kartuune

2006-02-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

EU's Solana tries to ease cartoons crisis on Mideast trip
Mon Feb 13, 12:07 PM ET
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has expressed Europe's respect for Islam on a visit to the Middle East to ease the global crisis over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
Solana met with Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, head of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which is based in the western Saudi city of Jeddah, on Monday.
The OIC chief called for international legislation banning the defamation of religion and prophets, saying Muslims had become the "new Jews of Europe" and being subjected to an assault comparable to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"(In) the
In the European Union' we feel a profound respect yesterday, today and tomorrow, and we never had wanted in any case to offend their feelings," Solana told reporters after the meeting.
"This is not our intention. This has not been our intention, and will not be out intention," he added.
The EU chief was sounding a conciliatory note over the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed that have triggered a wave of violent protests across the Muslim world.
The row, initially sparked by the publication last September in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet, including one with a turban shaped as a bomb, pits defenders of free speech against Muslims who see the cartoons as insulting and blasphemous.
Solana said he had conveyed this message to the OIC chief over the phone but wanted to transmit it in person.
But the head of the pan-Islamic body called upon the EU through the European parliament, to pass legislation to combat what he termed as "Islamophobia" and to implement a code of ethics for journalists that would prohibit insulting or caricaturing religious symbols.
"Unfortunately, what is going on now ... people in the Muslim world are starting to feel this is a new September 11 against them," he said. "Muslims of Europe are taking the place of the Jews before the Second World War."
Solana was evasive about the possibility of passing new legislation in Europe regarding the issue, saying it was covered in the exisiting EU conventions.
"We are trying to do our utmost so that things of this nature cannot be repeated, but you know when you have a very important law saying you shall not kill, people continue killing," he said.
"It's something that you cannot prevent and people do things which are not appropriate."
He nonetheless said one possibility would be to address the issue in the new proposed UN Human Rights Council which would replace the current 53-member Human Rights Commission as part of the reforms of the international body slated for 2006.
"If in the construction of the new council something can be said in that direction ... I would not object to that," he said.
Solana stressed the obligation of all parties, including Arab and Muslim governments, to calm sentiments on the cartoons issue which has led to violent riots across the Muslim world that have killed 13 people and seen the torching of Danish embassies in some countries.
Solana was in Saudi Arabia, which is the home of Islam holiest cites, on the first stop in a five-country Middle East trip mainly aimed at repairing ties strained by the row over the caricatures.
The four-day tour will also take him to Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and
Israel' Solana was to meet with King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal in Riyadh, before flying on to Cairo later Monday.

