Posted on 02/02/2006 8:22:08 PM PST by Pikamax
***scroll for updates***
Read this CNN report very carefully:
The international storm over cartoon drawings of the Prophet Mohammad published in European media gathered pace across the Islamic world Thursday with angry demonstrations and the shutting down of the EU office in Gaza City.
In Paris, the daily newspaper France Soir fired its managing editor after it republished the caricatures Wednesday, and in Pakistan protesters marched chanting "Death to Denmark" and "Death to France."
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying the cartoons -- one depicting the founder of Islam wearing a turban resembling a bomb --showed press freedom should have its limits.
Muslims consider it sacrilegious to produce a likeness of the Prophet Mohammad. CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons in respect for Islam.
Unbelievable. The news network reports on an international controversy, but refuses to show readers what the news is actually about and let them judge the cartoons for themselves.
Even more galling is CNN's newfound respect for religion.
Where was that deference when Ted Turner was calling Catholics "Jesus Freaks?"
Where was the sensitivity about offensive religious imagery when Jeanne Moos was mocking images of Jesus Christ or Jonathan Mann was reporting on the Virgin Mary covered in dung?
Why is it that American media, including CNN, have absolutely no qualms about splashing Kanye West-as-Christ all over the airwaves and Internet...
...but can't bring themselves to print the Forbidden Cartoons gallery (now available in thumbnail and full-size images over at Human Events Online, which is also running the photos with my column this week):
Reader Jake G. e-mails that NBC Nightly News tonight also refused to show the cartoons:
Just when I thought NBC might have had a moment of clarity (HA! Yeah, right!), I heard them tease a story on this for the Nightly News tonight. In the middle of the segment, the dropped the ball completely, refusing to show the cartoons! They made some weak statement about how they decided against airing the images out of respect for Muslims.
This from the network that showed no respect for Christians when it forged ahead with the religion-mocking show, "The Book of Daniel."
This from the network that plans to feature Britney Spears as the host of a fictional cooking segment called "Cruci-fixin's" in an upcoming "Will & Grace" epsiode:
NBC announced this week that pop star Britney Spears would make a guest appearance on the gay-oriented sitcom [Will & Grace] as a Christian conservative hired as a talk show sidekick to the gay character Jack played by series regular Sean Hayes.
In the episode, scheduled to air on April 13, Jack's fictional TV network is bought by a Christian broadcaster, leading Spears' character to do an Easter cooking segment on Jack's show called "Cruci-fixin's."
The American Family Association immediately raised objections to the planned episode, saying it "mocks the crucifixion of Christ" and will "further denigrate Christianity" by airing the night before Good Friday.
And see this.
"Out of respect" for Islam and Muslims?
No.
Out of fear.
***
I've uploaded the idiotic NBC News segment that reports on the cartoons, "which we've chosen not to show," intones correspondent Dawna Friesen.
Download and watch the video (.wmv file -6.4MB).
***
Check out the new Faces of Muhammad blog. (Hat tip: My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy)
Rod Dreher: Mohammed cartoon row grows
The blogger at Secular Blasphemy has received a death threat for blogging about the forbidden cartoons.
Meanwhile, still no word from the MSM on how Islamists faked cartoons and attributed them to the Danes (noted here this a.m.) to inflame the Arab world.
1015pm EST. The New York Times covers the story on the web tonight (for tomorrow's print edition), but has no room to link to or print the cartoons.
Excellent commentary tonight from Dr. Sanity, who writes about the Highway to Hell:
Just as the false promises of socialism and communism were found to lead to misery instead of happiness; poverty instead of wealth; enslavement instead of freedom--so too, have multiculturalism and political correctness, instead of harmony, brought lethal discord.
There can be no backing down now; because to compromise on this would be disaster--in every way the beginning of the end of our own values, freedoms, and culture. Besides, it is compromise that has brought us to this unbelievable situation in the first place.
The very first time we allowed the adherents of a medieval and primitive religion to believe that their feelings about that religion trump all the values of western civiliztion; the minute we began to apologize for our successes and make excuses--or even blame ourselves--for their failures; we were bound to come to this place...
Wretchard at The Belmont Club also has trenchant analysis, as always, on the continuing cartoon crisis and its much, much larger repercussions. Go read.
1100pm EST. The top Technorati search is "jyllands-posten mohammed."
Technorati tag: Buy Danish
Judith Apter Klinghoffer: Does the American MSM know the meaning of solidarity?" An excerpt:
Danish cartoonists need 24 hour protection. Another bounty was put on them today. The Le Monde cartoonist responds by drawing a portrait of Muhammad is entirely made up of lines saying "I must not draw Muhammad."
