View Full Version : Muhammad cartoon row intensifies
keith
02-01-2006, 11:27 PM
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.
Seven publications in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain all carried some of the drawings.
Their publication in Denmark led Arab nations to protest. Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet.
The owner of one of the papers to reprint - France Soir - has now sacked its managing editor over the matter.
The cartoons have sparked diplomatic sanctions and death threats in some Arab nations, while media watchdogs have defended publication of the images in the name of press freedom.
Reporters Without Borders said the reaction in the Arab world "betrays a lack of understanding" of press freedom as "an essential accomplishment of democracy."
'Spiting Muslims'
France Soir and Germany's Die Welt were among the leading papers to reprint the cartoons, which first appeared in Denmark last September.
The caricatures include drawings of Muhammad wearing a headdress shaped like a bomb, while another shows him saying that paradise was running short of virgins for suicide bombers.
France Soir originally said it had published the images in full to show "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society.
CARTOON ROW
30 Sept: Danish paper Jyllands-Posten publishes cartoons
20 Oct: Muslim ambassadors in Denmark complain to Danish PM
10 Jan: Norwegian publication reprints cartoons
26 Jan: Saudi Arabia recalls its ambassador
30 Jan: Gunmen raid EU's Gaza office
31 Jan: Danish paper apologises
1 Feb: Papers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain reprint cartoons
But late on Wednesday its owner, Raymond Lakah, said he had removed managing editor Jacques Lefranc "as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual".
Mr Lakah said: "We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication."
The president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), Dalil Boubakeur, had described France Soir's publication as an act of "real provocation towards the millions of Muslims living in France".
Other papers stood by their publication. In Berlin, Die Welt argued there was a right to blaspheme in the West, and asked whether Islam was capable of coping with satire.
"The protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they were less hypocritical," it wrote in an editorial.
La Stampa in Italy, El Periodico in Spain and Dutch paper Volkskrank also carried some of the drawings.
European Muslims spoke out against the pictures.
In Germany, the vice-chairman of the central council of Muslims said Muslims would be deeply offended.
"It was done not to defend freedom of the press, but to spite the Muslims," Mohammad Aman Hobohm said.
Sanctions
Correspondents say the European papers' actions have widened a dispute which has grown very serious for Denmark.
ART AND BLASPHEMY CHARGES
1989: Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini calls on Muslims to kill British author Salman Rushdie for alleged blasphemy in his book The Satanic Verses
2002: Nigerian journalist Isioma Daniel's article about Prophet and Miss World contestants sparks deadly riots
2004: Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh killed after release of his documentary about violence against Muslim women
2005: London's Tate Britain museum cancels plans to display sculpture by John Latham for fear of offending Muslims after July bombings
The publication last September in Jyllands-Posten has provoked diplomatic sanctions and threats from Islamic militants across the Muslim world.
Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller has postponed a trip to Africa because of the dispute.
Thousands of Palestinians protested against Denmark this week, and Arab ministers called on it to punish Jyllands-Posten.
Syria and Saudi Arabia have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark, while Libya said it was closing its embassy in Copenhagen and Iraq summoned the Danish envoy to condemn the cartoons.
The Danish-Swedish dairy giant Arla Foods says its sales in the Middle East have plummeted to zero as a result of the row, which sparked a boycott of Danish products across the region.
The offices of Jyllands-Posten had to be evacuated on Tuesday because of a bomb threat.
The paper had apologised a day earlier for causing offence to Muslims, although it maintained it was legal under Danish law to print them.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the paper's apology, but defended the freedom of the press.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4670370.stm
Published: 2006/02/01 22:54:48 GMT
© BBC MMVI
keith
02-01-2006, 11:28 PM
Has anyone seen the cartoons that the Muslins are whining about? If so, could you post them.
You'll find them on Google Images
Vancouver
02-02-2006, 12:31 AM
This cartoon crisis is pretty serious and completely trivial at the same time. I've never seen anything like it.
pixikill
02-02-2006, 01:35 AM
ethyl posted them already.
honest, these guys have very very very thin skins.
Vancouver
02-02-2006, 03:09 AM
Pictures of Mohammed (some done by Muslims) since the Renaissance:
http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/
Reproduction of the Jyllands-Posten article:
http://face-of-muhammed.blogspot.com/
Cartoon rage vs. Freedom of Speech (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21127)
Personally, I find this brouhaha over rather tame satire curious, especially in light of these. (http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ArabCartoons.htm)
Now this, on the other hand ...
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6408/thumohammedemail950xm.jpg
sidthereal
02-02-2006, 09:11 AM
Cartoon rage vs. Freedom of Speech (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21127)
Personally, I find this brouhaha over rather tame satire curious, especially in light of these. (http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ArabCartoons.htm)
Now this, on the other hand ...
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6408/thumohammedemail950xm.jpg
LOL...
thats a good one.
Apparently, some of the inflammatory cartoons were fabricated. (http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2006/02/for_the_europea.html)
malum
02-02-2006, 06:05 PM
Muhammad cartoon row intensifies
... late on Wednesday its owner, Raymond Lakah, said he had removed managing editor Jacques Lefranc "as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual".
Mr Lakah said: "We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication."
'Raymond' (Rami) Lakah, owner of France-Soir is an exiled Egyptian national, wanted in his home country for bilking millions (over 1 billion LE by some accounts) from the national banking system.
Mr. Lakah seems more remorseful about his newspaper printing cartoons that offend Muslims than his own actions of robbing them blind and then fleeing the country...
Muslims Against Cartoon Jihad (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21156)
The response by Muslims to the cartoons is absolutely pathetic and depressing but revealing. The reason Muslims are responding with anger and threats of violence is because most Muslims live in countries where democracy and freedom of speech are alien concepts.
Moreover, the Muslim world suffers from a lack of visionary leadership. In this particular case, when Muslim leaders, including American Muslim leaders, realized that Muslims are furious they joined the chorus of fury rather than explain to their people that they must be reasonable and that freedom of speech is healthy even if it is insulting. What is even more disgusting is that most American Muslim organizations, who should know better, have joined the chorus of instigators rather than taking this opportunity to teach their members about the importance of freedom of speech and tolerance.
pixikill
02-03-2006, 10:21 AM
can you imagine the shit a moslem would get if he/she/it didnt go along with the rest of 'em on this issue??http://www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/Images/islam_stoning.jpg
William F. Buckley, Jr: Protecting Mohammed. (http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.p?ref=/buckley/wfb200602031405.asp)
The most striking aspect of the controversy is the leverage of the offended Muslim community. Even in the United States, even a publication as venturesome as Slate magazine describes the offending caricatures but is careful not to reproduce them. A quite natural curiosity attaches to how these twelve caricatures actually looked. One of them features Mohammed in a vaporous cloud addressing an assembly of suicide terrorists, with the caption that the heavenly kingdom has run out of virgins, so that aspirant debauchers simply have to lay off for a while. How was all that actually depicted by the cartoonist? Even the banal representation of Mohammed with a bomb replacing the turban on his head did not appear in the New York Times, the paper of record.
Read the whole thing...
Oh Boy ... Jack Higgins in Chicago Sun Times ...
http://images.suntimes.com/images3/higgins/higgins350_20060203.gif
uchiuke123
02-04-2006, 11:29 AM
Cartoon controversy spreads throughout Muslim world
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1702104,00.html
Vancouver
02-04-2006, 12:50 PM
Sheer chauvinism is a big part of Islam, as this cartoon farce illustrates.
Now here's a real classic, from the Sun:
Danish Cartoonists have a Salman Rushdie (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2024306,00.html) moment.