Aug 29,2005 Denmark tries to act against terrorism

2006-02-08T23:35:00.000-08:00

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Denmark Tries to Act Against Terrorism as Mood in Europe ShiftsLaw Raises Concerns of Civil Libertarians
By Kevin SullivanWashington Post Foreign ServiceMonday, August 29, 2005; A09
COPENHAGEN -- Said Mansour, a slightly built man with a bushy beard, believes Muslims have a right to kill Americans in Iraq because, he said, "This is war; it's not a picnic."
So, he explained in an interview last week, he had no qualms about downloading and burning CDs of Internet videos depicting beheadings in Iraq and speeches by Abu Musab Zarqawi, the terrorist mastermind behind much of the Iraqi insurgency.
Now, Danish police intend to make Mansour, 45, a Moroccan-born Danish citizen, the first person ever charged under an anti-terrorism law enacted in 2002 that forbids instigation of terrorism or offering advice to terrorists. Police sources said Mansour would probably be charged for distributing CDs that contained the inflammatory jihadist speeches and gruesome images.
The law contains curbs on free speech that are remarkable in a country famous for tolerating all points of view. It illustrates how democracies across Europe are adopting tougher measures in an era of rising extremist violence, despite protests that civil liberties are being sacrificed in the process.
The 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people, and the London bombings last month, which killed 56 people, including the four bombers, have added new urgency to the issue.
"We have to look at reality," said Rikke Hvilshoj, Denmark's minister of refugee, immigration and integration affairs, noting that some have abused Denmark's free speech guarantees to encourage violence and killing. "The day we don't have freedom of speech, the fundamentalists have won," she said. "On the other hand, we can't be naive."
Experts said the debate about how to balance anti-terrorism protections with individual freedoms is at the top of the agenda for European nations. The issue is particularly acute in Denmark, Italy and Poland -- which have troops in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led military coalition and fear they could be the next target -- and in Spain, following the train attacks there.
"The mood has shifted in Europe more toward security than it was before the London bombings," said Daniel Keohane, senior research fellow at the Center for European Reform in London. "The Europeans have always been very nervous about infringing on civil liberties. But when you experience terrorism, it changes your views."
France, with Europe's largest Muslim community -- 6 million people -- has just announced plans to strengthen its anti-terror laws, already among Europe's strongest. Britain now plans to ban or deport those who incite terrorism, close bookshops or places of worship used by radical groups and criminalize speech that "foments, justifies or glorifies" terrorism.
Human rights groups and Muslim civic leaders called those measures too broad.
"What may be seen as a glorification of terrorism by one person might be seen as an explanation of the causes of terrorism by another person," said Azzam Tamimi, a senior leader of the Muslim Association of Britain.
Some political activists here said their government was trampling free speech guarantees contained in the Danish constitution.
"They have crossed the line," said Naser Khader, 42, a Syrian-born member of Parliament who has been a vocal critic of Muslim extremists. "The society must be open and free. If you close it and make a lot of restrictions, the terrorists get what they want."
But a recent survey found that 80 percent of Danes supported the new laws to battle terrorism and control immigration. In Britain, 73 percent of people polled by the Guardian newspaper in mid-August said that they were willing to give up some civil liberties to improve security.
"The terror is getting closer," said Morten Messerschmidt, a member of Parliament from the strongly anti-immigration Danish People's Party. "First it was D.C. and New York, then Madrid and now London. Who's next? There's no doubt we are in a potential threat situation, and that scares people."
Messerschmidt said curbing free speech was "very tough and emotional to do in England or Denmark or any other country that respects freedom, but it's out of necessity." He said a terror attack in Denmark was inevitable. "You'd have to live in a fantasy world to think it won't happen here."
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen ordered a review of national laws governing security and civil liberties immediately after the London bombings. "We must not have a police state and a surveillance society," he said in a recent radio broadcast. "But we must not be overindulgent either."
Many European countries have long had laws banning racist hate speech, an outgrowth of their experiences with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. But analysts said Denmark's new speech law, part of a package of anti-terror laws enacted in the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was at the forefront of tougher European laws. The law banning instigation of terrorism carries a penalty of up to six years in prison.
Denmark's anti-terror laws also ban financing of radical groups and give police new powers to electronically eavesdrop on suspected radicals. Danish intelligence officers have also increased what Hans Jorgen Bonnichsen, commander of the Danish Security Intelligence Service, called "preventive talks" with potential radicals.
In an interview, Bonnichsen said his officers conduct close surveillance of suspected radicals and occasionally let them know they are being watched in order to disrupt their activities. He said intelligence officers work closely with Danish universities to monitor foreign-born students and watch for suspicious activity.
"Three years ago, people thought it was terrifying what Denmark was doing," said Hvilshoj, the immigration affairs minister. But with the shifting mood in Europe, she said, "that has changed. People are looking at Denmark differently."
In Denmark, as in much of Europe, fears of terrorism are often intertwined with concerns about immigration, particularly the immigration of Muslims. There are about 15 million Muslims living in the 25 countries of the European Union. Roughly 200,000 of Denmark's 5.4 million people are Muslim.
Rasmussen's right-leaning government was elected in November 2001, riding a wave of popular anger about rising immigration. Nearly overnight, the government reversed Denmark's generous immigration policies, tightening requirements for asylum-seekers and for foreign residents trying to bring in spouses.
Many Muslims in Demark see racist motives in the government's policies.
"The Danes have a fear of disappearing into the bigger European ocean," said Ahmed Abu Laban, one of Denmark's most prominent imams. "They have made immigrants pay the price. Muslims have become the scapegoat. They think we will undermine their culture and their values."
But police officials said racism had nothing to do with their plan to charge Mansour under the instigation law.
Mansour, who arrived for an interview in long Muslim robes and sandals, insisted on praying before speaking to a journalist.
He said he had come to Denmark in 1983 to join a sister who lived here. He married a Danish woman the next year; they now have four children who attend public schools. His wife is a public school teacher, but Mansour said he was unemployed and collected a monthly government welfare benefit of about $1,800.
Mansour described leading an active life in Danish Muslim circles, distributing audio recordings and videotapes of peaceful Islamic songs and stories. He denied being a violent radical, although he said he was "happy" about the Sept. 11 attacks and admitted he maintained relationships with well-known radicals from other countries.
He said he had been close friends with Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the cleric who was convicted in connection with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. He said Abdel Rahman stayed at his house twice on visits to Denmark.
Mansour also said he was in contact with two men whom authorities have described as aiding or inspiring the Sept. 11 attacks. One was Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric who was convicted in Jordan of several bomb attacks; tapes of his speeches were found in the German apartment used by several Sept. 11 attackers. The other was Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, a Syrian accused in Spain of giving money and support to the Sept. 11 attackers.
Mansour said he was aware that the police intend to bring charges against him. But he said that knowing people who had been convicted of crimes was not illegal and that passing out material downloaded from the Internet shouldn't be, either.
"Everybody can do it," he said, asserting that Danish officials are "just trying to show the Americans they are against terrorism. They don't have anybody, so they are using me."
© 2005 The Washington Post Company

