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The attack on Salman Rushdie: A comparison between two countries


By Mr. Currywurst.

The attack on Salman Rushdie shows something that has been going on in Germany for a long time and it feels weirder and weirder as time goes on.

Reading the news from my country, Argentina, I was surprised to find so many articles about the attack, more than in Germany. On television it is the same. News, opinions, updates. Without any hint of shyness, they all say the same thing: it is an attack by Islam against criticism, against freedom of expression.

In Germany, however, the situation is different. The mainstream media and newspapers are much more moderate, with a few exceptions (small conservative and independent sites).

So I thought I'd make a list of the main Argentine newspapers vs. the main German newspapers and compare the number of articles published about this attack from the moment it happened to the moment I'm writing this post.

Argentina
La Nación: 16 articles (link)
Clarín: 15 articles (link)
Perfil: 10 articles (link
Página 12: 8 articles (link)

Página 12, which is a left-wing toilet paper, has more articles than many newspapers in Germany, that is unbelievable!

If you do some research through Latin American newspapers and other online portals you'll find varied levels of interest in foreign affairs, but on average this topic is more relevant in that region than in Germany, a country with a huge Muslim population... maybe that explains many things here.

Germany
Süddeutsche Zeitung: 13 articles (link)
Welt: 9 articles (link unavailable, use the search option for results)
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: 7 articles (link)
Taz: 6 articles (link)
Zeit: 5 articles (link)

I have looked at German online publications and the predominant topics are fires, heat, floods in some region of the world and politics. The attack on Rushdie is mentioned with little repetition online.

In Germany there is a trivialization of the threat of Islam in the Western world. That is why I think that in part the lack of interest goes through an ideological affinity and an intention to sustain a false narrative. On the other hand, the German media is well aware that articles on this subject will produce comments from the Muslim community in this country that will once again make it clear that Islam was, is and always will be incompatible with our values.
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