TWELVE Danish cartoonists whose pictures sparked such outcry have gone into hiding under round-the-clock protection, fearing for their lives.
The cartoonists, many of whom had reservations about the pictures, have been shocked by how the affair has escalated into a global “clash of civilisations”. They have since tried, unsuccessfully, to stop them being reprinted.
A spokesman for the cartoonists said: “They are in hiding around Denmark. Some of them are really, really scared. They don’t want to see the pictures reprinted all over the world. We couldn’t stop it. We tried, but we couldn’t.”
Silence=Death
02-05-2006, 04:03 AM
In case you missed it.
http://www.faithfreedom.org/Gallery/Mo_Cartoons.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_drawings.jpg
BTW, the first one appears as a long narrow strip on the left but you can expand it via a tab on the lower left to see it in full detail.
I really enjoyed it but than again I am a Kuffir.
Silence=Death
02-05-2006, 04:08 AM
Actually this isn't funny. The cartoonist should all recieve round the clock protection in a secure area. It is actually very important in the long run that no harm comes to them.
Danish Cartoonists have a Salman Rushdie (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2024306,00.html) moment.
TWELVE Danish cartoonists whose pictures sparked such outcry have gone into hiding under round-the-clock protection, fearing for their lives.
The cartoonists, many of whom had reservations about the pictures, have been shocked by how the affair has escalated into a global “clash of civilisations”. They have since tried, unsuccessfully, to stop them being reprinted.
A spokesman for the cartoonists said: “They are in hiding around Denmark. Some of them are really, really scared. They don’t want to see the pictures reprinted all over the world. We couldn’t stop it. We tried, but we couldn’t.”
Vancouver
02-05-2006, 07:32 AM
The Danish press has launched a counter-attack against Denmark's local Palestinian rabble-rouser. Grave accusations against him, which I have no difficulty believing:
http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/files/danish_letter.pdf
Cartoon Jihad vs. P**S Christ (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21171)
As the uproar grew, numerous editorials in defense of Piss Christ, Serrano's controversial creation, were printed in U.S. and European newspapers and the Western cultural elite quickly sprang to his defense. For months, the New York Times beat the “freedom of expression” drum for all its worth, publishing numerous articles and opinion pieces sympathetic to Serrano and depicting him as courageous. In New York City, where Serrano lived, 400 New York artists held a public rally in support of his work and his right to create and display it. Serrano became a celebrated art world hero.
Though some criticisms of Piss Christ, and the man who created it, were intemperate, Serrano's art was never forced underground, nor was his life seriously threatened, nor was he forced into hiding a la Salman Rushdie or placed in protective custody. Violence-prone packs of Christians did not roam the streets of Paris, or London, or Frankfurt, or Madrid, or New York calling for the head of Piss Christ's creator.
More ...
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f218/sono001/r1363645636.jpg
http://photobucket.com/albums/f218/sono001/th_r399679231.jpg
Why aren't they protesting in the United States? :add05:
Wouldn't that would be fun!?!?
These violent protests aren't helping their cause any.
Seeing this kind of behavior just makes me agree more with the cartoonist.....
:mad_09:
p.s.
has anyone posted the pics on this site?
Casey
02-06-2006, 03:43 PM
p.s.
has anyone posted the pics on this site?
Hi :)
I think the cartoons are in a couple of threads in RnR.
Why aren't they protesting in the United States?
They have Abe Hooper to trot out on Screwball or Meet the Depressed.
There actually have been demonstrations but relatively tame compared with others.
Bakri Calls for Executing Cartoonist Under Sharia. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/15/wqueen15.xml)
As Mark Steyn wrote in Chicago Sun Times, "Sensitivity can have Brutal Consequences. (http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn05.html)
NBC is celebrating Easter this year with a special edition of the gay sitcom "Will & Grace," in which a Christian conservative cooking-show host, played by the popular singing slattern Britney Spears, offers seasonal recipes -- "Cruci-fixin's." On the other hand, the same network, in its coverage of the global riots over the Danish cartoons, has declined to show any of the offending artwork out of "respect" for the Muslim faith.
Which means out of respect for their ability to locate the executive vice president's home in the suburbs and firebomb his garage.
Jyllands-Posten wasn't being offensive for the sake of it. They had a serious point -- or, at any rate, a more serious one than Britney Spears or Terence McNally. The cartoons accompanied a piece about the dangers of "self-censorship" -- i.e., a climate in which there's no explicit law forbidding you from addressing the more, er, lively aspects of Islam but nonetheless everyone feels it's better not to.
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ta/2006/ta060203.gif
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/POLITICS/analysis/toons/2006/02/03/lang/cnnlangtoon.jpg
http://www.ocregister.com/newsimages/opinion/DeathTo20306.jpg
al-Canine
02-07-2006, 09:39 AM
Oh my, those crack me up! :add09:
meanwhile...
Cartoons and Islamic Imperialism
BY DANIEL PIPES
February 7, 2006
http://www.nysun.com/article/27151
The key issue at stake in the battle over the 12 Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is this: Will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims impose their way of life on the West? Ultimately, there is no compromise: Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not.
More specifically, will Westerners accede to a double standard by which Muslims are free to insult Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, while Muhammad, Islam, and Muslims enjoy immunity from insults? Muslims routinely publish cartoons far more offensive than the Danish ones. Are they entitled to dish it out while being insulated from similar indignities?
Germany's Die Welt newspaper hinted at this issue in an editorial: "The protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they were less hypocritical. When Syrian television showed drama documentaries in prime-time depicting rabbis as cannibals, the imams were quiet." Nor, by the way, have imams protested the stomping on the Christian cross embedded in the Danish flag.
The deeper issue here, however, is not Muslim hypocrisy but Islamic supremacism. The Danish editor who published the cartoons, Flemming Rose, explained that if Muslims insist "that I, as a non-Muslim, should submit to their taboos ... they're asking for my submission."
Precisely. Robert Spencer rightly called on the free world to stand "resolutely with Denmark." The informative Brussels Journal asserts, "We are all Danes now."
Some governments get it:
* Norway: "We will not apologize because in a country like Norway, which guarantees freedom of expression, we cannot apologize for what the newspapers print," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg commented.
* Germany: "Why should the German government apologize [for German papers publishing the cartoons]? This is an expression of press freedom," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble said.
* France: "Political cartoons are by nature excessive. And I prefer an excess of caricature to an excess of censorship," Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy commented.
Other governments wrongly apologized:
* Poland: "The bounds of properly conceived freedom of expression have been overstepped," the Prime Minister Marcinkiewicz stated.
* Britain: "The republication of these cartoons has been unnecessary, it has been insensitive, it has been disrespectful, and it has been wrong," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.
* New Zealand: "Gratuitously offensive," is how Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton described the cartoons.
* America: "Inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable,"a State Department press officer, Janelle Hironimus, said.
Strangely, as "Old Europe" finds its backbone, the Anglosphere quivers. So awful was the American government reaction, it won the endorsement of the country's leading Islamist organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. This should come as no great surprise, however, for Washington has a history of treating Islam preferentially. On two earlier occasions it also faltered in cases of insults concerning Muhammad.
In 1989, Salman Rushdie came under a death edict from Ayatollah Khomeini for satirizing Muhammad in his magical-realist novel "The Satanic Verses." Rather than stand up for the novelist's life, President George H.W. Bush equated "The Satanic Verses" and the death edict, calling both "offensive." The then secretary of state, James A. Baker III, termed the edict merely "regrettable."