Danish Muslims "Internationalize" Anti-Prophet Cartoons
"This is not a case of freedom of expression," averred Abu Laban.
By Ayman Qenawi, IOL Staff
COPENHAGEN, November 18, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The Muslim minority in Denmark will send delegations to a number of Muslim countries to meet with senior officials and prominent scholars on the provocative caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) recently published by Denmark's main daily.
"A delegation will visit Cairo to meet with Arab League Secretary Amr Moussa and Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi," Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, a prominent Muslim figure in Denmark, told IOL Friday, November 18.
He added that Moussa has been informed of the visit, citing contacts with his secretary to schedule a meeting.
The Muslim leader further said that Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni world, has been notified of the forthcoming visit.
"The delegation will also visit Saudi Arabia and Qatar to meet with renowned Muslim scholar Sheikh Yussef Al-Qaradawi," said Abu Laban, the imam of the Scandinavian Waqfs mosque.
Twelve drawings depicting Prophet Muhammad in different settings appeared in Denmark's largest circulation daily Jyllands-Posten September 30.
In one of the drawings, the Prophet appeared with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.
The images, considered blasphemous under Islam, have drawn rebuke from the Muslim minority especially with the paper's adamancy to apologize on the ground of freedom of expression.
Muslims Worldwide
"We want to internationalize this issue so that the Danish government would realize that the cartoons were not only insulting to Muslims in Denmark but also to Muslims worldwide," said Abu Laban.
"It was decided to take such a step because it is wrong to turn a blind eye to the fact that some European countries discriminate against their Muslims on the grounds that they are not democratic and that they can not understand western culture."
He added that this strategy has been agreed upon by organizations representing Pakistani, Turkish and Arab Muslims in Denmark.
"There are more than 1.3 billion Muslims and scores of Muslim organizations worldwide. We belong to the same faith and share the same vision."
Abu Laban made it clear that the ultimate aim was for Muslims in the West "to have a normal life and to have a correct global and European vision of Islam"
The cartoon issue, which is already causing diplomatic tension with some Muslim countries will be high on the agenda of the upcoming Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia.
The ambassadors of eleven Arab and Muslim countries, including Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Indonesia, have written a letter to Danish Premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen to protest the caricatures and demand an official apology from the newspaper.
Rasmussen said in a written reply that he would not intervene in the affair, on the grounds of freedom of expression, but said the diplomats were free to undertake legal proceedings.
Mobilizing Danes
Muslim volunteers inside the Scandinavian Waqfs complex.
Abu Laban stressed that Muslims in Denmark will also try to mobilize support for their case among Danes.
"The government has been busy with the issue of municipal elections and any protest would have fallen on deaf ears."
The Liberal-Conservative coalition, which came to power in 2001, and relay on the anti-immigrants People's Party for the parliamentary majority, has not done so well in the polls.
The pro-immigrants Social Democrats has won more than 40 percent of possible mayoral posts in the country's local elections, including in the two biggest cities.
"We will be organizing seminars and sending messages to as many newspapers as possible," said the Muslim leader.
"We are not quite sure how much cooperation we will get but hope to be able to make our case to the Danish society.
In mid-October, as many as 5,000 Muslims demonstrated in Copenhagen against the paper and the drawings.
Danish Muslims are estimated at 180,000 or around 3 per cent of Denmark's 5.4 million.
Islam is Denmark's second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church, which is actively followed by four-fifths of the country's population.
Provocative
The Muslim leader lashed out at Jyllands-Posten's claim that the publishing of the cartoons was only a case of freedom of expression.
"I told a reporter from the newspaper that they have cheated the people because they did not open a debate."
He stressed that the cartoons were meant as an insult to and provocation of Muslims.
"We have fled our countries because we were denied freedom of expression so no one should play this tune with us.
"This is not a case of freedom of expression," averred Abu Laban.

