A few months ago a paper in Denmark called Jyllands Posten published 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed, despite the fact that the Koran forbids depictions of said prophet. A firestorm was set off, as the Daily Mail reports:

PARIS -- After fiery protests in the Middle East, a near-total Arab boycott of Danish products, a storm of diplomatic protests and death threats against its journalists, a Copenhagen-based newspaper apologized for publishing provocative caricatures of Islam's Prophet, Mohammed...

When a conservative Norwegian magazine reprinted the cartoons early last month, though, the issue took on new life. Anger suddenly reverberated across the Middle East, with condemnation of Denmark and Norway coming from the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Arab governments.

Naturally, the first thing I wanted to do was see the cartoons. The Daily Mail article described them as "drawn by different artists who portrayed Mohammed in the same broad strokes that many Western newspapers and magazines have come to use as shorthand for terrorists."

A couple of the cartoons are exactly that. For example:

Way to go, Kurt Westergaard. On the other hand, Poul Erik Poulsen's caricature was hardly a caricature:

Wow, doesn't the prophet look bloodthirsty? And then there's Bob Katzennelson—it wasn't Muhammed his cartoon was taking a shot at:

So those are the cartoons that have sparked massive boycotts, protests, bomb threats, recalled diplomats...this is what prompted Bill Clinton himself to wonder "Are we heading to replace anti-Semitism with anti-Islam?" This!

Offensive? Maybe. A violation of Koranic by-laws? Sure. But the new Mein Kampf? What the hell?

We know—know—that this doesn't happen when people make fun of Jesus; nor when people violate the Second Commandment. So if our right to free speech supersedes the highly unlikely claims of a 2,000-year-old book, why in Allah's name is it subservient to the equally dubious restrictions in a 1,400-year-old sequel?

We don't have to REPLACE anti-Semitism with anti-Islam. We can just add it on. Clinton underestimate the capacity of humans to hate. - UT lover

Posted by  Anonymous @ 7:25 PM

 

How many anti-Semetic (Jewish semites, not Arab semites) cartoons would you guess have been published in Arab newspapers in the past few year? For that matter how many have been published that Christians would find offensive. - Just Wondering in UT

Posted by  Anonymous @ 7:26 PM

 

I regret to inform that the CoffeeGarden on 9th and 9th is no longer open due to a lease issue. Don't know whether or where it will reopen as yet. - GUY

Posted by  Anonymous @ 6:24 PM

 

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