Even worse, in 1997 when an Israeli woman distributed a poster depicting Muhammad as a pig, the American government shamefully abandoned its protection of free speech. On behalf of President Clinton, a State Department spokesman, Nicholas Burns, called the woman in question "either sick or ... evil" and said, "She deserves to be put on trial for these outrageous attacks on Islam." The State Department endorses a criminal trial for protected speech? Stranger yet was the context of this outburst. As I noted at the time, having combed through weeks of State Department briefings, I "found nothing approaching this vituperative language in reference to the horrors that took place in Rwanda, where hundreds of thousands lost their lives. To the contrary, Mr. Burns was throughout cautious and diplomatic."
Western governments should take a crash course on Islamic law and the historically abiding Muslim imperative to subjugate non-Muslim peoples. They might start by reading the forthcoming book by Efraim Karsh, "Islamic Imperialism: A History" (Yale).
Peoples who would stay free must stand unreservedly with Denmark.
Mr. Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Miniatures (Transaction Publishers).
Suppose they gave a demonstration and Nobody came. (http://daneshjoo.org/publishers/smccdinews/article_4511.shtml)
Anti Danish cartoons' rallies turn into fiasco for the regime
SMCCDI (Information Service)
Feb 6, 2006
An Islamist crowd, composed mainly by Bassij Para-military force's members, smashed windows and threw several petrol bombs and pieces of rocks at the Austrian and Danish embassies in Tehran.
The organized rallies were intending to show, what was supposed to be, the massive indignation of Iranians over the publication of cartoons depicting the Islamic Prophet Mohammad. But despite all supports from governmental circles and advertisements made by Mosques related to the theocratic regime, which had called for a massive participation, the demonstrators stayed under 400 individuals while the Iranian Capital has over 12 millions of inhabitants.
Hat tip to Roger Simon.
Vancouver
02-07-2006, 10:50 AM
"Political cartoons are by nature excessive. And I prefer an excess of caricature to an excess of censorship," Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy commented.
Well done.
BTW Sarkozy in a contender for the 2007 French presidential election.
ART
http://www.thecityreview.com/s00conc2.jpg
PISS CHRIST - Andres Serrano
BLASPHEMY
http://www.foxnews.com/foxfan/images/muslimcartoons_450_336.jpg
Danish Cartoons
From Der Spiegel:
Hirsi Ali: "Everyone is afraid to criticize Islam." (http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,399263,00.html)
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch politician forced to go into hiding after the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, responds to the Danish cartoon scandal, arguing that if Europe doesn't stand up to extremists, a culture of self-censorship of criticism of Islam that pervades in Holland will spread in Europe. Auf Wiedersehen, free speech.
Amir Taheri comments on the Cartoon Wars. (http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007934)
The Muslim Brotherhood's position, put by one of its younger militants, Tariq Ramadan--who is, strangely enough, also an adviser to the British home secretary--can be summed up as follows: It is against Islamic principles to represent by imagery not only Muhammad but all the prophets of Islam; and the Muslim world is not used to laughing at religion. Both claims, however, are false.
There is no Quranic injunction against images, whether of Muhammad or anyone else. When it spread into the Levant, Islam came into contact with a version of Christianity that was militantly iconoclastic. As a result some Muslim theologians, at a time when Islam still had an organic theology, issued "fatwas" against any depiction of the Godhead. That position was further buttressed by the fact that Islam acknowledges the Jewish Ten Commandments--which include a ban on depicting God--as part of its heritage. The issue has never been decided one way or another, and the claim that a ban on images is "an absolute principle of Islam" is purely political. Islam has only one absolute principle: the Oneness of God. Trying to invent other absolutes is, from the point of view of Islamic theology, nothing but sherk, i.e., the bestowal on the Many of the attributes of the One.
The claim that the ban on depicting Muhammad and other prophets is an absolute principle of Islam is also refuted by history. Many portraits of Muhammad have been drawn by Muslim artists, often commissioned by Muslim rulers.
http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/020806muhammad.jpg
Meanwhile, Claudia Rosett suggests we hold certain states responsible for Rage Against the Western Machine. (http://nationalreview.com/rosett/rosett200602081000.asp)
If statehood, citizenship, and civilization itself are to mean anything, we are all in the end accountable for our own actions. When people riot and brutalize and burn, there are individuals in the crowds who are responsible. And in the places where this is happening, if the governments will not call these individuals to account, we need to hold those governments themselves responsible. Cartoons alone, to quote another line from Hamlet, are in a class with nothing more than “words, words, words,” and those are grounds on which newspapers, nations, and religions may have their disagreements and their dialogues. But when violence enters the picture, that is a matter for governments to settle, and in the free world the job of government and politicians is not to opine upon cartoons, but to lay down the law that no one may with impunity threaten our liberty and lives.
Hat tip to LGF...
The Plot thickens. (http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/02/boycott-egypt.html)
Apparently, the infamous cartoons were published in Egyptian newspaper Al Faqr last October, during Ramadan no less. Boycott Egypt?
http://static.flickr.com/35/97244039_3e2b1b88c5.jpg
Rent A Riot ABCs (http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/61596.htm)
'ABLESSING from God": So have Iran's leaders, starting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described the controversy over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed.
A closer look at the row, however, shows that the whole rigmarole was launched by Sunni-Salafi groups in Europe and Asia, with Ahmadinejad and his Syrian vassal, President Bashar al-Assad, belatedly playing catch-up. God had nothing to do with it.
Read the whole thing ...
al-Canine
02-09-2006, 12:34 PM
Rent A Riot ABCs (http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/61596.htm)
'ABLESSING from God": So have Iran's leaders, starting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described the controversy over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed.
A closer look at the row, however, shows that the whole rigmarole was launched by Sunni-Salafi groups in Europe and Asia, with Ahmadinejad and his Syrian vassal, President Bashar al-Assad, belatedly playing catch-up. God had nothing to do with it.
Read the whole thing ...
NYer, the editorial is brilliant. I am going to post it in its entirety since the NY Post is subscription-only, some folks may want to read without registering.
RENT-A-RIOT ABCS
By AMIR TAHERI
'A BLESSING from God": So have Iran's leaders, starting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described the controversy over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed.
A closer look at the row, however, shows that the whole rigmarole was launched by Sunni-Salafi groups in Europe and Asia, with Ahmadinejad and his Syrian vassal, President Bashar al-Assad, belatedly playing catch-up. God had nothing to do with it.
To see how the whole thing was manufactured to serve precise political ends, consider the chronology of events:
The cartoons were published last September and, for more than three months, caused no ripples outside small groups of Salafi militants in Denmark.
In December, a group of Danish Muslim militants filled their suitcases with photocopies of the cartoons and embarked on a tour of Muslim capitals.
They failed to get to Tehran: The Iranians, being Shi'ites, saw them as Sunni activists bent on mischief. But they managed to go to Cairo, Damascus and Beirut and, were allowed to send emissaries to Saudi Arabia.
The Danish Muslim group also did something dishonest — it added a number of far more derogatory cartoons of the Prophet to the 12 published by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, and misled its interlocutors in Muslim capitals into believing that all had appeared in the Danish press.
In Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood told the Danish group that this was not the time to kick a fuss over the cartoons. The brotherhood was busy plotting its election strategy and pretending to be a "moderate" political party. The last thing it wanted was to be branded as a rabid anti-West force. The brotherhood leaders suggested that the matter be put on ice until January.
The Danish militants also received a negative reply from Hamas, the Palestinian radical movement. Hamas was busy trying to win a general election and needed to reassure at least part of the Palestinian middle classes. The Hamas advice was: Wait until after we have won.
The emissaries found a more sympathetic audience in Qatar — where the satellite-TV channel Al Jazeera (owned by the emir) specializes in inciting Muslims against the West and democracy in general. The channel's chief Islamist televangelist, Yussuf al-Qaradawi (an Egyptian preacher who is also a friend of Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London), was all too keen to issue a "fatwa" to light the fuse. He then mobilized his network of Muslim Brotherhood militants in Europe to attack the cartoons and claim, falsely, that images were not allowed in Islam and that the Danish paper had violated "an absolute principle of The Only True Faith."
