The Daily Background
| Cartoon Sparks Threats (Explained)
by Arlen Parsa
You might remember that other cartoon that was got the Pentagon’s panties all bunched up recently. Well, this seems to be a week for controversial cartoons I guess. From Washington Post’s Jefferson Morley’s blog:
As European Newspapers republished controversial images of the Muslim prophet Muhammad from a Danish daily, the cultural conflict between the Islamic world and the West over the drawings continued to flare around the world.
And around the world, Muslims continued to take offense. The editor of France Soir was fired today by the paper’s owner, an Egyptian businessman who offered an apology to “the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication.”
[…]
“The cartoons include an image of the Prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, and another portraying him holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle,” according to Agence France-Press. “A third pictured a middle-aged prophet standing in the desert with a walking stick, in front of a donkey and a sunset.”
There was also talk of threats towards the newspapers which published the cartoons originally. It’s not hard to be confused about the level of anger that the publication of these images have raised amoungst Muslims. Some poorly educated people posted in the commments to Morley’s blog entry:
- Why do Muslims whine so much?
- What about when the ragheads burn the flag? Chop off the heads of innocent people? And they get upset over a CARTOON?!?!?!?!?!
- I though the cartoons were funny and appropriate to print.
- is it me , but why is it always muslims against some thing or other ? Print them everywhere !!
These people unfortunately don’t seem to be particularly familiar with the religion of Islam. According to most interperetations of the Koran (the Muslim equivilant of the Bible), visual representations of the prophet Muhammad are strictly not allowed. This is because Muslims traditionally discourage iconic worship. Consider the following from Wikipedia’s Islam article:
No Muslim visual images or depictions of God exist because such artistic depictions may lead to idolatry and are thus disdained. A similar position in Christian theology is termed iconoclasm. Moreover, most Muslims believe that God is incorporeal, making any two- or three- dimensional depictions impossible.
And this, from the Muhammad article:
Even non-iconic representations of Muhammad are traditionally discouraged. From the 16th century, however, Persian and Ottoman art frequently represented Muhammad in miniatures, albeit with his face either veiled, or emanating radiance (see e.g. Siyer-i Nebi). Modern caricatures of Muhammad have caused great controversy and criticism (see Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons for an example).
Now you understand why these are such a big deal. While Christians for instance are used to iconic representations of Jesus Christ– it’s a very differnt situation for Muslims. There are almost no images of their prophet Muhammad in existance, and thus it must have created great pain to have the only ones in existance– such negative (and racist) ones.
By now, I’d guess you’d be itching to see these cartoons (which have subsequently been removed from several websites). While I’m not going to publish them myself (having already had my stint in publishing controversial images, as you might remember), you can find some of them (not sure if it’s all of them) archived here.
Update: Welcome, Washington Post readers! Glad to have you here. If you’re interested in hanging around further, I’d invite you to explore the homepage, or maybe even get a free subscription to this blog, which is updated at least once each day, with political news and insight (usually about 8 times a day, actually).
Update here.
Muhammad cartoon row goes global
For the curious, the cartoons may be seen HERE. This reminds me of the derogatory anti-Catholic cartoon the “celebration of spring at St. Paedophilia’s (Catholic Church) — the annual Running of the Altar Boys.” If you recall, that cartoon (viewable…
Furor Over Cartoons Mocking Muhammad Portends Future Problems
Usually cartoonists like to get a rise out of their readers. It’s no
disgrace for a political cartoonist or caricature artist to learn that a reader threw his cartoon across the room. In fact, sometimes it’s welcomed like a badge of honor….
They shouldn’t have published pictures like that.
In Islam we’re not even allowed to draw pictures of the Prophet peace be upon him.
We dont draw pictures of Jesus or Moses, we respect all the prophets.
We love our prophet peace be upon him.
I’m a bit confused, images of Islamic prophets are “traditionally discouraged.” Yet there have been depictions in Persian and Ottoman art, yet this is not consider blasphemy.
I understand that people can be offended, but why the violence and threats of death? In addition, where in Islam does it say one should kill others with bombs or hacking heads off? Are these acts not offensive and against the will of Allah?
Those who are trying to understand Islam are seeing a confusing picture. Islam has a P.R. problem, and it is up to them to fix it.
As a Dane I am of course extremely upset by the burning of our flag and the torching of our embasies. I am also a bit p….. that we face a real risk of limiting our freedom of expression if we succumb to threats from people who simply do not understand what freedom means. It is impossible to have a meaningful diaglogue with people who seriously believe that our king (who is actually at present a queen) or our Prime Minister - or the “censorship bureau” (which we do not have ) can influence the contents of the daily paper. Let alone sentence someone to death. Amazing.
[…] A little while ago, I wrote about the Muslim cartoon story, explaining why it was so offensive and provoked such anger in Muslims worldwide. In that posting on my website, I explained in detail Islamic tradition and treatment of images of the prophet Muhammad. […]
Harrison, those are a different Muslim. They are Shiite Muslims.
Surely the authors/publishers of the cartoons were non-muslims and therefore not bound by laws of idolatry as muslims are. I think Islam needs to stop the asumption of the infallability and universality of their beliefs and accept that others have the right to their opinions.
I wish to view the cartoons
I would be absolutely infuriated if someone were to publish a similar picture of Christ. The muslims are clearly out of line by resorting to violence, but I think the newspapers must apologize for publishing something that so many people find so deeply offensive. Freedom of expression means you have to accept the consequences of what you say- it is not the freedom to be a total asshole and accept no responsibility for your actions. I think they are just using freedom of the press as a shield for their arrogant behavior.
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Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.
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How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?