Cartoon Chaos

The outrage of the Muslim street over the publishing of 12 cartoons depicting Mohammed is about to heat up today. Several other papers will show their support of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and freedom of the press by republishing those cartoons. Since I don’t wish to offend any of my readers I won’t run the cartoons but the curious can see them here. Why this is important can be summed up in a cartoon by Day by Day's Chris Muir:


It’s one thing to object to something because you find it offensive, quite another to threaten, kidnap and kill because you find something offensive. We call them Islamofascists for a reason, they will never tolerate our freedoms; freedom of religion, expression, the press, even Democracy are all forbidden in their brand of Islam. Those who say we must find out why the terrorists hate us need look no further than the tolerance they show for anything that does not fit their dogma. The Paris daily France Soir, German Die Welt, Italian La Stampa, Spanish El Periodico and Dutch Volkskrant have all defied the attempts by these fascists to dictate what we can or cannot see.

As usual the blogs are all over this. In Egypt Sandmonkey says those countries must also be boycotted by Muslims or else be labeled hypocrites.

A boycott isn't so easy to advocate when you are dealing with countries whose main exports are not butter, cheese and Lego NOW IS IT? Especially when it comes to your precious Mercedeses and Beemers huh?

Saudi blogger The Religious Policeman sees a conspiracy by the Royal family.

As Your Majesty requested recently, in order to divert public attention from the regrettable demise of a small number of pilgrims in Makkah during the last Hajj, Saudi newspapers were instructed to revive the four-month-old story of cartoons about the Prophet (PBUH) in a Danish newspaper, and turn it into an attack on Denmark, together with a "spontaneous demand by the people" for a boycott of Danish goods.

That is probably not too far fetched. Freedom for Egyptians points out:

I wonder why Muslims do not get so fervent about a dying patient for the lack of medicine, about a corrupt government that is stealing all their money and leaving them in shit, about the right to enjoy life in freedom protected by the laws and legislation, about bribing police and traffic officers to cancel contraventions, about more than one million street children in Egypt abused by the people everyday, about injustice in general…the list so long to continue.

It’s a common tactic by tyrannical regimes to misdirect the public’s attention on them by stirring up passions against someone else. What I find perplexing is that this can be so easily done in the Muslim world and over something so silly as a cartoon.

Updates:

Big Pharaoh reports that a Jordanian paper "Shayhan" published 3 of the cartoons and urged Muslims to think rationally. Hours later, the owners of the weekly said they had fired its editor and withdrawn the issue from sale, and the government threatened legal action.

The hypocrisy is amazing. Here we see the reaction to a few cartoons.

Here we see the reaction to 9/11.

Here they get tied together.

I don’t mean to dump on all Muslims here, the bloggers above are Middle Easterners that understand the lunacy of the Muslim street's reaction to the cartoons. But moderate Muslims have to get some control over their religion or anti-Muslim sentiment will only continue to grow with the mainstream Muslims suffering the consequences. What hurts Islam more, a few irreverent cartoons or Islamists cutting off the heads of Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia? Warning that link has a very graphic picture that is truly offensive, but illustrates the point that you have to give other religions respect in order to get it. Hamas can occupy and desecrated the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and win elections. But let word get out that a Koran has been flushed and out comes the Muslim street’s outrage. Bibles aren’t even allowed in Saudi Arabia. Islamists are persecuting and killing Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, animists, moderate Muslims and others, in Algeria, Pakistan, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Sudan, Somalia, and Nigeria. Where’s the respect?

Other ME developments. As expected Sandmonkey hasn’t gotten anyone to boycott French, Italian, or German products. Atlas Shrugs notes how three fake cartoons were added to make sure Muslims were really offended.

The organisation Islamic Society in Denmark toured the Middle-East to create awareness about the cartoons, bringing 3 additional images, which HAD NEVER been published in any media source. Evidently, the originals were not offensive enough for the trip so they had to add these three:
The first of the three additional pictures, which are of poor quality, shows Muhammad as a pedophile demon. The second shows Muhammed with a pig snout. The third depicts a praying Muslim being raped by a dog.

Which begs the question, will the Islamic Society in Denmark be put on a death fatwa?

Linked at Basil's Blog