Thus the call for Jihad received its supposed "theological" green light. (Ironically, the section of the brotherhood headed by al-Qaradawi is financed by the European Union as a non-governmental organization.)
As the first rent-a-mob crowds appeared on global TV screens, Ahmadinejad realized that here was a cow worth milking.
For Denmark is set to assume the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council — at the very time that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to refer Iran to the Security Council and demand sanctions. What better, for Tehran's purposes, than to portray Denmark as "an enemy of Islam" and mobilize Muslim sympathy against the Security Council?
To regain the initiative from the Sunni-Salafi groups, Ahmadinejad quickly ordered a severing of commercial ties with Denmark, thus portraying the Islamic Republic as the Muslim world's leader in the anti-Danish campaign.
Syria was next to jump on the bandwagon, again for mercenary reasons. The United Nations wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and five of his relatives and aides, including his younger brother, for questioning in the murder of Lebanon's former premier, Rafiq al-Hariri. (Assad has tried to negotiate immunity for himself and his brother in exchange for handing over the others — but the U.N. wouldn't play.) As with Iran's nuclear program, the Syrian dossier will reach the Security Council under Danish presidency. To portray Denmark as "an enemy of the Prophet" would not be such a bad thing when the council, as expected, points the finger at Assad and his regime as responsible for a series of political murders, including that of Hariri.
The Danish-cartoons cow will also be milked in another way: Tehran and Damascus have launched a diplomatic campaign to put the issue of "protecting religions against blasphemy" on the Security Council agenda. If that were to happen, issues such as Iran's quest for the atomic bomb and Syria's murder machine in Lebanon might be pushed aside, at least as far as world public opinion is concerned.
People watching TV news may think that the whole Muslim world is ablaze with righteous rage translated into "spontaneous demonstrations." The truth is that the overwhelming majority of Muslims, even if offended by cartoons which they have not seen, have stayed away from the street shows put on by the radicals and the Iranian and Syrian security services.
The destruction of Danish and Norwegian embassies and consulates happened in only two places: Damascus and Beirut. Anyone who knows Syria would know that there are no spontaneous demonstrations in that dictatorship. (Even then, the Syrian secret police failed to attract more than 1,000 rent-a-mob militants.) And the Syrian government refused the Norwegian Embassy's request for additional police protection. It was clear that the Syrians wanted the embassies sacked.
The rent-a-mob attacks in Beirut were more cynical. The Syrian Ba'ath — which has been murdering, imprisoning or deporting Sunni-Salafi militants for years — was suddenly transformed from a radical secular and Socialist party into "the Vanguard of the Faith." The mob that committed the atrocities in Beirut was bused from Syria and consisted of Muslim Brotherhood militants who are never allowed to demonstate on their own account.
The Muslim crowds that have demonstrated over the cartoons seldom exceeded a few hundred; the Muslim segment of humanity is estimated at 1.2 billion. And only three of Denmark's embassies in 57 Muslim countries have been attacked.
The Danish Muslim gang who lied by adding cartoons that had never been published has done more damage to the Prophet and to Islam than the 12 controversial cartoonists of Jyllands-Posten.
The fight between Denmark and its detractors is not between the West and Islam. It is between democracy and a global fascist movement masquerading as religion.
Iranian author Amir Taheri is a member of Benador Associates.
dipswitch
02-09-2006, 01:48 PM
from http://www.neandernews.com/?p=54
http://ekstrabladet.dk/grafik/nettet/tegninger38.jpg
Danish Imam Ahmad Abu Ladan, leader of The Islamic Society of Denmark, toured the middle east to create awareness of supposed anti-Islamic cartoons and included the above black and white photo as well as two other undocumented examples. Akhmad Akkari, spokesman of the tour, explained that the three drawings had been added to “give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims.”
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050815/050815_pigsqueal_hmed_8a.hmedium.jpg
The image is actually Jacques Barrot, a contender in a pig calling contest in France http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8959820
Capitalism Strikes Back. (http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060209/API/602090956)
European Papers Benefit in Cartoon Uproar
By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press Writer
PARIS
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! That street corner cry of yesteryear is resonating at some European publications that have enjoyed a boom in sales and Web traffic after printing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have stoked outrage across the Islamic world
http://cagle.msnbc.com/working/060207/babin.gif
http://cagle.msnbc.com/working/060208/lane.gif
http://cagle.msnbc.com/working/060208/bok.gif
pixikill
02-10-2006, 09:45 AM
http://cagle.msnbc.com/working/060207/babin.gif
this one is so.o.oo poingnant.(sp?)
al-Canine
02-10-2006, 11:56 AM
Egyptian blogger has newspapers showing that "offensive" cartoons were published in Egypt 4 months BEFORE all the "outrage"
the cartoons looked so familiar to me: they were actually printed in the Egyptian Newspaper Al Fagr back in October 2005. I repeat, October 2005, during Ramadan, for all the egyptian muslim population to see, and not a single squeak of outrage was present. Al Fagr isn't a small newspaper either: it has respectable circulation in Egypt, since it's helmed by known Journalist Adel Hamoudah. Looking around in my house I found the copy of the newspaper, so I decided to scan it and present to all of you to see.
http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/02/boycott-egypt.html
OMG! I missed the "Boycott Egypt" Campaign.
al-Canine
02-10-2006, 12:32 PM
OMG! I missed the "Boycott Egypt" Campaign.
NO falafel for YOU!!! :add09:
At Mecca meeting, Cartoon Outrage Crystallized. (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/international/middleeast/09cartoon.html)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2004/05/09/weekinreview/09cart583.1.jpg
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, second from left, was among the Middle East leaders at a meeting in December in Mecca, where Danish cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad were discussed.
As leaders of the world's 57 Muslim nations gathered for a summit meeting in Mecca in December, issues like religious extremism dominated the official agenda. But much of the talk in the hallways was of a wholly different issue: Danish cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad.
The closing communiqué took note of the issue when it expressed "concern at rising hatred against Islam and Muslims and condemned the recent incident of desecration of the image of the Holy Prophet Muhammad in the media of certain countries" as well as over "using the freedom of expression as a pretext to defame religions."
The meeting in Mecca, a Saudi city from which non-Muslims are barred, drew minimal international press coverage even though such leaders as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran were in attendance. But on the road from quiet outrage in a small Muslim community in northern Europe to a set of international brush fires, the summit meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference — and the role its member governments played in the outrage — was something of a turning point.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/capt.nai12902101623.kenya_east_africa_prophet_draw ings_nai129-thumb.jpg
"It's a little hard to wrap your mind about that one: Freedom of speech is a form of terrorism. This is a point of view that makes compromise difficult."
John Hinderaker
www.powerlineblog.com
pixikill
02-11-2006, 09:56 PM
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/capt.nai12902101623.kenya_east_africa_prophet_draw ings_nai129-thumb.jpg
"It's a little hard to wrap your mind about that one: Freedom of speech is a form of terrorism. This is a point of view that makes compromise difficult."
John Hinderaker
www.powerlineblog.com (http://www.powerlineblog.com)
more fuel for my thoughts.
THIS (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060210/481/xdy10102101128) is carrying "Objectionable" way too far. One has to draw the line somewhere.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/images/burnvalentine.jpg
An activist of the radical Kashmiri Islamic group, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, or daughters of the community, burns a Valentine card outside a card store in central Srinagar, India.
