The latest:
Newspapers
reprint Prophet Mohammed cartoon. Newspapers across Europe Wednesday reprinted the controversial
cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked worldwide protests two years ago. The move came one day
after Danish authorities arrested three people allegedly plotting a "terror-related assassination" of Kurt
Westergaard, the cartoonist behind the drawing.
Danish imams urge calm as cartoon
protests mount. Danish Muslim preachers sought to soothe Muslim anger on Friday [2/15/2008]
after newspapers reprinted a drawing of the Prophet Mohammad which caused outrage in Islamic countries
two years ago.
Free Speech
and Radical Islam: For the past three months [Kurt] Westergaard and his wife have been
on the run. Mr. Westergaard did the most famous of the 12 Muhammad cartoons published in
Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 — the one depicting the prophet with a bomb in his
turban. The cartoon was a satirical comment on the fact that some Muslims are committing terrorist
acts in the name of Islam and the prophet. Tragically, Mr. Westergaard's fate has proven the
point of his cartoon: In the early hours of Tuesday morning [2/12/2008] Danish police
arrested three men who allegedly had been plotting to kill him.
Three
held over 'plot to kill cartoonist'. Danish authorities today arrested two Tunisians and
a Dane of Moroccan origin in an alleged plot to murder a cartoonist who drew a caricature of the
Prophet Muhammad, the police intelligence chief said.
Muslims March Against Reprinting of Danish
Newspaper Cartoons Depicting Muhammad. Thousands of residents in the conservative Gaza Strip
ruled by the militant Islamic Hamas movement marched in the Jebaliya refugee camp chanting: "What Denmark
said is heresy."
The Editor says...
"Militant" and "conservative" are rarely used in the same sentence to describe the same people.
Muslim group loses cartoons
libel case in Denmark. A Muslim group lost a libel case on Friday [7/13/2007]
against the leader of a Danish anti-immigrant party who had accused its members of treason for
publicising cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
They can dish it out, but they can't take it.
Hamas
Cartoon Rabbit Promises to 'Eat the Jews'. A Hamas children's television program has killed off
its second animal hero and raised up a third: a cartoon rabbit that promises to "eat up the Jews."
Court Acquits Satirical French Mag Over
Mohammed Cartoons. A Paris court on Thursday [3/22/2007] acquitted the editor of a satirical
French weekly, sued by two Muslim groups for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Applause broke
out in the courtroom at the announcement of the verdict, which ruled that the three cartoons published by the
weekly Charlie Hebdo in February 2006 were not insulting to the Muslim community.
The Road to
Serfdom. Although the British media refused to republish the caricatures, British Muslims held
terrifying protests throughout the country where they called for the destruction of Britain, the US, Denmark
and Israel and for the murder of all who refuse to accept the global domination of Islam.
Mohammed cartoons
'sparked bomb plot'. The publication of caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammed was the
trigger for a failed attempt to bomb passenger trains in Germany, police have concluded.
When fear cows the
media: The vast majority of US media outlets have shied away from reproducing the drawings,
but to my knowledge only the Phoenix has been honest enough to admit that it is capitulating to fear.
Mohammed
Cartoon Editor Sees 'Clash of Cultures' Underway. Islamic criticism directed against newspapers'
decisions to publish cartoons depicting Mohammed stemmed from hypocritical reasoning and anti-democratic
attitudes, the editor at the center of the row said on Wednesday [12/6/2006].
Borders,
Waldenbooks Won't Carry Magazine. Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May
issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked deadly
protests among Muslims in several countries.
The controversy
is about culture clash, not cartoons. We're not talking about "religion." We're
talking about a specific religion — Islam. Does anyone truly think that the burning
of Danish embassies and calls for the "slaughter" of those responsible by Muslim protestors have really
taught the BBC or the New York Times to be more polite to evangelical Christians or Orthodox Jews?
Cartoon
wars: There is no question that these cartoons are offensive to many Muslims. They
offend against a convention in Islam that the Prophet should not be depicted. And they offend
because they can be read as equating Islam with terrorism: one cartoon has Muhammad with a bomb for his
headgear. It is not a good idea for newspapers to insult people's religious or any other
beliefs just for the sake of it. But that is and should be their own decision, not a decision
for governments, clerics or other self-appointed arbiters of taste and responsibility.
Muslim bites
dog: The amazing part of the great Danish cartoon caper isn't that Muslims immediately
engage in acts of mob violence when things don't go their way. That is de rigueur for the
Religion of Peace. Their immediate response to all bad news is mass violence.
