Transnational Activism among Danish Muslims during the Muhammad Caricatures Controversy: A Negative and Reversed Boomerang Effect

Abstract

The paper delivers an empirical analysis of the effects of Danish Muslims’ transnational activities during the Muhammad caricatures controversy in 2005/06 on subsequent Muslim claims-making. The paper argues that the envisioned “boomerang effect” of the transnational activities – the attempt to put pressure on Danish authorities through contacting political and religious authorities in the Middle East - backfired on Danish Muslims. This seems especially to be true for the actors involved in the so called “imam-delegations” – the delegations of preliminary religious authorities that travelled to Egypt, Lebanon and Syria in December 2005. These actors were forced into a more defensive mode of claims-making soon after their return to Denmark. Building on the case study of Danish Muslims’ transnational activities during the Muhammad caricatures controversy, the paper concludes by suggesting some theoretical modifications/specifications of the boomerang model of transnational activism, and by discussing briefly the more long term implications of what happened during the Danish controversy.