Cartoons Of Prophet Mohammad Sparks Turmoil

[danzarely 0]

By Tom Heneghan
PARIS (Reuters) - An international row over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad gathered pace on Thursday as more European dailies printed Danish caricatures of him and Muslims stepped up pressure to stop them.

About a dozen Palestinian gunmen surrounded European Union offices in the Gaza Strip demanding an apology for the cartoons, one of which shows Islam's founder wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.

The owner of France Soir, a Paris daily that reprinted them on Wednesday along with one German and two Spanish papers, sacked its managing editor to show "a strong sign of respect for the beliefs and intimate convictions of every individual".

But the tabloid staunchly defended its right to print the cartoons. Switzerland's Le Temps and La Tribune de Geneve ran some of them on Thursday, as did Magyar Hirlap in Budapest. Some European dailies ran cartoons making fun of the controversy.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the issue had gone beyond a row between Copenhagen and the Muslim world and now centred on Western free speech versus taboos in Islam, which is now the second religion in many European countries.

"We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work," Rasmussen told the Copenhagen daily Politiken. "One can safely say it is now an even bigger issue."

The clash has commercial repercussions. Danish companies have reported sales falling in the Middle East after protests against the cartoons in the Arab world and calls for boycotts.

SCATHING ARAB REACTION

Reaction in Middle East countries has been scathing.

"In the West, one discovers there are different moral ceilings and all moral parameters and measures are not equal," wrote the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

"If the Danish cartoon had been about a Jewish rabbi, it would never have been published."

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Riyadh considered the cartoons an insult to Mohammad and all Muslims. "We hope that religious centres like the Vatican will clarify their opinion in this respect," he told the state news agency SPA.

In Beirut, the leader of Lebanon's Shi'ite Hizbollah said the row would never had occurred if a 17-year-old death edict against British writer Salman Rushdie been carried out.

"Had a Muslim carried out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the apostate Salman Rushdie, then those lowlifers would not have dared discredit the Prophet, not in Denmark, Norway or France," Hizbollah head Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday night.

The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called on Muslims in 1989 to kill Rushdie for blasphemy against Islam in his book "The Satanic Verses". Rushdie went into hiding and was never attacked.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Mohammad, and Syria have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark.

FRANCE SOIR'S SELF-DEFENCE

Defending its decision to publish the cartoons, France Soir wrote: "Imagine a society that added up all the prohibitions of different religions. What would remain of the freedom to think, to speak and even to come and go?

"We know societies like that all too well. The Iran of the mullahs, for example. But yesterday, it was the France of the Inquisitions, the burning stakes and the Saint Bartholomew's Day (massacre of Protestants)."

Other European dailies printed cartoons mocking the row. Le Monde in Paris ran a sketch of a man whose beard and turban were made up of lines saying "I must not draw Mohammad".

Jyllands-Posten has apologised for any hurt the caricatures may have caused, but police said the paper's offices in Aarhus were evacuated on Wednesday evening for the second time in two days after a bomb threat. Workers returned after the all-clear.

Denmark says it cannot tell free media what to do.

Danish police said on Wednesday they had told the country's imams they were "highly aware of the risks of an escalation of the case, including the calls to burn the Koran, which these days flourish on the Internet and via SMS (phone messages)".

it's utterly ridiculous that anyone feel they have ANY right to make ANY derrogatory comments on anyone else's religion. it's barbaric and i'd hoped that it didn't exist outside of this hell hole i call the southern US. guess i was wrong. pity.

thoughts? cares? concerns?
Edited February 5, 2006 by miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG (see edit history)

[Vicious_AD 0]

This angers me very very much. That's extremely disrespectful. The islam aren't just being picky, in the islam region it is absolutely forbidden to visually depict Mohammed in any way. This was because when Mohammed founded the religion he demanded this so that if he had future followers they would not see him as a god nor as demigod, but instead as a normal human man. That is why he's known as "the prophet Mohammed" rather than "Mohammed the lord" like Jesus is referred to as. It's one thing to defy their religion, but to mock their lord is wrong as well. Not only this, but to refuse an apology? That's just ridiculous.They're just attacking a peaceful religion. The entire islam religion is based on peace and modesty, two of those things the french are attacking. They should be ashamed of themselves. As if the islam religion isn't already being badmouthed enough.