UN:
Don't publish Mohammed cartoons. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan scolded the media for
continuing to publish cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed and defended an attempt by Islamic
nations to have a new UN human-rights council address religious defamation.
Twelve voices defend
freedom as Big Media cowers. Last month, 12 mainly European-based, mainly Muslim or ex-Muslim
intellectuals, alarmed by the spell on free speech cast by Cartoon Rage 2006, signed onto an anti-totalitarian
manifesto for freedom of expression published by Denmark's Jylland-Posten.
Muslims outraged by
new cartoon of Prophet in Hell. An Italian magazine has infuriated Muslims by publishing a
cartoon showing the Prophet Mohammed cut in half and burning in Hell.
UN chief pleads for dialogue as protests
escalate over prophet cartoons. Tens of thousands of Turks took part in protests over
cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, as United Nations chief Kofi Annan urged calm and an end to
"megaphone diplomacy".
Fear
Factor: the Muslim world has erupted in anger and indignation over the publication
of a series of editorial cartoons in Denmark that criticize Islam and its prophet Mohammed. Protestors
have burnt three consulates, two in Syria and one in Lebanon and many Muslims have gone into the streets
demanding violent revenge for the insult to their faith … by editorial cartoonists.
Campus clash on cartoon riots simply
juvenile. What happened at the University of California at Irvine last week would have
embarrassed a reasonably mature 8-year-old. It seems two campus groups, the College Republicans
and the United American Committee, held a panel discussion about the riots that engulfed parts of
the Middle East and Asia last month over a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons satirizing
the Prophet Mohammed.
How vast is the chasm between the West and
Islamists. At first I sympathized with your anger at the Danish cartoons because it's
impolite to trample on other people's religious symbols. But as the rage spread and the issue
grew more cosmic, many of us in the West were reminded of how vast the chasm is between you and
us. There was more talk than ever about a clash of civilizations. We don't just have
different ideas; we have a different relationship to ideas.
Cartoon Riots: Colossal Muslim
Mistake. The cartoon riots are a colossal Muslim mistake. They have exposed Islam's
mortal weakness to the world: that it is so insecure it can't take the heat of ridicule. Instead
of being confident, assured, and fearless, Muslims through their pathological outrage over some cartoons
in an obscure Danish-language newspaper, are proclaiming to the world their lack of confidence, lack of
assurance, and fear.
Cartoons,
but not the funnies. In Czechoslovakia, under communism, it was
common to see signs that read "Workers of the world, unite" in the windows of fruit and vegetable
stores. Vaclav Havel, in his book "Living In Truth," discerned the significance of those
signs. … Mr. Havel shrewdly points out that even a modest shopkeeper would be ashamed to
put up a sign that literally read "I am afraid and therefore unquestioningly obedient."
Calvin and
Hobbes — and Muhammad. As my regular readers know, I've long been skeptical
of the "Religion of Peace" moniker for Muslims — for at least 3,000 reasons right off the
top of my head. I think the evidence is going my way this week.
Censorship
by firing squad. Nobody knows how many death threats have arisen from the cartoon
dispute. Under the circumstances, civility might emerge as less important than standing up
now to the danger of censorship through fear.
We are all
Danes now. The current uproar over cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed published
in a Danish newspaper illustrates yet again the fascist intolerance that is at the heart of
radical Islam.
Monsters
of the Arab street: Rarely does history provide such a perfect point of comparison, and
the contrasting responses could hardly be more telling: When faced with a nearly identical situation,
one faith resorted to violence, threats and rage like unruly savages; the other was civil, responding
(if at all) with letters to the editor, calls for a boycott and many public denunciations.
Cartoon
wars: Occasionally moral clarity comes with something quite simple, like political
cartoons. These riots impress upon us an objective truth: the "clash of civilizations"
is more than a conflict between peoples; it is between the 21st and the 7th centuries; between a God
who has "commissioned" his followers to exact judgment on the world, according to their narrow
interpretation, and a God who offers man grace, along with the freedom to choose or reject it,
reserving judgment for Himself on another day.
Mob
rule? In the old gangland days, I believe they called it extortion and blackmail —
properties a million times uglier now, magnified by the power of the Middle Eastern gangs and their cronies
everywhere, including Europe, to hit and hit hard. No warnings, no explanation, just the uncorked
rage. And the crumbling of exploded buildings and the punishment of human flesh.
Cowardice
meets hypocrisy: Washington Post Executive Editor Len Downie told Editor & Publisher he
wouldn't publish the Danish cartoons because of "general good taste." Had Mr. Downie developed
his good taste a week earlier, the Post might not have published a Tom Toles editorial cartoon of a
quadruple amputee soldier so vile all six members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote a letter to the
editor protesting it.
