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Europe
Muhammad cartoon row intensifies
2006-02-02
Newspapers across Europe have reprinted caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to show support for a Danish paper whose cartoons have sparked Muslim outrage. Seven publications in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain all carried some of the drawings.

The owner of one of the papers to reprint - France Soir - has now sacked its managing editor over the matter.

The cartoons have sparked diplomatic sanctions and death threats in some Arab nations, while media watchdogs have defended publication of the images in the name of press freedom. Reporters Without Borders said the reaction in the Arab world "betrays a lack of understanding" of press freedom as "an essential accomplishment of democracy."
Not that such trifles are important in an Islamic society, of course.
France Soir and Germany's Die Welt were among the leading papers to reprint the cartoons, which first appeared in Denmark last September. The caricatures include drawings of Muhammad wearing a headdress shaped like a bomb, while another shows him saying that paradise was running short of virgins for suicide bombers.

France Soir originally said it had published the images in full to show "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society. But late on Wednesday its owner, Raymond Lakah, said he had removed managing editor Jacques Lefranc "as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual". Mr Lakah said: "We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication."
Somebody in the French government or academia got to him, not that it would especially hard to do so.
The president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), Dalil Boubakeur, had described France Soir's publication as an act of "real provocation towards the millions of Muslims living in France".
"Oh, the millions who will seethe, roll their eyes and set cars on fire! You'd better apologize right now!"
Other papers stood by their publication. In Berlin, Die Welt argued there was a right to blaspheme in the West, and asked whether Islam was capable of coping with satire. "The protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they were less hypocritical," it wrote in an editorial.
That makes too much sense to have been written in Y'urp.
La Stampa in Italy, El Periodico in Spain and Dutch paper Volkskrant also carried some of the drawings.

European Muslims spoke out against the pictures. In Germany, the vice-chairman of the central council of Muslims said Muslims would be deeply offended. "It was done not to defend freedom of the press, but to spite the Muslims," Mohammad Aman Hobohm said.
That's what we call a 'two-fer'.
Correspondents say the European papers' actions have widened a dispute which has grown very serious for Denmark. The publication last September in Jyllands-Posten has provoked diplomatic sanctions and threats from Islamic militants across the Muslim world.

Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller has postponed a trip to Africa because of the dispute. Thousands of Palestinians protested against Denmark this week, and Arab ministers called on it to punish Jyllands-Posten. Syria and Saudi Arabia have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark, while Libya said it was closing its embassy in Copenhagen and Iraq summoned the Danish envoy to condemn the cartoons.

The Danish-Swedish dairy giant Arla Foods says its sales in the Middle East have plummeted to zero as a result of the row, which sparked a boycott of Danish products across the region.
To be balanced by increased sales in the U.S., I hope.
The offices of Jyllands-Posten had to be evacuated on Tuesday because of a bomb threat. The paper had apologised a day earlier for causing offence to Muslims, although it maintained it was legal under Danish law to print them.
Posted by:ryuge

#15  Something I found somewhere...

Posted by: .com   2006-02-02 23:15  

#14  Moham Photoshop Contest In Europe
Posted by: DMFD   2006-02-02 23:02  

#13  Well, I always strive to be clear as mud in my comments :-) #8 was a good example.
Posted by: Rafael   2006-02-02 22:29  

#12  sorry I snarked - I apologize - it made no sense whatsoever. I don't agree with you on many Canuck/US issues, agree on others, and my prejudgement was wrong
Frank
Posted by: Frank G   2006-02-02 22:24  

#11  The term "pretzel logic" seems to sum up the Tranzi positions as they duck and cover, knowing full well hoping that others will take up the challenges and save them.
Posted by: .com   2006-02-02 21:37  

#10  you're wrong as usual on this.

Frank, I was reporting what I saw on some European forums. That wasn't my opinion I was expressing. The phrase "The argument is..." should have been a tip-off.

Some Europeans are already coming up with excuses, so as not to be seen aligning with the US.
Posted by: Rafael   2006-02-02 21:32  

#9  natch Rafael you're wrong as usual on this. Defending to the death the prohibition on depictions of their God or prophet brings to mind only one bassackward ignorant religion IIRC. I say fuck em and I'll doodle it whenever I can, even in the workplace. I have the right to do so, if it's not obscene...like say...beheadings of infidels
Posted by: Frank G   2006-02-02 20:22  

#8  Interesting take, TW. But...
I've been to a few European forums, and guess what...Bush is being blamed as usual, because it seems, it's only in his best interest to provoke a war between Europe and Islam.

This could go the other way, and it seems that it will. The argument is that freedom of speech should have its limits with regard to people's feelings. You can't insult anyone and not expect a backlash. Hence, the muslim world is right, and the western notion of freedom of speech, is wrong.
Posted by: Rafael   2006-02-02 19:40  

#7  Per my post in the other cartoon thread.

Gimme some good old fashioned Koran toilet paper. I'll pay extra for it, I don't care. If the Muslims think this is as bad as it gets, they haven't seen anything yet. Koran diapers, Koran Kotex, Koran insoles ... I'll use them all until they STFU or FOAD.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-02-02 17:52  

#6  Please sign the petition for freedom of speech:

http://www.petitiononline.com/danmark/petition.html


Posted by: Jules   2006-02-02 14:55  

#5  I've been thinking hard about this situation (because with Rantburg down, I had to do something, or go totally mad). It strikes me that this cartoon brouhaha may well be the beginning of European society's fight against the Islamist invasion. The authorities have been trying to fight back, in their own way, for years (think of all the arrests and prosecutions by France's investigating magistrates, f'r instance, as described in anon5089's post above), but the elites and society at large have ranged between uninterested and deliberately blind to the risks. Cars burning and rapine of the native women have been shrugged off, but the political cartoon is clearly sacrosanct.
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-02-02 13:24  

#4  Image hosting by Photobucket
Posted by: zdlfkqs   2006-02-02 11:27  

#3  Somebody in the French government or academia got to him, not that it would especially hard to do so.
Raymond Lakah is French Egyptian. Gotta worry for the Coptic relatives/clan in Egypt.
Posted by: ed   2006-02-02 11:01  

#2  Here's a little fuel for the fire.
Posted by: Darrell   2006-02-02 10:55  

#1  Tell em to fuck off and die.
Posted by: tu3031   2006-02-02 10:53  

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