Donald Sensing has More (http://www.donaldsensing.com/index.php/2006/02/11/artistic-courage-redefined/)
Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.
Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com calls CNN on its failure to display the cartoons.
My beliefs are offended when gangs of ignorant thugs burn embassies, and where is the respect for my beliefs? Do I need to burn embassies to get respect for my beliefs? Because that's the message CNN sends. The message they send is, We will reward violence. And you're going to get more of what you reward, that's how it works.
Video can be seen Here. (http://exposetheleft.net/video/reynoldsonthestory.wmv)
Hat tip to Political Teen.
Will radical Islam protest 14th Century Persian art? (http://nationalreview.com/comment/marshall200602130815.asp)
Despite its rulers' current fulminations, Iran itself is full of pictures of Mohammed. While devout Shiites more often wear a pendant bearing a picture of Ali, a Companion of the Prophet central to the development of Shiism, it is not uncommon for them to wear one bearing Mohammed's face. Depictions of the Prophet also appear on major buildings, including mosques, and even on small kiosks selling cigarettes. For believers, they are certainly a real sign of devotion, but at the same time they are an implicit subversion of the regime. Like Stalin or Saddam Hussein have done, Iran's dictators demand that those they rule subject themselves to the idolatrous image of the Supreme Leader, whether the Ayatollah Khomeini or current Ayatollah Khamenei, by putting their stern visages in their homes, offices, and shops. In the face of this repression, a picture of the Prophet is a rebuke to those who put themselves in his place.
You can also find numerous portrayals of Mohammed in medieval Afghan, Uzbek, Ottoman, and, especially, Persian Islamic art. In some of these, especially the Ottoman ones, Mohammed's face is hidden or blank, but there are also many detailed, and often quite exquisite, full portraits illustrating his life. The University of Edinburgh has a miniature of "Mohammed re-dedicating the Black Stone at the Kaaba," which is taken from the Jami Al-Tawarikh, "The Universal History," written by Rashid Al-Din and illustrated c. 1315, as well as a "Birth of the Prophet Muhammad," taken from the Jami' al-tavarikh, "Compendium of Chronicles," dated c. 1314-15 (Edinburgh University Library). France's Bibliotheque Nationale has a "Mohammed meets the prophets Ismail, Is-hak and Lot in paradise" and a "Mohammed arrives on the shores of the White Sea," both taken from the Apocalypse of Muhammad, written in 1436 in Herat, Afghanistan.
If you don't want to travel so far, then visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see "The Night Journey of Muhammad on His Steed, Buraq," a leaf from a copy of the Bustan of Sacdi, dated 1514, Bukhara, Uzbekistan, or "Muhammad's Call to Prophecy and the First Revelation" and the "Journey of the Prophet Muhammad," both leaves from the Majmac al-tawarikh, "Compendium of Histories," from Herat, Afghanistan c 1425. Or you can look at them in the catalog (here and here).
Eurocrats Throw Denmark Under The Bus (http://nationalreview.com/stuttaford/stuttaford200602140816.asp)
While the Danish prime minister was stubbornly sticking to the principles of free speech and a free press, principles which he had, perhaps naively, and certainly optimistically, thought would find support from governments across Europe, his words were nearly drowned out by hints, murmurings, and shouts of appeasement from the gray, shrunken statesmen of Brussels, Paris, London, Stockholm, and many other capitals — take your pick — of a continent that once saw itself as the home of Enlightenment.
Read the whole thing ...
Eurocrats Throw Denmark Under The Bus (http://nationalreview.com/stuttaford/stuttaford200602140816.asp)
On the other hand ...
Barroso gives full support to Denmark in Cartoon Crisis. (http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20060214&hn=29785)
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso announced his support to Denmark over the cartoons ridiculing Prophet Mohammed and outraging Muslims.
Cartoon Jihad sparks Cyber War! (http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.265286366&par=0)
http://www.rantburg.com/images/compmelted.jpg
ty Rantburg for the image.
http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/06.02.13.Overboard-X.gif
http://www.jacksonville.com/images/020906/116226_400.jpg
http://cagle.msnbc.com/working/060213/ofarrell.gif
experiencediz
02-18-2006, 09:06 AM
Libya reports 11 killed in cartoon protest violence
...Eleven people were killed and an Italian consulate burned in Libya on Friday during protests to denounce the publication of cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed, sources in Libya said. Some Libyan protesters said they were angry because an Italian minister wore a T-shirt displaying one of the cartoons on Italian TV this week.
There also was a "high number" of injuries, said an official with the Italian Embassy in Tripoli...
•Libya reports 11 killed in cartoon protest violence (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/02/17/libya.cartoons/index.html)
EXVIEWPOINT: Ignorance has nothing to do with FOS!
http://www.angryflower.com/clowni.gif
http://www.angryflower.com/clowni.html
Cartoon riots spur Sweet Protest. (http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=15437) 'Buy Danish' Backlash
In the wake of a Danish newspaper’s decision to publish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, Danish flags and embassies are beset by violent protesters in heavily Muslim countries. But a chocolate store in the windmill-filled, Danish American tourist village of Solvang has enjoyed a small spike in its mail-order business.
And it’s not just because of Valentine’s Day, though that always helps, said chocolatemaker Bent Pedersen.
“One comment was that they were buying in support of Denmark,” said Pedersen, who owns Ingeborg’s World Famous Danish Chocolates, which does a brisk business online from its Copenhagen Drive store.
pixikill
02-18-2006, 11:10 AM
[/URL]
Cartoon riots spur[URL="http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=15437"] Sweet Protest. (http://www.angryflower.com/clowni.html) 'Buy Danish' Backlash
“One comment was that they were buying in support of Denmark,”
thats so nice of everyone!:happy_01::happy_01:
OK, it was bound to happen. (http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/006492.html#006492)
Blasphemous Mohammed Smileys
Muhammad (((:~{>
Muhammad playing Little Orphan Annie
(((8~{>
Muhammad as a pirate
(((P~{>
Muhammad on a bad turban day
))):~{>
Muhammad with sand in his eye
(((;~{>
Muhammad wearing sunglasses
(((B~{>
Muhammad giving the raspberry.
(((:~{P>
Giving Muhammad the raspberry.
;-P
Seems the author's great-great-grandfather came to America from Denmark in the 1840's.
The hits just keep on coming ...
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/634520_src_path-thumb.jpg
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/013195.php
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Stand Up For Denmark. (http://www.slate.com/id/2136714/fr/rss/)
The incredible thing about the ongoing Kristallnacht against Denmark (and in some places, against the embassies and citizens of any Scandinavian or even European Union nation) is that it has resulted in, not opprobrium for the religion that perpetrates and excuses it, but increased respectability! A small democratic country with an open society, a system of confessional pluralism, and a free press has been subjected to a fantastic, incredible, organized campaign of lies and hatred and violence, extending to one of the gravest imaginable breaches of international law and civility: the violation of diplomatic immunity. And nobody in authority can be found to state the obvious and the necessary—that we stand with the Danes against this defamation and blackmail and sabotage. Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown dictatorships. Let's be sure we haven't hurt the vandals' feelings.
http://vitalperspective.typepad.com/vital_perspective_clarity/images/rotation_of_p2240010.jpg
From today's Hitchens inspired demonstration in DC.
http://vitalperspective.typepad.com/vital_perspective_clarity/2006/02/a_rally_for_fre.html
Transcript of Hitchens' speech at the Pro-Denmark demo
"Brothers and sisters, I [inaudible] . . . a speech.
[Laughter]
It misses the point . . . [inaudible] [laughter]
[Crowd: "Speech! Speech!"]