[hatim 0]

Being a muslim my self i think the muslim community and any one who thinks that their relegion should be respected by others ..should do a PEACEFUL protest to this incident. I dont agree with people waving guns like MORONS and YANKING about how they would defend their relegion. neither would i agree with people who think the way to takkle this is to publish jokes about other side. This is not a firefight dam it.Christinas and jews are considered people of the book in Islam as they also follow book of Allah (God) but their version is old for modern time as the latest version is Quran. And their prophets like Jesus (Isa) Moses (Musa) are prophets of Islam too , but Islam ignores the fact that Chritsinas make statues of Jesus and crack jokes about him. partly because its their relegion and they would be held accountable. But for chritsinas to make fun of Islam wont be tolerated by most Muslims ..becuase tey think Islam is already under physcial attack. I dont agree with people publishing such cartoons but in time of prophet there were paople who made fun of him and there was one time where the prophet had the power to destroy them ..but he never did as he thought these people are young and cluless. If the prophet wont hurt a person who was making fun of him ...why should we..I am not saying allow people to desicrate any relegion..but if some one is doing so..stop them by peaceful means..waving guns like Labanese Malitia wont HELP

[Vicious_AD 0]

I completely agree with you hatim. For some reason people always thing the best way to get their point across is with a gun or some other type of explosive. Isn't the islam religion's basis supposed to be peace and modesty? Extremists of religions just give the whole religion a bad name. If they fight about it they'll just be giving the publishers what they want, an uproar and publicity.

[Grafitti 0]

I agree with you, but you need to realise that these arab "terrorists", as many call them, or more accurately i think, FREEDOM FIGHTERS, are young people who, ever since they were children, have grown up in an environment that oppressed them, hated them, filled with bias and prejudice. That is not a healthy surrounding for any child, and the result, having grown up seeing only violence, is that they believe violence is the answer to their problems. And why shouldn't they? Israel, the dominant power in the region, can hardly be called civilized in its treatment of the arabs in the occupied territories. so in a way, yes, violence is an answer. Not the best one, but it's a way they can strike back. It's funny, all they have are stones, guns, and bombs, and we call them terrorists. If they had a large army, we'd call them freedom fighters or guerillas. If they were really rich, and possibly had nuclear capabilities, we'd call them a proper nation, and treat them as such. Rings a bell, that last one, doesn't it? Sounds exactly like Israel.

A non-violent solution would be the best, in fact, Tom Clancy makes a sound case for it in one of his novels, The Sum of all Fears. All it would take would be for someone to be brave enough to try it. I imagine blood would be shed on a significantly larger scale than Tom Clancy portrayed, but it would definitely get public opinion and the media on their side all the more.

[organicbmx 0]

i am personally an advocate of free speech but i have no problems with laws that limit slightly that freedom, for example the hatred laws in England that make is illegal to incite hatred against a particular race. these laws illegalise blatantly wrong ideals like racism. i also agree with the law in Germany [i believe, but might be Austria] that illegalises holocaust denials. These laws allow voices of evil to be incarcerated and hopefully educated in their wrongs, and that is a good thing

 

But i also think it is a bad situation in which you cannot be satirical about any subject you wish without a real threat to your life. The concept of killing someone who offends you is mad, imagine a world in which you just shoot someone if they wear horrifically dis tasteful clothes or live in a disgustingly kitsch house. You might say that is a stupid comparison but i care deeply about design and aesthetic [i am an designer/artist/photographer so that is fair] and why don't i have the right to feel religious about that [i don't, but why not?]

 

but the main point i feel in this debate is that i have not seen these cartoons, i have not read transcripts, only vague descriptions from varying newspapers. And have any of you seen them? and have any of those protesting in London? Have any of the hamas members? I think you will find the answer in 99.9% of cases is no. there has been no possibility because they are to controversial to be printed, so how can anyone formulate an opinion of a subject they have never seen?

[pomjim 0]

Well, these cartoons were published in Western papers, in Western countries, so should not be of concern to Muslims living in Muslim countries. Remember, we have what is called "freedom of the press" in Western society?If Muslims wish to peacefully demonstrate, or boycott a countires products because of these cartoons, well, that's fine, up to them, BUT to threaten death over it is way out of line, especailly from Muslims living in such Western countires.Something that I find ironic is that a Muslim will eagerly try to live in a Western country, which has values that he despises, and then complains about those values.

[Sarah81 0]

it's utterly ridiculous that anyone feel they have ANY right to make ANY derrogatory comments on anyone else's religion. it's barbaric and i'd hoped that it didn't exist outside of this hell hole i call the southern US. guess i was wrong. pity.

 

thoughts? cares? concerns?

1064337503[/snapback]

So it's barbaric to draw political cartoons, but it's perfectly okay for Muslims to torch a Danish embassy in Beirut (i.e. a building filled with people who had nothing to do with the Danish newspaper's decision to run these cartoons)?

 

And just for the record: these political cartoons were actually drawn to bring light to the problems between Muslims and non-Muslims in that region. (Social conflicts, the religious differences, etc.) The cartoonist didn't just wake up one day and say, "Wow, time to poke fun at Islam. Boy, that's going to be funny." It's like any other political cartoon: drawn and published so that people will start talking about the theme and hopefully find some sort of middle ground, or at least a better understanding of what's going on. That's why U.S. papers publish stuff that makes fun of Bush's most recent speech or policy decision, right? Right. The cartoonist had a point, yet the Muslim population responded by threatening to kill him. How mature and tolerant. *snort*

 

 

The Muslims are mad about the cartoons NOT because they depict Islam as a terrorism-friendly religion, but because Muslims believe that creating ANY image of Mohammed is forbidden. That's fine. I'm not complaining about another person's beliefs. But they're a Muslim's personal beliefs, not mine. I don't run around telling everybody to stop making fun of Jesus just because I'm a Christian. My Jewish friends don't set pork plants on fire. The point? Grow up already and learn how to deal with reality. The world is not a religion-friendly place. No matter where we go, even when we're surrounded by people who believe basically the same things we do, we're always going to have disagreements and other problems. It's very childish to run around beating the snot out of security forces around the embassy just because one is upset over a cartoon in a newspaper that nobody forced said person to buy or look at.

