporarily, it marks a 21st-century watershed in the debate over free speech and religion. — Shawn Guan, Editorial Intern Ideals vs. Profit: Internet Freedom in the Balance The recent, highly-publicized interaction between Google and the government of the People’s Republic of China has drawn renewed atten- tion to the issue of Internet censor- ship and prompted the Bush admin- istration to set up a “Global Internet Freedom Task Force” at the State Department. Dubbed “The Great Firewall of China,” the policy of the Chinese gov- ernment is to bar access to porno- graphic and politically sensitive Web sites. Certain search terms are restricted, and personal communica- tion tools such as web logs and e-mail are monitored. Blogs are heavily reg- ulated, with content deemed inappro- C Y B E R N O T E S u