Brothers and sisters, I just thought I would thank everyone for coming and say how touching it is that people will take a minute from a working day to do something that our government won't do for us, which is quite simply to say that we know who our friends and our allies are, and they should know that we know it. And that we take a stand of democracy against dictatorship. And when the embassies of democracies are burned in the capital cities of dictatorships, we think the State Department should denounce that, and not denounce the cartoons.
[Cheers of support and applause]
And that we're fed up with the invertebrate nature of our State Department.
[Laughter, cheers, applause]
If we had more time, brothers and sisters, I think that we should have gone from here to the embassy of Iraq, to express our support for another country that is facing a campaign of lies and hatred and violence. And we would -- if we did that we would say that we knew blasphemy when we saw it, we knew sacrilege when we saw it: it is sacrilegious to blow up beautiful houses of worship in Samarra. That would be worth filling the streets of the world to protest about.
[Cheers and applause]
We are not for profanity nor for disrespect, though we are, and without any conditions, or any ifs or any buts, for free expression in all times and in all places
[applause]
and our solidarity . . . [inaudible]
[applause]
So, we said we would, I told the Danish embassy that we would disperse at one o'clock. I hope and believe we've made our point, I hope and believe that today's tv will have some more agreeable features, such as your own, to show, instead of the faces of violence and hatred, and fascism, and I think I can just close by saying, solidarity with Denmark, death to fascism.
[Applause as Hitchens steps away]
http://www.theadventuresofchester.com/archives/2006/02/solidarity_with.html
And there's video Here. (http://www.luisdavidalbright.com/video/HitchensSpeechWMV.wmv)
Oncoming
David Warren thinks the cartoon controversy is "the most important thing that has happened since the Al Qaeda attack (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-2_27_06_DW.html) on the United States, in 2001."
Even after the experience of the Great War, and the Depression, people on the eve of the Hitler war could not appreciate what was coming. It is only in retrospect that we understand what happened as the 1930s progressed -- when a spineless political class, eager at any price to preserve a peace that was no longer available, performed endless demeaning acts of appeasement to the Nazis; while the Nazis created additional grievances to extract more.
This is precisely what is happening now, as we are confronted by the Islamist fanatics, whose views and demands are already being parroted by fearful “mainstream” Muslim politicians. We will do anything to preserve a peace that ceased to exist on 9/11. Not one of our prominent politicians dares even to name the enemy.
Now is NOT the time to go wobbly.
http://www.keshertalk.com/images/blogpix/Toonaphobia.jpg
From Yehudit, www.windsofchange.net
Cartoonist's daughter hunted by jihadis. (http://agora.blogsome.com/2006/03/02/cartoonists-daughter-hunted-by-jihadists/)
A group of Moslem males have tried to get at the daughter of one of the 12 cartoonists who drew the cartoons of Muhammed at her school. The political spokesman of the Liberals, Jens Rohde, revealed this during an interview with TV-Avisen while explaining his and the Prime Minister’s attack on the business community in Denmark, charging that they have put profits over Freedom of Speech.
Rohde says that the 12 cartoonists have had their lives overturned and are now living in hiding, after receiving several death threats.
"And a daughter of one of cartoonist was sought out by 12 Moslem males - they were looking to get to her. Fortunately she wasn’t at school," Jens Rohde said.
candypreet
03-03-2006, 01:16 PM
Cartoonist's daughter hunted by jihadis. (http://agora.blogsome.com/2006/03/02/cartoonists-daughter-hunted-by-jihadists/)
A group of Moslem males have tried to get at the daughter of one of the 12 cartoonists who drew the cartoons of Muhammed at her school. The political spokesman of the Liberals, Jens Rohde, revealed this during an interview with TV-Avisen while explaining his and the Prime Minister’s attack on the business community in Denmark, charging that they have put profits over Freedom of Speech.
Rohde says that the 12 cartoonists have had their lives overturned and are now living in hiding, after receiving several death threats.
"And a daughter of one of cartoonist was sought out by 12 Moslem males - they were looking to get to her. Fortunately she wasn’t at school," Jens Rohde said.
this is evil
exitwound
03-03-2006, 02:03 PM
this is evil
Indeed. Anyone who believes that a young woman's life should be taken because of a few cartoons should be dragged out into the street, shot in both knees, have the wounds pissed in, thrown in a ditch, shot some more, and then left for the dogs to gnaw on.
Muslim Lawyer's Defense of Publishing The Muhammad Cartoons. (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/186/story_18648_1.html)
http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/06.02.09.MustSeeTV-X.gif
From Cox and Forkum
I am as offended by the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad as other Muslims, but I must fight for First Amendment rights.
By Junaid Afeef
Read the whole thing ...
candypreet
03-04-2006, 11:25 PM
Indeed. Anyone who believes that a young woman's life should be taken because of a few cartoons should be dragged out into the street, shot in both knees, have the wounds pissed in, thrown in a ditch, shot some more, and then left for the dogs to gnaw on.
Yes I agree . Crimes against the innocents( Man, woman or child) must be punished- ( though in a slightly more civilized way)
Publish or Perish: Lessons of the Cartoon Jihad. (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-3_3_06_RT.html)
Now, seventeen years later, the Muslim fanatics are making it clear: you don't have to come to our country, you don't have to be a Muslim. Even in your own countries and under your own laws, you will not be safe from our intimidation.
For the whole Western world, this is an opportunity to learn an important truth about the goal of the Islamists. Their goal is not to achieve any specific political demand or settlement. Their goal is submission: our submission to their will, to their laws, to their dictatorship—our submission, not just to one demand, but to any demand the Muslim mobs care to make.
Europe particularly needs to learn this lesson. The Europeans have deluded themselves into thinking that this is our fight. If only Israel weren't so intransigent, if only the US weren't so belligerent, they told themselves—if only those cowboys didn't insist on stirring up trouble, we could all live in peace with the Muslims. And they have deluded themselves into thinking that they can seek a separate peace, that having the Danish flag on your backpack—as one bewildered young Dane described it—would guarantee that you could go anywhere in the world and be regarded as safe, as innocuous.
Now the Europeans know better.
Read the whole thing ...
Denmark's Intifada (http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ai=214&ar=783wmv&ak=null)
Today, Denmark is at the center of a controversy over 12 drawings, the infamous Danish cartoons. Syria and Iran have virtually declared war on Denmark, Danish consulates and embassies have been attacked in the Middle East and Africa, and Islamic countries are officially boycotting Danish products.
Those who believe that the whole issue has to do with 12 cartoons are naïve. Denmark is being punished for its alleged Islamophobia. Its crime is not the publication of 12 drawings in Jyllands-Posten, a paper in the rural province of Jutland. Its crime is the staunch refusal of the Danish Vikings to allow Muslim immigrants to impose their laws upon their host country.
An interesting read ...
keith
03-18-2006, 01:19 PM
Scientologists rioting in Colorado. Well, not quite, but here another issue related to non-main stream religous sensitivety.
South Park 'battling' Scientology
South Park is famed for lampooning religion
South Park's creators have renewed their "battle" with Scientology, after a US TV channel dropped a show which mocked its church and actor Tom Cruise.
"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!" Trey Parker and Matt Stone told trade paper Variety.
Comedy Central said the schedule change enabled it to screen two extra episodes featuring Isaac Hayes, who played Chef.
Hayes left South Park this week after objecting to it sending up religion.
Parker and Stone added in their statement to Variety: "Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies."
Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!
Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Comedy Central's spokesman said the channel wanted to "give Chef an appropriate tribute by airing two episodes he is most known for".
The channel also denied it had axed the episode featuring Cruise after reports of pressure from the actor to drop it from its schedules.
And the actor denied reports suggesting he had threatened not to promote his latest film Mission Impossible: 3 if the episode was broadcast.