http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-11/18/article02.shtml

Anti-Prophet Danish Cartoons on OIC Summit Agenda
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Muslim leaders will debate the blasphemous cartoons during their Makkah summit.
COPENHAGEN, November 5, 2005 (IslamONline.net & News Agencies) –Caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) recently published in Denmark's main daily, which have triggered an outcry among Muslims in Denmark and abroad, will be high on the agenda of the upcoming Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia.
"We have been informed by our foreign minister that this caricature affair will be on the agenda at a special summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference," Mohab Nasr Mostafa Mahdy, Egypt's deputy ambassador, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"This is a collective initiative taken by the Islamic Conference (OIC) and Egypt played a leading role," he maintained.
Twelve drawings depicting Prophet Muhammad in different settings appeared in Denmark's largest circulation daily Jyllands-Posten on September 30.
In one of the drawings, the Prophet appeared with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.
The images, considered blasphemous under Islam, have drawn criticism from across the Muslim minority in Denmark, with religious leaders insisting they are an insult to the prophet and calling for an official apology.
No Cooperation
Egypt's ambassador in Beirut, Hussein Darrar, said Wednesday he and Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh had discussed which measures to take against Denmark over the cartoons.
"We have asked the Danish government to take measures, but have not received a response to our request.
"As a result, we have decided not to continue talks with Denmark on the issue of human rights and discrimination and other measures concerning Denmark's" agenda within international bodies, Darrar told reporters.
Sources close to the Danish foreign ministry insist that the ministry has never received such a request.
The ambassadors of Pakistan, Iran, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Indonesia and a number of Arab countries have written a letter to Danish Premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen to say they were offended by the caricatures and demanded an official apology from the newspaper.
Rasmussen said in a written reply that he would not intervene in the affair, on the grounds of freedom of expression, but said the diplomats were free to undertake legal proceedings.
Danish Muslims are estimated at 180,000 or around 3 per cent of Denmark's 5.4 million.
Islam is Denmark's second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church, which is actively followed by four-fifths of the country's population.

2006-02-08T23:19:00.000-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8959820

2006-02-08T22:47:00.000-08:00

The Jyllands-Posten cartoons do not include some images that may have had a role in bringing the issue to international attention.

Three images in particular have done the rounds, in Gaza for example, which are reported to be considerably more obscene and were mistakenly assumed to have been part of the Jyllands-Posten set.

One of the pictures, a photocopied photograph of a man with a pig's ears and snout, has been identified as an old Associated Press picture from a French "pig-squealing" contest.

It was reportedly circulated by Danish Muslims to illustrate the atmosphere of Islamophobia which they say they live under.

The fake picture circulating in the middle east and atributed to Danish Cartoonists.

bbc news

The picture above did acompannied the following story:

TRIE-SUR-BAISE, France - Yohann and Olivier Roussel's performance climaxed in a cacophony of oinks and grunts, unleashing an explosion of applause.

But it was only after lengthy jury deliberations that their hopes were confirmed — the father-and-son team were France's official Pig-Squealing Champions for 2005.

The judges, headed by a former champion, had been impressed by their vocal imitations of pigs in all four of the required categories, reflecting key milestones of porcine existence: from noisy farmyard birth to death under the knife, via suckling and — inevitably — mating
France's handful of "fetes folles," or crazy festivals, attract a regular cult following and throngs of incredulous holidaymakers. One fete features an acclaimed lying contest; another boasts a distance spitting competition.

But the annual Pig Festival and French Pig-Squealing Championships in Trie-sur-Baise, a remote farming village in the foothills of the Pyrenees, are acknowledged to be in a class of their own.