Thousands
of Muslims protest in London over cartoons. In marked contrast to the last week's angry
demonstrations, the protest appeared good natured and there was no sign of extreme anti-Western placards.
Muslim hard-liners 'ready to
die'. Malaysia has declared the possession of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad illegal as
thousands of Muslims marched in the country's biggest demonstration against the caricatures, calling for
the destruction of Denmark, Israel and the US. "Long live Islam. Destroy Denmark. Destroy
Israel. Destroy George Bush. Destroy America," shouted some 3,000 protesters who marched in a
steady rain to Danish Embassy from a nearby mosque.
Picking the right provocation.
Muslims, as F. Scott Fitzgerald might say, are very different from you and me. Muslims say the same
thing about us, sometimes with guns, scimitars and explosives.
Let's
be honest about cartoons. The editor of the Los Angeles Times does not think you need to see
any of the cartoons that have triggered deadly riots across the Muslim world. Earlier this week, I
proposed illustrating this column with examples of the caricatures first published last fall in a Danish
newspaper. If readers are to form rational opinions about both the ferocity of Islamic reaction and
the American news media's response to it, I thought, surely at least a glance at one or two of these mild
cartoons is required.
Pursuing
mayhem: The mayhem has centered in four nations: Afghanistan, Lebanon, Pakistan and
Syria. Each has a double-digit unemployment rate, and poverty rates between 32 percent and
52 percent. All have large pools of idle men who can show up for a mob activity at a moment's
notice. In short, they're havens for losers, uniquely equipped to stage such spectacles.
The Cartoon
Intifada. The damage these demonstrators are doing to the image of Islam is incalculable,
far beyond what any poison-penned cartoonist could accomplish. So why are they doing it?
Let's
be honest: Multiculturalism can kill a nation. The lesson of the Muhammad cartoon
controversy is: Multiculturalism between nations is inevitable, but multiculturalism within nations
is disastrous.
The Outrage of the Muslim
world is misplaced. The uproar in the Islamic world over Danish cartoons lampooning the
prophet Muhammad reminds us that much of that world misunderstands what democracy means. A Danish
paper published the 12 cartoons in September. One showed the prophet with a turban made of
explosives; in another, he greets a line of suicide bombers in heaven with the words "Stop, stop,
we have run out of virgins."
Democracy and the 'Muslim
street'. The proverbial "Muslim street" has been up in arms recently over 12 unsavory
cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad which were originally published in a Danish newspaper last
September. On Monday [1/30/2006], Palestinian gunmen stormed the European Union office in Gaza,
saying their anger over the cartoons made them do it.
Fight
the bullies of Islam. Something very important is happening in Denmark — a
showdown over freedom, tolerance, and their wolfish menaces in religious clothing.
European Muslims reveal their true face during
protests against caricatures of Muhammad. With poster boards containing slogands
such as 'Freedom go to hell' and 'Europe is cancer, Islam is the answer', the European-based
Islamists have reaffirmed their utter and complete rejection of the concept of personal liberty,
as well as the values and cultures of the societies that have extended a welcoming hand to them
and for years have been channeling millions of euros in aid packages to their homelands.
Restraint,
please — except for taking retaliatory action on Mr Bongo-brains. If you
were to hold one of those notorious Danish-style competitions, to solicit, say, the most
ironic slogan on a placard at a demonstration, last week's legend "Freedom of Expression
Go To Hell", would be hard to beat. It would have made more sense if the placard had had
the words covered up, so only the waver knew what was written on it. Sense, of course,
wasn't in it.
The
Mohammed Cartoons: Since not only freedom of the press but also freedom of religion
are threatened, it is vital to be clear-sighted about the issues at stake.
Muhammad cartoon row
intensifies. Newspapers across Europe have reprinted caricatures of the
Prophet Muhammad to show support for a Danish paper whose cartoons have sparked Muslim outrage.
Links:
The cartoons that caused the flap can be
seen here.
Controversial Cartoons: Here
are the fake cartoons that Danish imams used to inflame public opinion about the
original cartoons. They never appeared in any Danish publication. The whole story can be
seen here.
See also The Mohammed Image
Archive: Depictions of Mohammed [flattering or not] throughout History.
CAGE has a compilation of
photos showing the reaction to the publication of the cartoons.
We are Sorry. In the middle of all the
mayhem surrounding the Danish cartoons controversy, a group of Arab and Muslim youth have set up this
website to express their honest opinion, as a small attempt to show the world that the images shown
of Arab and Muslim anger around the world are not representative of the opinions of all Arabs.
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