Denmark Surveys Arab Public Opinion For Policy Change
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Courtesy of: IslamOnline.net
By Ayman Qenawi,
IOL Staff Writer
Sat, Apr 22, 2006

Cairo--Finding itself in the eye of a global storm after the publication of cartoons ridiculing Prophet Muhammad (Peace And Blessings Be Upon Him), Denmark continues to work tirelessly to understand, and possibly act upon what happened.

The foreign ministry has contracted Red Associates, one of Europe's leading research and innovative strategy firms, to survey public opinion in both Egypt and Jordan.

The aim of the anthropological study is to find out how Denmark and Danes are perceived, Frederik Wiedemann, the project's director, told Islamonline.net on Wednesday, April 19.

He said four Danish researchers and six local field operation assistants have met with people working in opinion-making segments, including Journalists.

Wiedemann added they also met with Essam El-Eryan, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, which has 88 seats in the Egyptian Parliament, while the Amman team met with scholar Hamdy Mourad.

The publication of twelve cartoons, including one showing the Prophet with a bomb-shaped turban, by Denmark's mass-circulation daily Jyllands-Posten have sparked off global and sometimes violent protests.

A massive boycott of Danish products has caused an 85% drop in the country's dairy exports, according to the Danish National Statistics Office.

NEW STRATEGY
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The researchers, who have already wrapped up their three-week trips to Egypt and Jordan, will submit their recommendations to the foreign ministry within a few weeks.

The ministry is reportedly drafting a new strategy about its relations with the Arab World.

In June 2003, the Danish government launched the Partnership for Progress and Reform known as the Arab Initiative, as part of a new foreign policy vision named "A Changing World."

The initiative contained a new closer economic and political cooperation with countries in the Arab World.

This is done through organizing conferences and twinning schemes and providing funds for non-governmental organizations, and other activities.

The foreign ministry is already planning to boost its spending on Middle East relations by up to 20 percent. The budget is currently around 100 million Danish Crowns ($16.2 million a year).

Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller asserted on April 3 that cooperation and dialogue at all levels with the Muslim World must be strengthened and expanded.

"If the cartoon crisis was a dress rehearsal of the clash of civilizations, let's hope that everybody hated what they saw so much that the main show will be cancelled!
We Danes are ready to do our part in transforming the potential clash into an alliance of civilizations."

Source:
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2006-04/19/article03.shtml