Besides the pig-squealing, there were awards in the Sunday competition for pigging out — this year's winner ate nearly 4 feet of blood sausage in under five minutes — and heavy gambling on the final eight-piglet race.

Stepping up to the microphone in hastily improvised pig outfits — the decision to enter the competition had been taken only the night before — the Roussels let rip with a chorus of uncannily realistic squeals, grunts and snuffles before the 500-strong audience, topped with a delicately choreographed courtship scene.

First prize: a butchered pig
Newcomers to the contest from nearby Pouy-Loubrin, they beat off six other finalists including regular contender Jean-Paul Louge. But the pair modestly downplayed their win as they waited to collect first prize: a whole pig, butchered and cured with traditional local methods.

"We still have work to do to perfect the pig act," said Olivier, 40, his 20-year-old son Yohann nodding agreement. "But after that, who knows? Why not try some other animals?"

Louge, who placed sixth, was equally gracious in defeat, stressing that the contest was just a bit of fun. "I don't train for this," he said. "It comes naturally."

Contestants and spectators travel to the Pig Festival from across the country and beyond; in past years, its antics have also been witnessed by television viewers in countries from Germany to Korea.

"You are Entering Pig Country," road signs advise motorists on the main approaches to the village, home to 1,100 people.

For most of the year, however, that's just a sad anachronism. Once the region's economic backbone, pig farming has industrialized, globalized and moved elsewhere. The old pig market, one of France's largest with up to 7,500 animals sold daily until the decline took root in the late 1970s, now stands silent.

Hog overload
But one Sunday every August, this corner of France's deep south becomes the heart of Pig Country once again. Bunting and pig-themed posters adorn trees and roadsides. Local waitresses all sport pig tails — and not the kind you wear on your head.

"The Pig Festival came about to stop us forgetting about our past," said Jean-Claude Theze, an ex-farmer who now runs one of the cafes in Trie-sur-Baise.

The village offers as good a symbol as any of modern France's agricultural underbelly and the fierce struggle waged by its rural communities to hold onto identities and livelihoods.

Faced with a collapse in pork prices, some farmers have moved into beef and higher-value black pigs, which can't be produced so intensively. Tourism has also become an important earner.

The villagers are not letting the championship's global exposure go to their heads, Theze said.

"We know it's being held up to ridicule," he said. "We take it all as a joke. It's about spreading a bit of happiness, that's all — we just hope people might come back another day."

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

TRIE-SUR-BAISE, France - Yohann and Olivier Roussel's performance climaxed in a cacophony of oinks and grunts, unleashing an explosion of applause.

But it was only after lengthy jury deliberations that their hopes were confirmed — the father-and-son team were France's official Pig-Squealing Champions for 2005.

The judges, headed by a former champion, had been impressed by their vocal imitations of pigs in all four of the required categories, reflecting key milestones of porcine existence: from noisy farmyard birth to death under the knife, via suckling and — inevitably — mating

The end of civilization was actually a joke

2006-02-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

The end of civilization was actually a joke

Kathleen Parker, Tribune Media Services
Published February 8, 2006

What if the world went up in a mushroom cloud over a cartoon--or because of a photograph of some reveler dressed up like a pig?

Well, of course, that would be absurd, a comedy, a Clouseauean flick about a bumbling inspector, right? No, that would be a documentary about the end of civilization circa 2006--unless we come to our senses.

The cartoon implosion now rocking the Muslim world--featuring embassy burnings, threats of Sept. 11, 2001, sequels and the Arab street equivalent of the Terrible Twos--is based on equal parts fake photographs and a default riot mode looking for an excuse. Extreme propaganda on one side and a lack of fortitude on the other have brought us near the brink of extinction through a global act of accidental self-mockery.

The world isn't mad over cartoons; the world is a cartoon.

The dozen Danish drawings everyone by now has heard about--but not necessarily seen, thanks to our own media's sanctimonious sensitivity to insanity--were mild by modern satirical standards. In brief, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September published 12 cartoons that depicted Muhammad in various poses. The worst of them showed the Prophet wearing a bomb-turban.

One after another, American editors have explained their decision not to run the images for fear of offending American Muslims. Never mind that the same papers, notably the Boston Globe, felt no such compunction in the past when they defended "Piss Christ," a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine. Or the Virgin Mary covered in feces.

