Posted on 02/01/2006 4:20:29 AM PST by anguish
| A French newspaper has reproduced a set of caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad that have caused outrage in the Muslim world. France Soir said it had published the cartoons to show that "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society. Their original publication in a Danish paper last September has led to boycotts and protests against Denmark in several Arab nations. Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet Muhammad or Allah. Under the headline "Yes, we have the right to caricature God", the paper ran a front page cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud. It shows the Christian deity saying: "Don't complain, Muhammad, we've all been caricatured here." The full set of Danish drawings, some of which depict the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, were printed on the inside pages. Bomb threat The paper said it had decided to republish them "because no religious dogma can impose itself on a democratic and secular society". The global controversy the cartoons have provoked "has done nothing to maintain balance and mutual limits in democracy, respect of religious beliefs and freedom of expression", it added. There was no immediate reaction from Muslim leaders in France, which is home to the largest Islamic minority in Europe. The offices of the Danish newspaper that first published the caricatures, 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. Ministers from 17 Arab countries on Tuesday urged Denmark's government to punish Jyllands-Posten for what they described as an "offence to Islam". Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the paper's apology but defended the freedom of the press. The images' publication in Denmark has provoked diplomatic sanctions and threats from Islamic militants across the Muslim world. Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated this week in the Gaza Strip, burning Danish flags and portraits of the Danish prime minister. Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador to Denmark, while Libya said it was closing its embassy in Copenhagen and Iraq summoned the Danish envoy to condemn the cartoons. |
Just when many have replaced their burnt out cars with new ones...
Personally I think every free country should publish the "cartoons" on the front page.
Let the Arab Muslims boycott the world.
Perhaps they can learn something about freedom.
Awesome.
We are in a cultural war with a stoneage culture.
Where is our own MSM?
Busy whining and cheap shotting the war on terror?
If they would all together publish cartoons it would be great.
Agree. Great job.
I want to see American and UK papers follow up.
Whoa. Is Europe drawing a line in the editorial page?
I'm not one to criticize religious dogma, or to insist that my own is correct. But it's painfully obvious that Moslems HAVE come to revere Mohammed as an idol, even as a God. For example, in this case there is no chance a caricature would lead to religious worship of Mohammed, but the violent reaction to any depiction raises Mohammed to the status of a God. In a religion that was supposed to be the most monotheistic, Moslems instead obviously worship Mohammed. They have made a caricature of their own religion.
How many cars this time?
I never thought I would begin the day agreeing with the French.
Another round of EU subsidies, fellows? Sure. The check's in the mail.
Everytime they get their turbans in a wad, they run to Ali the Bomb Maker.
Not surprising.
This sort of thing is getting very tiring all over Europe.
The Dutch snapped out of their funk when Van Gogh was murdered.
France, of course, has it's teeth on edge because of the riots.
Britain had the terrible terror attacks on the London buses.
Now the Danes are facing tensions and a call for a boycott because some Muslim folks cannot take the sort of political lampooning that goes on in free societies.
Country by country, patience for this sort of thing is wearing out. The Dutch are not in a conciliatory mood. The British aren't. And the French certainly are not. This is our Western society. It is free. It took two thousand years to crawl out from under the shadow of clericalism, and we are not going back. Certainly nobody is going to be intimidated by a bunch of Arab hotheads who, in the end, are simply not all that numerous.
France Soir published the pictures to make a point, to be explicitly provocative, and to remind everyone in the country, Muslim and francais de souche, who runs the show in France. Rioting will not follow. Anybody who tries to riot over THIS will get his head broken, because this time it would be perfectly clear that the rioting was really Muslim, and really specifically aimed at free speech.
France is a free country, and it's going to stay a free country, no matter how many people have to be beaten into submission and mocked to keep it free.
I gotta start doing graphs again...
Actually, France has shown some real moxy here, considering the mobs of crazy fire-bombing Muslims living in France. These cartoons should be reprinted in every paper in the world as a warning to militant Islam that the world's press will stick together in the issue of Muslim censorship. I haven't seen any US publication that brave.
Très bien!
Couilles.
If you REALLY have to know.
Oh, the youts aren't going to like this......
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