What do American cartoonist do? Well, The one working for the Washington Post draws the American army as a critically wounded soldier who lost both hands and legs. The Islamists could not have asked for anything more. Didn't Bin Laden and company assure them that one more push and the US will collapse just as the USSR did?
The Danish PM Fogh was on arab television today, the interviewer asked him: "Please explain to us: why haven't you yet punished the newspapermen?" A second editor is fired. This time it is Jihad El Momeni, a Jordanian editor, who keeps alive the hope of moderate Islam. In an editorial accompanying the cartoons he asks:
"What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?"
***
The American News Media – the Jihadists’ best friends.
Bump
***11:20am update...I've just learned that the NYSun published two of the cartoons in today's print edition...will post scans if I can get them...bravo!...scan posted below...***
I have contacted several newspaper op-ed editors urging them to run the Danish forbidden cartoons along with my column this week.
So far, all have declined.
Now, via a tip from Sissy Willis, I learn that the Los Angeles Times (of all papers!) is planning to run the cartoons this weekend.
I'll believe it when I see them. We'll see how well the paper's management stands up to the forces of CAIR and the international Islamist sensitivity police when the news spreads. But if the Times does withstand the furor and proceeds with publication of the cartoons--without alterations, without apologies--I will be the first to raise a Danish Fris Vodka toast to them.
At the Dallas Morning News, editorial board member and columnist Rod Dreher writes:
Are we brave enough to do this?You might have read about the international row over a Danish newspaper's publishing cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. Some Muslims have waged violent protests (in Gaza, gunmen stormed EU offices over the stupid cartoons!) and bomb threats against the Danish paper and Danish interests, and are boycotting Danish goods. Today across Europe, major newspaper[s] stood in solidarity with the Danish newspaper (which, sadly, apologized yesterday for having caused offense) in defending its right to free speech against the Islamofascist threat by publishing cartoon caricatures of Mohammed themselves.
I wish American newspapers, including this one, had the courage to do the same thing. To do so implies no approval of the message. In fact, I wish media were more respectful of religion, as a general matter. Rather, it is to assert, in the face of violent threats to suppress speech, that no religious group has the right to expect no criticism, and in turn to react violently when that criticism has been published in a peaceable way. Free speech is a basic value, and it is under severe attack in the West by some Muslims...
Turns out that the European papers weren't as brave as initially reported. Overseas, as noted here yesterday, France Soir has sacked its editor for reprinting the cartoons. Barcepundit notes that Spanish media are sympathizing with the Islamist howlers. And a commenter at Harry's Place reports that the BBC was so afraid of offending Muslims that it partially blacked out some of the cartoons that appeared in France Soir--as if they were pornographic.
Meanwhile, the Arab world continues on its malice-filled way--unscathed by any violent protest or indignant condemnation from Bill Clinton for printing the most vile, bigoted, anti-Semitic, anti-American cartoons imaginable. See this collection from Tom Gross. Stephen Pollard has another.
Jihad Watch reports the latest from Gaza today: Armed militants threaten Europeans in cartoon uproar. Now, they say they will kidnap foreigners until Denmark apologizes. Here's the latest AP photo of the bullies of Islam:
***
On a positive note, Jim Hoft reports that some Mideast bloggers are standing up in support of Denmark.
In addition to joining the Buy Danish campaign, many readers want to know how to contact Danish officials to show their support.
I suggest writing the Danish embassy in Washington, D.C. Contact info is here:
Embassy of Denmark
3200 Whitehaven St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
wasamb@um.dk
And here's a petition in support of the the Jyllands-Posten.
***
Update: Via The Editors' Weblog: Jordanian paper publishes Mohammed cartoons.
Update 2: Thanks to several readers and friends who alerted me to the publication of two of the cartoons in today's print edition of the NYSun. Here's a scan via reader Aaron S.:
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Extensive coverage at:
Brussels Journal - First, must-read resource for news, analysis, and commentary on the controversy.
Here's an English-version Danish blog covering the story.
See also:
The Gates of Vienna
Sissy Willis
Riding Sun
Scott Burgess at The Daily Ablution has an excellent rundown of the heroes and zeroes in the European press.
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Previous:
First, they came for the cartoonists
Fight the bullies of Islam
Support Denmark: Why the forbidden cartoons matter
The cartoons Islamists don't want you to see
The forbidden cartoons
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