Posted on 12/26/2002 7:31:21 AM PST by 1bigdictator
MWL seeks apology By a Staff Writer
MAKKAH, 26 December 2002 The Muslim World League yesterday condemned a media campaign in the United States against Islam, particularly against the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and expressed the strong displeasure of the entire Muslim community at such vilification and insinuations.
League Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Turki was reacting to the publication of a caricature by Doug Marlette in the Tallahassee Democrat, showing an Arab driving a lorry resembling the truck used by the Oklahoma bomber Thomas McVeigh in his attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building. The cartoon showed the truck carrying a nuclear warhead under the title: "What would Mohammed drive?"
Commenting on the extremely objectionable cartoon, Turki said: "Some enemies of Islam have been trying to tarnish the image of Muhammad (pbuh) just as they publish misleading information about and wrong interpretation of the Holy Quran."
Turki demanded that the Tallahassee Democrat apologize to the 1.5 billion Muslims and give an undertaking that it will not publish such disparaging material again.

Be careful doing that. Mohammed might mistake you for a goat and go to town ;)
If they hadn't started what would jesus drive debate, wouldn't have to put up with this disrepectful cartoon for the religion of peace.
Those evil and insenstive greenies, maybe they should apologize to the feligion of peace for starting this whole mess.
Other than that it is a great cartoon.
But where is Clyde?
I don't see it that way at all. I see it as a compliment to Mohammed. The driver of the Ryder truck is clearly not Mohammed himself. I see the cartoon as suggesting that Mohammed would probably make a different choice of method for spreading the word of Islam.
Just as the "What would Jesus drive?" issue was implying that Jesus wouldn't drive an SUV.
But it seems that any mention of the prophet (small '"p") Mohammed by any non-Muslim is offensive and gets their dander up.
Well, tough t!tt!e$.
Any Muslim who is offended by this cartoon is tacitly implying that they believe that dealing with 'the infidels' by use of nuclear weapons is ok.
The followers of the Religion of Peace will prove how peaceful they are by killing you.
You know, the things we post on FR about Islam would have us killed in any Islamic country. Zero dissent, it seems to shake them up. We Christians and Jews can handle questions and dissent, in fact, we get it all the time. But we are strong in our faiths and that's the difference.
If they hadn't started what would jesus drive debate, wouldn't have to put up with this disrepectful cartoon for the religion of peace.
Those evil and insenstive greenies, maybe they should apologize to the feligion of peace for starting this whole mess
Maybe a Fatwa against the Green Party?
We can dream can't we?
So9
But apparently, peace shall not be upon us, as murder is committed in his name by his followers daily. If Muhammad really wants peace, he should have a frank discussion with his followers.
Is it any coincidence that, whenever we see footage or "wanted" photos of Islamikazi terrorists, hijackers, leaders, etal. you never see any of them smiling?
Come to think of it, the only time I've ever seen Muslims truly happy was in the delighted eyes of Afghan children and other civilians after the U.S. military liberated their country from the taliban.
ROFL!!! Freedom of speech, what a wonderful thing! ;)
Ok, I agree 100%
Thomas?
The Tallahassee Democrat has become the center of a national controversy again and this time it doesn't involve football. Instead it is our cartoonist Doug Marlette who is drawing fire.
Doug did a cartoon depicting a man driving a rental truck loaded with explosives under the caption: "What would Mohammed Drive?" The Democrat has not printed the cartoon and won't in the future. But it was automatically posted to our Web site briefly until I ordered it removed.
First let me explain our relationship with Doug. He works for us and his cartoons carry the Tallahassee Democrat name. He is also a syndicated cartoonist and has a daily cartoon strip, Kudzu. We do not control or have rights to his outside work. He sends us his cartoons and we decide whether to print them or not. Other news organizations make their own independent decisions, too.
So we edit only the material we run. Unbeknownst to me, we had an automatic system that placed all of Doug's political cartoons on our Web site. When that happened with the bomb cartoon, we were flooded with thousands of e-mails and phone calls demanding an apology.
That's not going to happen. We did not publish the cartoon and we won't because I don't think it is particularly funny. And I frankly am uneasy about making fun of religious icons in the Democrat. We have run cartoons making funs of priests because of their actions in the abuse scandal - but not because of their religion. There were some cartoons that we did not run because we thought they crossed the line of good taste. Different editors draw that line in different places.
However, I defend Doug's right to ridicule anyone. This is an honored American tradition. Granted, good comedy like his often depends on exaggerations. But he does have some fair basis for satire in this case.
While the vast majority of Muslims are a peaceful people and preach a peaceful religion, there are some who have subverted the message of the prophet Mohammed for their own violent purposes.
There are Muslim clerics who encourage suicide bombers with promises of martyrdom for the slaughter of innocents. Other Muslim leaders believe they have the right to order a Fatwa, the sanctioned murder of someone like Salmon Rushdie, just because of his ideas. Lampooning fanatics who believe they have a religious basis for murder is fair game.
This is not to say that only Muslims have violent or intolerant adherents. Christians, Hindus, Jews - you name the religion - we all have stains like the Inquisition or brutal persecutions upon us. So to anyone who was offended by Doug's cartoon, I'm sorry. But I do not apologize for his right to make a point, even if it makes some people mad.
Actually, a young girl would be much more appropriate...
Yeah, so, Doug Marlette was making fun of radical Islamists because of their actions in murdering people worldwide, not because of their religion.
Well yeah but, that IS their religion.
I can see algore reading this in the morning paper: "See ... I told you that the internal combustion engine was dangerous!"
Thanks for posting the cartoon on post #8, PL....

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.