Meanwhile, querulous Americans still reliant on traditional media are left in the kind of darkness admired by Islamic states. How are they to debate and make a judgment about the cartoons without seeing them?

They can go to the blogosphere.

The Internet is now the only place Americans can view the cartoons and, as a bonus, learn that much of the outrage now seething through the Middle East was stoked not by the cartoons in question, but by three bogus photographs circulated by the (peace-loving) Islamic Society of Denmark. A spokesman for the group said it circulated the photos to demonstrate Denmark's Islamophobia.

Except that the photographs weren't published in Denmark or elsewhere on terra firma. One of them, allegedly depicting Muhammad dressed like a pig, is in fact a photo of Frenchman Jacques Barrot as he participated in last August's annual French Pig-Squealing Championships in Trie-sur-Baise. And that's no joke.

The pig photograph, lifted from an MSNBC story, is posted at neanderNews.com, where other blogs (Gateway Pundit and Counter Terrorism Blog) are also credited with reporting the photoscam. The other photos (origins unknown), including one of a man dressed in Arab garb being mounted by a dog, are the sort of images bored college students Photoshop in dorm rooms late at night.

Whether Islamophobia inspired any of these images is a question for documentarians to explore. Meanwhile, fear for our future is an appropriate response to mass insanity. But potentially more dangerous is our own cowardice in declining to address madness.

Instead, we kneel in apology for our own hard-won principles. Newspapers especially deserve contempt for their spineless refusal to deal honestly with this controversy. Instead of publishing the cartoons and explaining why free expression is central to the West's survival, editors with few exceptions have swaddled themselves in the blankie of "sensitivity."

Kudos and curtsies to Philadelphia Inquirer editor Amanda Bennett, who published one of the cartoons along with a story about the controversy. For her trouble, she has been visited by Muslim protesters who promise to return if the paper doesn't apologize. Bennett deserves not just congratulations, but solidarity from other newspapers that have a fresh opportunity to prove their mettle.

Incensed Iranians are preparing to lob a few cartoon bombs of their own with a Holocaust cartoon competition. Fine. All comers are welcome to the free-speech fray. Far better that we wage the war of ideas with words and images than with bombs and bullets.

That's the beauty of free expression, in honor of which--and as an opportunity to teach--American newspapers surely will print the Iranian cartoons. Won't they?

----------

Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, a Tribune newspaper. E-mail: kparker@kparker.com

Mohammed Cartoons In Egyptian Newspaper

2006-02-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Mohammed Cartoons In Egyptian Newspaper

The Arab Street is rioting, burning embassies and calling for beheadings and assasinations because it is outraged that Western secular liberalism is insensitive to an Islamic religious tradition: The sacrilege of depicting the Prophet Muhammed in an image.

Damn you and your valued press freedoms, they say, your free speech rights. You have doubly blasphemed our beloved Prophet (PBUH) by physically representing him in a cartoon and by characterizing him as a terrorist when you placed a bomb where his blessed turban should be.

Well, where was the Muslim outrage, the mass fury, when Adel Hamouda's independent Egyptian newspaper, Al Fagr, published the cartoons four months ago? Why was Jyllands Posten's Fleming Rose and not Al-Fagr's Hamouda condemned by a President in Tehran, a cleric in a mosque or a Muslim in the street?

Because of the jihadist "revenge fantasy."

Nibras Kazimi explains:

"There is a dark spiritual effervescence that sputters out periodically from the Middle East in fits of mayhem stemming from a revenge fantasy that has been festering for 300 years. It gets couched in convenient "us" versus "them" diatribes to explain away failure, whereby the eternal enemy is the Christian West - besting the Muslim East for several centuries on the battlefield and in all walks of life, and actively subjugating it.

"But is it logical that a cartoonist would be able to shake Islam to its foundations? Why would a great faith be so quick to anger when provoked by so insignificant a stimulus? There is no logic to it. If Arabs were thinking logically, then they would have deduced that their boycott of Danish goods is ridiculous given that Denmark probably exports more stuff that the whole club of Arab countries combined, if one discounts fossil fuels. But Denmark is part of the West, and its flag a representation of the crucifix. Torching its embassies and canceling trade contracts provide an opportunity to show some flex yet in the Muslim spiritual muscle.