The film is being brought out in May by Paramount, which is owned, along with Comedy Central, by Viacom.
"Not true," Cruise's spokesman said about the reports. "I can tell you that he never said that."
Cruise said he had nothing to do with the episode being dropped
Variety reported that the spokesman added: "He never said any such thing about Mission: Impossible 3."
Paramount were unavailable for comment.
Cruise, an outspoken follower of Scientology, starred in the first two Mission Impossible films.
The initial 1996 movie grossed $454m (£250m) worldwide and the second took a total of $546m (£300m) in 2000.
Animated series South Park tells the story of four boys in a dysfunctional Colorado town and regularly deals with sensitive subjects and sends up famous figures.
In a recent episode, one of the gang, Stan, did so well in a Scientology test that church followers thought he was the next L Ron Hubbard, the late science-fiction writer who founded Scientology.
Hayes, 63, had been a regular on South Park since its US TV debut in 1997.
The show was insensitive to "personal spiritual beliefs", Hayes said.
But Stone said Hayes had "never had a problem" until the Scientology Church, to which Hayes belongs, was parodied.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4819826.stm
From NRO's The Corner-
DEATH THREATS [Cliff May]
Irshad Manji writes:
As the dust settled on the Danish cartoon controversy, I -- along with Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Taslima Nasrin and several others -- released a statement entitled, "The Manifesto of 12: Together Facing a New Totalitarianism ." In this statement, we promote universal human rights and democratic values. We point out that democrats and theocrats can be found in every civilization. Therefore, this is not a clash of civilizations but call to rally the "free spirits of all countries".
This statement has been praised and condemned worldwide. But in the condemnation category is something truly troubling, and that's why I'm writing.
The signatories have received a serious death threat from a chat thread on http://ummah.com, an Islamic website operating from Britain. ("Ummah" refers to the global Muslim community.) Its wording is unambiguous: "Excellent makes killing the kuffar [infidel] all the bit easier... Now we have a hit list of a 'Who's Who' guide to slam into. Take your time but make sure their gone soon oh and don't hold out for a fatwah it isn't really required here."
Unlike the usual stuff that comes from irate individuals, this threat emanates from a place of "authority." It's widely known that ummah.com attracts many radicals.
The Manifesto signatories need you to fight back with us. We've created a petition that will be published in the coming days. If you love pluralism enough to be vocal about it, I ask you to visit my website and go to the box entitled "Violence Alert." That's where you can sign the petition and, of course, read the Manifesto. My website is: http://www.muslim-refusenik.com
Please forward this message to others who might sign our petition. Thanks for your courage. And, strange as it may seem to say, happy spring...
Warmly,
Irshad
http://corner.nationalreview.com/06_03_12_corner-archive.asp#092753
Ethyl
03-19-2006, 11:59 AM
wow. That is so awsome. Those are people worth fighting for.
THE MANIFESTO OF 12:
Together facing the new totalitarianism
After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global totalitarian threat: Islamism.
We -- writers, journalists and public intellectuals -- call for resistance to religious totalitarianism.
Instead, we call for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values worldwide.
The necessity of these universal values has been revealed by events since the publication of the Muhammad drawings in European newspapers. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the arena of ideas. What we are witnessing is not a clash of civilizations, nor an antagonism of West versus East, but a global struggle between democrats and theocrats.
Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The preachers of hate bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a world of inequality. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred.
Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of greater power imbalances: man’s domination of woman, the Islamists’ domination of all others.
To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed people. For that reason, we reject “cultural relativism,” which consists of accepting that Muslim men and women should be deprived of their right to equality and freedom in the name of their cultural traditions.
We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of “Islamophobia,” an unfortunate concept that confuses criticism of Islamic practices with the stigmatization of Muslims themselves.
We plead for the universality of free expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on every continent, against every abuse and dogma.
We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of enlightenment, not of obscurantism.
Signed,
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Chahla Chafiq , Caroline Fourest, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Irshad Manji , Mehdi Mozaffari, Maryam Namazie, Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie, Antoine Sfeir, Philippe Val, Ibn Warraq
It is from those twelve that sanity sees the light of day.
keith
03-19-2006, 12:24 PM
Here is some more sensible behavior from Muslims trying the "protect" their religion.
Afghan Man Prosecuted for Converting
An Afghan man who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death, a judge said Sunday.
The defendant, Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family went to the police and accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told Associated Press in an interview. Such a conversion would violate the country's Islamic laws.
Rahman, who is believed to be 41, was charged with rejecting Islam when his trial started last week, the judge said.
During the hearing, the defendant allegedly confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago when he was 25 and working as a medical aid worker for Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan, Mawlavezada said.
Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which states that any Muslim who rejects their religion should be sentenced to death.
"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam. ... The prosecutor is asking for the death penalty."
The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said the case was the first of its kind in Afghanistan.
He said that he had offered to drop the charges if Rahman changed his religion back to Islam, but the defendant refused.
Mawlavezada said he would rule on the case within two months.
Afghanistan is a deeply conservative society and 99 percent of its 28 million people are Muslim. The rest are mainly Hindus.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060319/ap_on_re_as/afghan_christian_convert
NYU Cowardice (http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog/2006/03/nyu-cowardice.html)
"In a seemingly mundane decision, New York University has sacrificed the principle underlying its flourishing and the survival of civilization--free speech," said Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute. NYU is refusing to protect a student group's right to display the Danish cartoons of Mohammad at a panel discussion on free speech on March 29.
The group's event was to be open to the public, but at the last minute NYU retreated. Under the pretense of maintaining campus security, the administration contradicted its own stated policy on free speech by requiring that, if the cartoons are displayed, the event be limited only to "members of the NYU community." The student group now must turn away more than 150 members of the public who had planned to attend the panel.
"The university's shameful appeasement of Muslim and anti- free-speech groups--which have vowed to protest the event--underscores the urgent need to display the cartoons in defense of freedom of speech," said Dr. Brook.
"Free speech protects the rational mind: it is the freedom to think, to reach conclusions and express one's views without fear of coercion of any kind. And it must include the right to express unpopular and offensive views, including outright criticism of religion. NYU--which like other universities grants tenure to protect intellectual freedom--ought to recognize the crucial importance of this principle and defend it.
"If intimidation and threats are allowed to compel writers, cartoonists, thinkers and institutions of learning into self- censorship, the right to free speech is lost. If Muslims are allowed to pressure critics of Islam into silence, critics of religion will be next. And then everyone else."
Eugene Volokh has More. (http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_03_26-2006_04_01.shtml#1143656066)
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/images/comedycentral002.jpg
CARMENtematar
04-13-2006, 10:37 PM
Lesbian Muslim Reformer is a New World Orderly
irshad manji
http://www.savethemales.ca/000642.html
:add09:
If you want to influence the battle between sane/moderate Muslims and radical Muslims, these are the types of voices you should be looking for and supporting. The Irshad Manji's and Wafa Sultan's of the world may make for great neocon circle-jerk material, but they have at best no influence over real Muslims. Supporting them is like telling Christians that all of Christianity needs to reform and the only way to do that is to listen to Michael Newdow and do exactly as he says. Even if you are a moderate Christian, that's going to be at best bemusing.
I mean really, why do Americans think that Islam should be the first religion to totally reform itself based on the advice of lesbians and atheists?
When In Rome Do As The Vandals Do
Catholic mag in Prophet Cartoon Row. (http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=579012006)
Studi Cattolici carried a drawing of the Prophet in Hell, with the Italian writer Dante Alighieri asking the poet Virgil: "That man divided in two from his head to his feet - isn't that Muhammad?" Virgil replies: "Yes, it is him and he is in two because he has divided society - while the man next to him with his arms down represents Italian politics towards Islam."
