Kurt Westergaard, the most famous of the Danish Mohammed cartoonists and the creator of the iconic Turban Bomb, was interviewed a few days ago on Danish television. Many thanks to Valdemar Blonde for the translation and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
A full transcript is below the jump.
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00:00.02 | ||
00:04.03 | When you visit Kurt Westergaard, there is only one place in the house… | |
00:08.10 | where P.E.T. allows you to film, and that is here in the workroom. | |
00:12.10 | We have asked Kurt Westergaard to look back and give status… | |
00:16.16 | now five years after the whole thing started, when pen met paper and he drew. | |
00:20.20 | the now world famous cartoon of the ‘Prophet Mohamed’ | |
00:24.22 | The drawing was made to support free speech… | |
00:28.22 | and of course at that time… | |
00:32.23 | I hadn’t imagined it could become like this. [Today it is new years cards Westergaard is working on] | |
00:36.24 | A new years card which I was late on, which I was inspired to do… | |
00:40.24 | after the axe man came at me. | |
00:44.27 | But on the wall, hangs his Mohamed cartoon… | |
00:48.34 | We have come to a situation where … | |
00:52.35 | we had what you could call ‘a culture war’ | |
00:56.35 | which we should have settled. | |
01:00.42 | And that we should obviously have won, because we represent | |
01:04.46 | …democracy and freedom of speech. | |
01:08.48 | We should not bend to their… | |
01:12.56 | religion, which craves to be superior over… | |
01:16.59 | democracy and freedom of speech. | |
01:20.61 | [Narator] after the Mohamed drawings, the embassy burnings followed… | |
01:24.65 | and terror plans towards the artists. | |
01:28.65 | The question for many at home would be, was it worth it? | |
01:35.04 | That, I think it has been. For Kurt personally, | |
01:38.23 | the drawing had huge consequences. | |
01:41.43 | Recently a somali man armed with an axe broke in to his home shortly after new years. | |
01:45.46 | That which means most to him (Kurt) is still his principles. | |
01:49.49 | We have put a pass on our values, and we have allowed the strangers in… | |
01:53.53 | In a way, it’s a good thing we gave them what they didn’t have when they came here… | |
01:57.58 | They got a place to live, they got money, | |
02:01.62 | They have the best for their children’s well being… | |
02:05.63 | and they have a great chance for a future and a free education… | |
02:09.67 | What I am getting at, | |
02:17.72 | is that they undermine our democratic traditions… | |
02:21.73 | Our rules of fair play and our freedom of speech. | |
02:25.74 | [Narator] Westergaard feels that the Islamists and fanatics are ahead… | |
02:29.80 | one to nothing. “It’s a victory for them” [N] in the battle against free speech… | |
02:33.84 | There are things that happened recently | |
02:37.85 | which has demoralized me I’m thinking about Politiken (Danish paper) | |
02:41.85 | which appologized… | |
02:45.85 | and… there are also others… | |
02:49.87 | what can you say, have become very appeasing… | |
02:53.91 | [N] The problem following the Mohamed cartoonist, is self cencorship. | |
02:57.96 | Self censorship is in many ways… | |
03:01.99 | functions unbeknownst … | |
03:06.02 | inside of peoples heads. | |
03:10.03 | There sits I think, many creative, | |
03:14.05 | intelectuals that have become very … | |
03:18.07 | discreet about their own thoughts. | |
03:22.15 | [N] but what is it they don’t dare say? | |
03:26.16 | They don’t dare say anything that can… | |
03:30.20 | in some way, be taken as a… | |
03:34.27 | critique, maybe more or less rude… | |
03:38.27 | towards Islamic relationships. | |
03:46.32 | And that is bothersome. [N] Especially Politiken’s appology… | |
03:50.32 | to remove the Mohamed drawing has disapointed Kurt Westergaard. | |
03:54.34 | [Interviewer] What is the problem with the appology? | |
03:58.34 | The problem is that we have given it. and that we have forsaken our own… | |
04:02.41 | democratic ideals and… | |
04:06.41 | freedom of speech. I think that is wrong. | |
04:10.45 | [N] Kurt means that many … | |
04:14.47 | reporters practice self censorship because they are afraid. | |
04:18.61 | I respect that people become afraid and I will always take that seriously… | |
04:22.61 | I would never harras anyone if they are afraid, | |
04:26.68 | I would say that … | |
04:30.77 | it does not work. It doesn’t work. | |
04:34.83 | The old expression from the 30s when Nazism began… | |
04:38.87 | That was the expression, ‘Appeasement’ | |
04:42.90 | That which you would try to help the situation… | |
04:46.91 | by not offending the others in power. | |
04:51.00 | [Interviewer] And that’s the same with Islam today? | |
04:55.00 | And that leads us nowhere. | |
04:59.07 | And that can give the… | |
05:03.17 | dark powers the means to take even more influence. |
Hat tip: TB.
03:58.34 The problem is that we have given it. and that we have forsaken our own … democratic ideals and … freedom of speech.