"Furthermore, radicalism is being actively bankrolled, and its message disseminated, by advancing technology. Today, with chat rooms and text messaging, mobs can be coordinated and incited to riot after watching inflammatory images on Saudi-owned satellite channels. Hamas and Hezbollah, flush with Iranian petrodollars, can build clinics and schools, while American and European taxpayer money arriving as aid disappears into corrupt pockets. Secular democrats counseling moderation and taking a hard look at the wretched state of affairs - the potholes in the streets and potbellies behind idle desks - are drowned out by cries of jihad propagated in part by autocratic regimes that put this battlecry to use in distracting the masses from their real problems."

The two Egyptian bloggers at Egyptian Sandmonkey and Freedom for Egyptians cannot be credited enough for introducing the Al Fagr factor into the cartoon war.

More here on Al Fagr's Adel Hamouda and Egypt's "new, emerging political climate that is the direct result of increasing domestic calls for democracy, change and reform." Blame it on Bush.
Posted 5:49 PM by Robert

Freedom for Egyptians: Egyptian Newspaper Pictures that Published Cartoons 5 months ago

2006-02-08T21:39:00.000-08:00

Freedom for Egyptians: Egyptian Newspaper Pictures that Published Cartoons 5 months ago

Freedom For Egypt Blog

2006-02-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

Freedom For Egypt Blog- Click Here

2006-02-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

(QUOTE)

SOURCE : BLOG FREEDOM FOR EGYPTIANS

Cartoons were Published Five Months ago in Egypt

The whole world is mesmerized by this big campaign against Denmark. I have mentioned before that an Egyptian newspaper published the Danish Cartoons from Jyllands-Posten. Why after five months the feelings of the Egyptians and Muslims are suddenly inflamed? I am trying to get images for the reportage, but here are the details of this paper for those who can check it:
Name: Al Fager الفجر
Editor-in-Chief: Adel Hamouda عادل حمودة
Edition/issuance no. #: 21
Date: 17 October 2005, Hijri (Islamic Calendar) 14 Ramadan 1425
Reporters: Youssra Zahran and Ahmed Abdel Maksoud
يسرا زهران وأحمد عبد المقصود
Pages: Front & 17 for details and images
The headline in Arabic said : الوقاحة المستمرة. السخرية من الرسول وزوجاته بالكاريكاتير
Translation: Continued Boldness. Mocking the Prophet and his wife by Caricature.

The Egyptian paper critcized the bad taste of the cartoons but it did not incite hatred protests so what is happening now? BTW, it is not my idea to bring the details of this Egyptian paper, it is Gateway Pundit’s. I think it is important to reveal that the timing of this outrage is irrelevant. It would have been better that this holy war against Denmark be launched during the holy month of Ramadan as many Muslims believe that Jihad during Ramadan would have been more worthy.

This irrelevant outrage timing is but a sign that this violent response to the cartoons is politically-motivated by Muslim extremists in Europe and the so-called secular governments of the Middle East. I want also to mention that despite the fact that all editors who tried to reprint the cartoons in the Middle East nowadays were arrested, the Egyptian editors went unharmed. I will try to get the pages of the paper scanned.

2006-02-08T21:13:00.000-08:00

2006-02-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

In the blog Freedom For Egyptians I found that the Cartoons were already published in Egypt last October.

http://freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com/2006/02/egyptian-newspaper-pictures-that.html

BBC What the Muhammad cartoons portray

2006-02-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

To see BBC page What the BBC Cartoons portray , click here

What the Muhammad cartoons portray (BBC )

2006-02-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

Click here to see the BBC webpage

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The cartoons that are having a huge impact in the world originally appeared in the best-selling Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September to accompany an editorial criticising self-censorship in the Danish media.

Since then some media outlets have republished the pictures in solidarity, while others - including the BBC - have refrained from publishing them to avoid causing offence to their audiences.

The issue arose after Danish writer Kare Bluitgen complained he was unable to find an illustrator for his children's book about the Prophet, because no one wanted to break an Islamic tenet banning the portrayal of his image.

We are on our way to a slippery slope where no-one can tell how the self-censorship will end

Jyllands-Posten editorial
Jyllands-Posten asked cartoonists to "draw the Prophet as they saw him", as an assertion of free speech and to reject pressure by Muslims groups to respect their sensitivities.

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