Why in the world would the Danish newspaper print the cartoons anyway? It turns out that it all came about because no one was willing to illustrate a children's story about Mohammed! Here is part of the story I read:
Last year the Danish writer Kare Bluitgen had been searching for someone who could illustrate his children's book about the life of the prophet Muhammad. It soon became clear, however, that nobody wanted the job, through fear of antagonising Muslim feelings about images of Muhammad.
One artist turned down the commission on the grounds that he didn't want to suffer the same grisly fate as Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film-maker stabbed to death by an Islamist fanatic. Two others also declined. "They were worried," Mr Bluitgen said, adding: "Eventually someone agreed to do it anonymously."
Mr Bluitgen's trouble prompted several Danish newspapers, including the best-selling Jyllands-Posten (Jutland Post), to begin a debate. How far should Denmark go down the road of self-censorship? And was freedom of speech more important than Muslim sensitivities?
On September 30 the paper's editor, Carsten Juste, launched his own provocative experiment, commissioning and publishing 12 cartoonists who had come up with their own satirical drawings of the prophet Muhammad.
The results were mixed. Most weren't very funny. One was clearly offensive, depicting a bearded Muhammad with his turban transformed into a fizzing bomb. Another showed a queue of ragged suicide bombers arriving in heaven, only for Muhammad to tell them: "Stop, stop, we've run out of virgins." Either way, the drawings were to set a fuse that would eventually ignite across the Arab world, sparking protests in the Middle East, and plunging Denmark into one of the most serious diplomatic crises in its history.
And look what happened! First the protests were local. Some of the cartoonists were threatened. Then it turned into an international to-do when Danish imams took copies of the cartoons to the middle east. The Danish Prime Minister tried to lessen the damage by expressing his regret to Muslim people. What happened? The European press went crazy because they felt the Danish were "caving in".
On Wednesday, France Soir republished the caricatures under the defiant headline: "Yes, We Have the Right to Caricature God" - a gesture that led to the sacking of the paper's editor the next day. Separately, Germany's Die Welt slapped the turban-bomb Muhammad cartoon on its front page.
"It's the core of our culture that the most sacred things can be subjected to criticism, laughter and satire," Roger Köppel, Die Welt's editor-in-chief, told the Guardian. The Arab world was guilty of "hypocrisy", the paper said. Other newspapers in Italy, Spain and Switzerland - though not Britain - followed suit. The consequences were most vivid in the West Bank where dozens of masked Palestinian gunmen stormed the EU's building in the Gaza strip, standing on the roof next to the EU's starry blue flag. The gunmen also seized a 21-year-old German from a Nablus hotel. He was later released.
There were ominous reverberations too in Iraq. Radical Islamists pronounced a fatwa against the 500-strong Danish garrison in southern Iraq; there were fresh attacks on churches in Baghdad and Kirkuk. The fate of two German engineers kidnapped last month is unclear.
Denmark and Norway are advising their citizens to get out of Syria.
This has really gotten way out of hand.
You know, the Muslim countries could decide not to just boycott and burn out the Norwegians (hey, what did they do wrong?) and the Danish. What if they turned around and said to the rest of the world, condemn these cartoons or no more oil? Condemn these cartoons or no more diplomatic relations? Would they? If religious fanatics were in charge, I bet they would.
All of this upset has been going on since September 30! It shouldn't have turned into such a big ugly ordeal.
Geesh! No wonder no one wanted to illustrate Mr. Buitjen's book!
This is from last week's Saturday Six:
1. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?
That would be my hubby, when he had an infected abig toe
2. How many jobs have you held in your life? How many of those were part of your chosen career field?
Let's see...too many to count. The reason is because most of them has been as an interpreter for the deaf. I "freelanced" for 24 years but then also held down part time jobs with school districts and other places over the years as well.
3. Of those, how many did you leave voluntarily?
All of them
4. Take this quiz (if you haven't already!): What animal were you in a past life? (Thanks to RedSneakz!)
A Wolf! "You have an instinctual intelligence that guides your life.
Your family and "pack" is of primary importance, and you protect them."
5. What animal were you expecting you'd be?
A cat...and I bet if I took the quiz often enough, I would be! It keeps changing! First I was a rabbit, then a polar bear and then a wolf--all with the same birthdate!
6. Time to pull this tactic again: Your turn to come up with a Reader's Choice Question. What question would you like to see asked in a future edition of "The Saturday Six?" (Don't answer it...just provide the question.)
Well, now I'm wondering if we need to be censoring our publications to be "sensitive" to other cultures. Should we?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment