Posted on 01/30/2006 7:42:11 PM PST by SmoothTalker
Outrage Builds in Mideast Over Cartoons
By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press WriterMon Jan 30, 4:39 PM ET
From the burning of its flag to a boycott of its brands of butter and cookies, Denmark is feeling Islamic outrage over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Angered by the drawings, masked Palestinian gunmen briefly took over a European Union office in Gaza on Monday. Islamists in Bahrain urged street demonstrations, while Syria called for the offenders to be punished. A Saudi company paid thousands of dollars for an ad thanking a business that snubbed Danish products.
The anger is reminiscent of the 1989 wrath that followed publication of "The Satanic Verses," the Salman Rushdie novel that radicals said insulted Islam. Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a death sentence against the British writer.
The cartoons originally were published nearly four months ago in Denmark and reprinted Jan. 10 by the Norwegian evangelical newspaper Magazinet in the name of defending free expression.
The spasm of vilification in newspapers and mosque sermons, by governments, citizens and radicals appears to have spoken to pent up Muslim anger typically reserved for former colonial powers Britain and France, as well as the United States.
"This will be used by regimes who resent Western pressures to reform to say that the West is waging a war against Muslims and doesn't have their best interests at heart," Sulaiman al-Hattlan, a Dubai-based Saudi writer, told The Associated Press.
The Danish paper Jyllands-Posten first published the 12 cartoons Sept. 30. The drawings included one showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a lit fuse. Another portrayed him with a bushy gray beard and holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle. A third pictured a middle-aged prophet standing in the desert with a walking stick, in front of a donkey and a sunset.
Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet, favorable or otherwise.
Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Denmark and initiated a boycott of Danish goods. It was warned Monday by Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson that the European Union would take WTO action if the boycott persisted.
The newspaper issued an apology Monday to the world's Muslims.
The cartoons "were not in violation of Danish law but have undoubtedly offended many Muslims, which we would like to apologize for," the Jyllands-Posten's editor-in-chief Carsten Juste said in a statement posted on the newspaper's Web site.
On Sunday, the newspaper printed a statement in Arabic addressed to Saudis, who had initiated the boycott. It said the drawings were published as part of a Danish dialogue about freedom of expression but were misinterpreted "as if it were a campaign against Muslims in Denmark and in the Islamic world."
Few were swayed by the explanation.
"In (the West) it is considered freedom of speech if they insult Islam and Muslims," Mohammed al-Shaibani, a columnist, wrote in Kuwait's Al-Qabas daily Monday. "But such freedom becomes racism and a breach of human rights and anti-Semitism if Arabs and Muslims criticize their religion and religious laws."
Emirates Justice and Islamic Affairs Minister Mohammed Al Dhaheri called it "cultural terrorism, not freedom of expression," according to the official WAM news agency. "The repercussions of such irresponsible acts will have adverse impact on international relations."
In Tunisia, the head of the Islamic world's counterpart to UNESCO called the drawings "a form of racism and discrimination that one must counter by all available means."
"It's regrettable to state today, as we are calling for dialogue, that other parties feed animosity and hate and attack sacred symbols of Muslims and of their prophet," said Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, president of the Islamic Organization for Education, Science and Culture,
Jordan's largest circulation daily, government-run Al-Rai, said the Danish government must apologize.
In two West Bank towns Sunday, Palestinians burned Danish flags and demanded an apology. Several Islamist groups, including the Palestinian militant Hamas party and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, called for a worldwide boycott of Danish products.
The same call in several Persian Gulf countries has resulted in supermarkets clearing shelves of Danish cream cheese, butter and cookies. Kuwait's Al-Jahra Cooperative Society said in an ad in the Al-Rai Al-Aam daily that all Danish products have been removed from its shelves.
In Saudi Arabia, the daily Al-Watan refused to publish an ad from Denmark-based dairy group Arla Foods, which has said the boycott of its products was almost total.
Luai Mutabakani, senior editor at the paper, told the AP the full-page ad, titled "The Danish government respects Islam," did not carry any apology or reprimand the paper.
In Iraq, thousands denounced the caricatures during Friday prayers.
The Egyptian parliament's Economic Committee refused to discuss a $72.49 million loan from Denmark to Egypt.
President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon condemned the cartoon, saying his country "cannot accept any insult to any religion."
Danish government officials expressed regret for the furor caused by the drawings but refused to become involved, citing freedom of expression. Mindful of the outrage, the government advised its citizens to "show extra vigilance" in the region.
Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Claes Jernaeus warned against travel to Gaza and the West Bank.
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That would be "pantywastes" not "pantywaists".....
....Otherwise, you are spot on...
You got that right! Funny how thoughts of innocent little children (not to mention adult men and women) getting blown to pieces in some cafe they all run around and shout Allah meathead BS, but over a cartoon you'd think someone had just done to them what they do to the rest of the world.
May we never find out.
Violent responses are effective in quieting unwanted voices among the masses who have no convictions upon which their lives are built, but eternal matters are far more than temporal hardships. Christians serve the God of the Bible, who says that He is the one true God and there is none other.
To claim that Allah is the same God because both Islam and Christianity, as well as Judaism, trace their roots back to Abraham is contradicted by Islamic teachings. To make sense of the Koran and elevate Muhammad as "the greatest prophet" requires contradicting the key teachings of the Bible and the foundations of Christianity.
Therefore, if one believes the Bible to be true, the Koran, Hadith and Islam CAN NOT be true.
Ipso fact, Allah is not God, and if it is anything at all it MUCT be Satan, which makes sense considering the history of destruction and determination to keep the saving truth found in Christianity away from its followers at all costs.
Christians, on the other hand, are called to share the truth in love and without fear of it being held up to the light of comparison.
Islam is eternal darkness. The way it is "defended" in acts such as those described in the article attests to that fact.
Danes run one of the world's greatest and most productive pork ranges.
Why is a Moslem even in Denmark ~ didn't they ever stop and think about being surrounded by pigs.
At statements like this should be used to show just how deranged Islam causes a mind to become.
In most, if not all, of the West, "Islamic tradition" only governs Islamics. Not Christians, not Jews, not Hindus, and not Buddhists. Speaking of which, where was all this concern for religious traditions of groups other than ones own when the Taliban blew up the ancient Buddha statues? Hmmm? Some folks like images of their "gods" (Although Buddha is not thought of as a God, AFAIK.)
Of course, in Islamic countries, Islamic traditions and "laws" govern all.
It is highly offensive to me that soap is a four-letter word to most middle eastern skunks!!
http://64.246.44.90/cartoons/Mohammed-drawings-newspaper1.jpg
Agreed. Here is a must read and a great resource for folks on FR.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/default.htm#attacks
"I am outraged that Muslims prefer to keep both their horrificly ugly women and their hot young babes draped in the same head scarfs.
It is highly offensive to me that soap is a four-letter word to most middle eastern skunks!!"
Don't let this hit a newspaper. They might recall all the ambassadors to the US, and boycott all american products.
Muslim men are extremely insecure about their manhood....
generally they are a bunch of cowardly buggerers.
Muslims prefer abortions when the young women are of dating age.
The so-called artistic left are very much like Muslims.
They are intolerant of decency and morality.
They are insecure and filled with hate.
Its way funnier asking for pork in an islamic restaurant in Little Islam. The faces you see on their faces are just priceless especially during Ramadhan where pork is a big no no.
The brave press should defend free speech they so love to exercise in so many noxious ways, by publishing those cartoons about Muhammed in every world newspaper.
Check out this little ditty.
It's a real hoot. And it's true.
They are intolerant of decency and morality.
They are insecure and filled with hate."
Sound points.
Boy they better stop this cartoon or HEADS WILL ROLL! ROFLMAO!!!!
Make sure that you use pig urine for that one, will ya?
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