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

I completely agree with Sarah on this.

 

????[/tab]I've a few points to add to this. Most muslims will go about claiming that it's the extremists that are giving their religion a bad name - I'd agree to this to a certain extent, but not completely. What actually gives rise to these extremists - nobody pays attention to that. It's not just about taking some kids and brainwashing - there's a whole element of blind faith that's behind this. Come to think of it - I think muslims are not even permitted to doubt or qustion any sermons in the Koran - which I find the worst thing to have, given ANY religion.

 

????I grew up in a muslim dominated area of my city (Calcutta, India) - for the first 9 years of my life I saw horrible stuff happening around every second day. One moment everything would be fine - the next moment you'd see people running for their lives, dropping shutters, closing gates.. and then out of nowhere these groups of 30-40 with all kinds of swords and choppers would clash and start cutting each other to bits. And NO - THESE WEREN'T ANY EXTREMISTS. These were your ordinary everyday muslims - from different areas of the city. These events weren't even due to some religious bias - coz it was muslims cutting up each other on some stupid issues like a girl from one area having been teased in the other.

 

????So I ask you how do you explain this barbaric butchery ?? Once again - these are you everyday God-fearing muslims... what causes them to do such things ?? Such events are still very much a regular occurence and I get to hear about them quite often, although we've shifted from that region to another just because of this. What on mother earth do they think while they're at it ???

 

????And again - if you drop by in India and take a look at the whole crime scene - you'd find around 80-85% of these people are devout muslims - and they invariably always end up killing/hurting the people whose house they're robbing. As for all the terrorists that are caught in India - they're invariably 100% muslim.. To all the muslim population on this board - I ask - why SO ? What drives these men ?? And it's not that they're a minority - they form a big part of our country too.

 

[tab]Of course, one has to respect another's religion - but that respect doesn't come out of thin air. That respect has to be earned - and that is what these people will never understand. Someone should get it into their thick head that the so-called "Jihad" which I frankly believe, is way outdated in view of todays world - won't gain them even an inch of respect. The fact is that, these people would just go kill/plunder/pillage anyone and call it Jihad.. the whole meaning of the word is lost and so is the cause.

 

Anyway - if I go on any further, I'll never stop....

 

Here are some latest news flashes on the whole Cartoon issue:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Afghan police opened fire on a mob trying to storm a NATO peacekeeping base housing Norwegian troops on Tuesday as protests over cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Mohammad flared again.

 

One person was killed and several wounded in Maymana, Faryab province, when police opened fire to break up the crowd of about 1,000 protesters, police chief Khaliullah Ziaye said.

 

A resident of Maymana said the crowd threw petrol bombs and stones at the camp manned by Norwegian troops and a military vehicle was torched.

 

The attack on the base came after several days of protests in Afghanistan over the issue. At least three Afghans were killed in protests in different parts of the country on Monday.

 

"When the crowd tried to enter the camp, ISAF troops used passive means to deter them," said a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

 

Across the border in Pakistan, about 5,000 Islamists paraded through Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, which is ruled by an Islamist coalition made up of several pro-Taliban groups.

 

Source: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

And some more:

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Denmark urged its citizens on Tuesday to leave Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, as Islamic outrage over a cartoon controversy continued to rage across Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia.

 

A day after Iran said it was severing trade ties with Denmark -- where political cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad first appeared -- Copenhagen's ambassador to Indonesia urged his countrymen to leave Indonesia to avoid possible threats.

 

Fresh protests also erupted in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, where a NATO peacekeeping force base used by Norwegian troops was attacked by an angry mob.

 

"The Foreign Ministry is advising Danes not to travel to Indonesia and Danes already in Indonesia to leave the country," Ambassador Niels Erik Andersen told Reuters.

 

"The security situation is at a level where the Foreign Ministry advises against being here."

 

Source: /home

 

Awaiting a free and open-minded discussion about this whole fiasco.

[qwijibow 0]

Its insane.I watched a TV program in England called "50 years of f**k".its was about cencorship, and how tolerances for swearing have changed over the last 50 years.Basically, peoples right to free speach ( to use offensive language, or offensive images ) versus respect for others.Anyway, one shocking part of this documentary, was an interview with the first person to swear on BBC ( brittish Television )this was before it was even Ok to swear late at night.This man was flooded with hate mail, and death threats.All he did was say " F**k " on TV.and many people thought that death was a suitable punishment.one POLITICIAN even called for the re-introduction of the death sentence (by hanging)