The cartoon is a play on Dante's Inferno - a similar scene is painted on the ceiling of the San Petronio Cathedral in Bologna, which had been the planned target of a Islamic terrorist cell until the plot was uncovered.
keith
04-24-2006, 12:13 PM
Prophet cartoon offenders must be killed: bin Laden 2 hours, 35 minutes ago
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has called for people who ridiculed the Prophet Mohammad to be killed, weighing into the furor that erupted after a Danish newspaper ran cartoons lampooning Islam's holy messenger.
"Heretics and atheists, who denigrate religion and transgress against God and His Prophet, will not stop their enmity toward Islam except by being killed," the Saudi-born militant said.
Bin Laden's remarks were part of an audio tape which Al Jazeera television aired excerpts from on Sunday. The television station later published a full transcript on its Web site.
The Doha-based satellite television channel had aired excerpts of the tape in which bin Laden accused the West of waging a "Crusader-Zionist" war against Islam, citing the isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian government and the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region as examples.
Anger over the cartoons, which a Danish newspaper first published last year, outraged Muslims who consider drawings of the Prophet to be blasphemous.
The caricatures, which were reprinted in several Arab and European newspapers, sparked violent protests in which more than 50 people were killed. Consumers in Muslim countries have also boycotted Danish goods.
Denmark's government has refused to apologize for the cartoons, saying it cannot say sorry on behalf of a free and independent media and that freedom of speech is sacred.
"The insistence of the Danish government to refrain from apologizing and its refusal to punish the criminals and take action to prevent this crime from being repeated... shows that the notions of freedom of speech have no roots, especially when it comes to Muslims," bin Laden said in the tape.
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/D/K/osama_kenny.jpg
keith
04-25-2006, 12:21 PM
Notice difference that in these complaints, nobody dies.
MTV 'Popetown' Ad Draws Complaint
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer
A German conservative leader said Tuesday he has filed a complaint with prosecutors accusing music channel MTV of disparaging Christianity in an ad for its Vatican parody cartoon "Popetown," which depicts the pope as a pogo-stick riding brat.
Joachim Herrmann, a senior official with the Christian Social Union party, said it was inappropriate for MTV to have run magazine ads such as one before Easter that depicted a smiling Christ sitting in an armchair in front of an empty cross, with the slogan "Laugh instead of hanging around."
"Ten days before Easter, it was a particular provocation," Herrmann said.
Michael Grunwald, a spokesman for Berlin prosecutors, said Herrmann's complaint would be evaluated to determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed with an investigation against MTV.
An MTV spokesman was not immediately available for comment, but the station has previously it stands by its decision to air the program in Germany starting May 3, saying though it doesn't appeal to everyone, it "neither disparages nor insults faiths."
The British Broadcasting Corp. originally commissioned the program but decided in 2004 not to show it after protests from church leaders. It was screened last year in New Zealand, despite a church-led campaign against the broadcaster.
"Popetown" has also attracted controversy in Germany ahead of its airing, especially in the heavily Roman Catholic state of Bavaria, where Hermann's party is dominant. The Bavaria-only CSU is part of Germany's governing coalition.
The show features corrupt cardinals, a buxom nun and an infantile pope who bounces around the Vatican on a pogo stick.
By filing his complaint about the ad for the show, Herrmann indicated he wanted to "send a signal" that there would be a fight once the program hits the air.
Catholic bishops in Germany, the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI, have also joined the fray. They have said that they hope that MTV changes its mind about broadcasting the show and that "the religious feelings of Christians in our country will be respected."
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Cartoon Wars are over. We lost. (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/131vamlb.asp)
Video calls for Sea of Blood (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19110195-401,00.html?from=rss)
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/images/danishpaper_weekly_standard_4.jpg
Occupant
05-12-2006, 01:47 PM
Meh. Super-size me, Jihadi boyz....
http://www.jesusandmo.net/page/4/
Hound
05-12-2006, 10:00 PM
http://www.danishmuhammedcartoons.com/Cartoons.html
One of the signs below reads Democracy is Hypocracy? A nice ryhme, but does the guy have a clue? All three signs were obviously writen by the same clown.
Oh, and be sure to love your children while you can(I don't mean that in the way that - oh hell, if your reading this you know the story), because they blow up fast.
Democracy \De*moc"ra*cy\, n.; pl. Democracies. [F.
d['e]mocratie, fr. Gr. dhmokrati`a; dh^mos the people +
kratei^n to be strong, to rule, kra`tos strength.]
1. Government by the people; a form of government in which
the supreme power is retained and directly exercised by
the people.
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/5100/blasph9qb.jpg
keith
05-25-2006, 05:45 PM
The Ice Cream Jihad
For some reason, Harper’s Magazine has suddenly printed an interview that took place last March, with a 27-year old British Muslim who says the “defining moment of his life” occurred when he had a close encounter with ... the dreaded ice cream dessert of blasphemy! I’m Hatin’ It.
Out of his revulsion for the horribly insulting yet undeniably delicious taste treat has come a new sense of purpose. He says he’s going on a jihad to find the person responsible for this atrocity.
And he’s going to “bring this country down.”
The Enlightenment happened at half past 12 a.m. in Burger King, Park Royal. I had ordered my food, and a French guy got talking to me and asked, “Are you Muslim?” He said, “Look at this,” and he showed me the cone. I saw it and I thought, “Wow,” like anyone would. He said, “Turn it around.”
I was thinking of my stomach. I was hungry. I would have loved to eat an ice cream. When I saw it, my mouth fell open. I dropped the ice cream. I canceled my order. That was the defining moment of my life.
The Burger King logo is there in Arabic. “Allah” is spelled exactly how it is there, and the Burger King logo is where the ominah should be. Why, there is no way it could be a coincidence. How can you say it is a spinning swirl? How does it spin on something that is static? You cannot spin it around unless you have a mechanical device. You spin it one direction, to the right, and it is offending a billion people.
I’m not talking about Muslims in the Park Royal vicinity, or in the U.K. I’m talking about globally. Everyone who sees this is going to be offended. If you put a different symbol on there, you’re offending Jews, Christians, Sikhs, or Hindus. I am going to try my best in life, so that these people do not operate in a single Muslim country again, so that we get an apology to every single Muslim on this planet in their language, in their country, on a national TV station: “Sorry. We, as an American company, are sorry. We didn’t mean to offend you.”
What angers me most is that most people, once they have finished with it, they look at it and say, “Nice cone. Nice design. Nice cone design.” They chuck it away. That is disrespectful. Don’t throw it away. Keep it as evidence. A reminder of what these people are doing every single day of our lives.
We showed this to Muslim customers in Burger King and they were disgusted. We went to the manager. “Is this true?” we asked. He said, “Yes, my brother. It is true.” I spoke to two other Pakistani Muslim guys there and they said, “We are sickened.” They were cussing Burger King.
I feel humiliated. I want to humiliate the person who did this to an extent that he never works again. I’m going to make him see that it was the biggest mistake in his life. I want to meet the guy. I want to ask the guy, “What does this mean to you?” then never see his face again.
In a way, I’m glad he did this to me. It has opened my eyes. The fear of God, the love of God, the love of not letting anyone disrespect God. Even though it means nothing to some people and may mean nothing to some Muslims in this country, this is my jihad. I’m not going to rest until I find the person who is responsible. I’m going to bring this country down.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20747_The_Ice_Cream_Jihad#comments
Apparently Zark (http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3801DEC7-8C46-4F8B-B3C4-C5C954715CE3.htm) is somewhat underwhelmed by the lack of Shiite response to the Mohammed cartoons.
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