That should read:
03:58.34 The problem is that we have given IN. and that we have forsaken our own … democratic ideals and … freedom of speech.
There are also some small asides by Westergaard that have not made it through translation.
For instance, around time point 4:55 Westergaard says (approximately), “I don’t think that gets us anywhere. I don’t think so.” (repeated for emphasis), as opposed to the “And that leads us nowhere.” in the subtitles.
Unfortunately, my mother was too lazy to teach me or my siblings truly fluent Danish or long ago I would have volunteered to translate these videos. It is really easy for me to understand Westergaard’s Copenhagen accent but I am not able to catch all that he says.
What I can say is this:
LISTEN VERY CLOSELY TO WHAT THIS MAN WESTERGAARD IS SAYING. LIKE MY MOTHER, HE LIVED THROUGH THE NAZI OCCUPATION OF DENMARK AND KNOWS DAMN WELL AS TO EXACTLY WHAT THE FUTURE WITH ISLAM HOLDS FOR ALL OF US.
Muslim admiration of Adolph Hitler should be ringing alarm bells throughout the entire civilized world, even as our leaders are all asleep at the switch. Just like it was during the Cold War with Communism:
THIS ONE IS FOR ALL THE MARBLES.
Only this time we are confronted with an enemy who will not prize or cherish any of our great artworks, literature, monuments or most of anything that we civilized people hold near and dear. All of it will go the way of the Bamiyan Buddhas, or, far, far worse.
The West persists in deluding itself that this is not so, even as Islam continues girding itself for global war by any means possible. The upshot of this all is going to be very, very ugly and any further delay in addressing this problem as one of military conflict and war only serves to up the butcher’s bill on BOTH SIDES.
Not just Infidels will suffer. Muslims, especially, will most likely end up paying a hefty price for averting their collective gaze as Islam’s religious leaders pursue global jihad. There will quite clearly come a time when one or the other various nuclear armed powers around the world will finally reach the tipping point and decide that it is easier to live without Muslims than it is to live with them.
Once that tipping point is reached all that remains is the Muslim holocaust. The Muslims will have no one but themselves to blame because, remember folks:
ISLAM WOULDN’T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY
Zenster
The first translation you quote is closer to being accurate than your own translation. He says “den”(Danish) at the end of his sentense which translates into “it”, not “in”.
Personally I would say that a more proper translation would be:
“The problem is that it’s given; that we let down our own…”
I find forsake to be too strong a word. But maybe that’s cause I’m a non-native English-speaker.
There are other parts of the translation that are far worse though. At 01:49.49 where it starts with “We have put a pass on our values, and we have allowed the strangers in…” I would say a more correct translation would be:
“I believe we have to stand firm on our values. We have received the immigrants/aliens in a good way, In my oppinion. We’ve given them everything; they had nothing when they came/arrived here. They got a place to live, they got money. They have… With regards to their children they have the very best opportunity for a good future in Denmark; free education and so on.”
(Then comes what I believe is the absolute worst part of the translation, cause it’s absolutely wrong and smells of a deliberate falsification. Talking about the “02:09.67 What I am getting at,” in the transcript and onwards till the narator starts babbling again.)
“What we can demand in return, justifiable so I think, is that they acknowledge our democratic traditions and “rules of the game” including freedom of speech.”
Now, I don’t know if the errors are intentional or not, but some of them are too severe to be merely poor English skills.
Regards
Zenster, they where talking about the possibility of nuclear wars in ancient times on Coast to Coast AM. One thing they mentioned was the findings of glassified sand in the saudi desert. I find it highly ironic and a sort of poetic justice, perhaps even divine justice, if they have been Glassed and Windexed™ before at some point in time.
laller, thank you for the clarification. Though I did not hear the word “in” spoken, it was the only thing that made any sense out of the sentence, “The problem is that we have given it”. What’s more, it seemed possible that the “it” versus “in” substitution may have been a simple typo and not an issue of translation.
I really appreciate your own sentiments about other passages in the interview as they simply did not correlate with my own rudimentary understanding of Danish and left me wondering what the heck was going on.
Robin Shadowes: One thing they mentioned was the findings of glassified sand in the saudi desert.
Not being a proponent of the various Mu theories regarding prior civilizations and what have you, I’d wager that the glassified sand you speak of is “desert glass” and not the result of pre-historic atomic warfare.
However, absolutely none of this precludes the growing possibility that a plentiful supply of desert glass is just around the corner.
The entire MME (Muslim Middle East) is, literally, just begging to be nuked and the incessant cavalcade of Islamic terrorist atrocities only continues to erode my own personal opposition to a first strike with nuclear weapons. It is truly frustrating to stand by and watch the West make every honorable effort to engage Islam in some sort of meaningful negotiations for peace, even as Muslims take advantage of that temporary delay in all-out war and use it as just another chance to hit more targets of opportunity.
Again, all of this bodes for a very, very ugly end to this entire farcical charade. History rarely rewards such arrogant recalcitrance with much more than simple annihilation.