The War Behind the Cartoon War

[kg_veteran]

February 7, 2006
The War Behind the Cartoon War
By Jack Kelly

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The Cartoon War began innocently enough. Kare Bluitgen, a Danish writer of childrens' books, complained he couldn't find anyone to illustrate the book he was writing about the Prophet Mohammed. The Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten invited cartoonists to offer their own interpretations. A dozen accepted. Jyllands Posten published their work last Sept. 30th.

Extreme Muslim sects, such as the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, regard any depiction of Mohammed as blasphemy. (The Koran prohibits only "idolatry," and throughout the last millenium Muslim artists have painted likenesses of the Prophet.) Radical Muslims in Denmark issued death threats, and the cartoonists went into hiding. On Oct. 20th, ambassadors from 11 Muslim countries asked for a meeting with Danish Prime Minister Andres Rasmussen to complain about the caricatures. Mr. Rasmussen said he was sorry the cartoons had given offense, but refused to meet with the ambassadors because "as prime minister I have no tool whatsoever to take actions against the media, and I don't want that kind of tool."


There matters rested until last month, when four Muslim clerics from Denmark, led by Abu Laban, who has terrorist connections, toured the Middle East. They had with them the 12 original cartoons, plus three truly vile ones (one depicts Mohammed with a pig's snout; another shows him as a pedophile) apparently of their own concoction.


On January 29th, gunmen in Gaza took over the offices of the European Union. In response, some newspapers in Norway, Germany and France published the cartoons to show solidarity with their Danish colleagues. This led to massive protests in the Middle East and among Muslims in Europe.


The editor of Jyllands Posten has apologized for publishing the cartoons, and the leader of the largest Muslim association in Denmark has accepted the apology. But it may be too late to put the genie back into the bottle, because radical Muslims seek to fan the flames.


"We want blood on the streets of England," said Muslim protestors in London, though no British newspaper has yet published the offending cartoons.
Saudi Arabia promoted the controversy to distract attention from the trampling deaths of 345 pilgrims in Mecca Jan. 12th, said "The Religious Policeman," a Saudi Web logger. The deaths attracted little attention in the West, but were big news in the Arab world.


Most of the anti-Western violence has taken place in Syria and Lebanon, where the Danish and Norwegian embassies were burned down.


Syria is a dictatorship. A mob could not have burned the building where the Danish and Norwegian embassies were located without the tacit permission, if not the encouragement, of the regime.


Syria also retains considerable influence in Beirut, where the rioting was not spontaneous. Syria would love to distract attention from the UN probe into the assassination of Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri, in which Syria is implicated.
Iran has been, after Saudi Arabia, the nation most active in promoting the boycott. The International Atomic Energy Agency has referred Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions against its nuclear weapons program. The nation that will chair the Security Council when the IAEA recommendation is taken up, British Web logger David Conway noted, is Denmark.


"Suddenly the pieces fall into shape," he said. "The rumpus suddenly escalated, complete with fabricated offensive cartoons, to so inflame Muslim opinion that Denmark could be intimidated...into voting in favor of Iran."


Most of Europe's political leaders would like to respond with more appeasement. But ordinary Europeans wonder why they must accommodate the demands of bullying immigrants who have swollen their crime rates and welfare rolls.
Muslims deserve to have their faith respected, wrote Tony Parsons in the left wing British newspaper the Mirror.


"But when someone starts carrying placards in my city gloating about 9/11 and 7/7, when men with big mouths start promising death and destruction, when you tell us that we will be massacred if we offend you, then our tolerance is pushed to the breaking point," he said.


"If (the protestors) want a Muslim country, then perhaps they should go and live in one," Mr. Parsons said.


A Muslim member of the Danish parliament echoed that sentiment.


Speaking of the radical clerics who stirred up the cartoon controversy, Naser Khader asked: "If these imams think it is so terrible to live in Denmark, then why do they remain here?"

[Arne]

Funny thing is: I'm reading a book about a theatre group in medieval times and in this time the freedom of expression is approximately as developped as in Iran and similar states right now.

[Drbio]

"We want blood on the streets of England,"

The religion of peace....my ass.

[FishForLunch]

Isnt it Bush who made this stupid phrase famous "Islam is a religion of piece"

[Five-ofan]

This is my problem with religious tolerance. Dont get me wrong, I think religious tolerance is great and should be protected but why is it that Christians always have to be tolerant of everyone else but no one else can or will be tolerant of us??? If a teacher brings a bible to school and displays it on their desk they can be fired. However a school in californifia is building a new wing for muslim students to pray in and offering muslim classes??? There are cartoons depicting Jesus in unflattering ways but we dont get this much news about that do we? I know this is off topic but it just bothers me that we(speaking in the christian sense) are required to be tolerant of everyone else but when the time comes for us to be tolerated, tolerance is nowhere to be found.

[Drbio]

great questions and very solid post 5-0.

[MavKikiNYC]

Problem arises when members of one faith go from practicing their own faith to trying to impose it on people outside the faith in the larger society.

The Muslims protesting have decided that their own extreme reverance for the image of Mohammed have trumped the right of the larger society's freedom of the press. They're attempting to impose that aspect of their own personal religion on the larger society with threats of violence and destruction. Not many people are sympathetic or tolerant of that.

Sometimes subgroups of Christians in this country attempt to impose aspects of their faith on the larger society as well. Usually, though admittedly not always, the impositions are more symbolic--display of a Bible in a classroom, prayer at school events, display of Ten Commandements in a court room, holiday-related religious displays/observances in public contexts--than practical, real-life affecting, though there is the notable exception of reproductive choice. And it's also very rare (though not unheard of) for Christians protesting in this country to respond with violence, destruction and threats of murder and war.

But I'd say on the whole that members of all faiths get overwhelming latitude to practice their faith in this country. It's just when they try to impose apsects of their own particular faith on non-believers (or different-believers) that you get the friction. IMO, while Christians are the dominant majority in this country, they'd do well to remain mindful of what can happen if they approach imposing their faith on others instead of practicing it for themselves. The tradition of religious tolerance is a significant part of what has made the U.S. so attractive to people from so many countries, from so many different faiths.

[Five-ofan]

The reproductive thing isnt a religious issue in my opinion. Its a scientific one or at least thats how i view it. Flat out, you cant kill someone. Whether you believe life begins at conception or not shapes your view on that issue. Very rarely do christians attempt to force our religion on others. Do we witness? Yep and i realize that some go way overboard with that to the point of bugging people but we dont force people into christianity. I firmly believe that of the major religions, christiantity gets the least freedom in this country. We still have it great but we are also a target of alot of pointless litigation. Prayer in school isnt a problem and as long as it isnt faculty led there is no way that the govt can say anything about it. That said we prayed every day after practice in high school. I know that would bother some people but it wasnt a forced prayer or anything just something we did as a team.