Hey, Jack! Which way's Mecca?
Posted on 02/04/2006 5:42:40 AM PST by Cornpone
Sunday newspapers will not be allowed to publish a controversial cartoon of the prophet Muhammad after a Muslim pressure group was granted a court interdict.
The South African National Editors Forum said on Saturday several South African media houses were gagged from publishing the cartoon on Friday night.
The Jamiat-ul Ulama of Transvaal, which sought an interdict against Johncom Media and Independent Newspapers among others, said the cartoon was "deeply offensive".
The organisation was granted the interdict around 10.30pm on Friday.
The Sunday Times, one of the Johncom newspapers that received a letter from the group asking if it would publish the cartoon, said at the time it had not decided on its action.
The paper's editor, Mondli Makhanya, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Saturday that it was a "huge blow for the media".
He said he had refused to make an undertaking to the Jamiat-ul Ulama on the principle that it would not be dictated to by outsiders on what to publish.
But Makhanya said "We would have done the responsible thing".
"We believe that if we were to have given an undertaking not to publish, we would invite similar demands and threats from anyone who felt offended by the stories we publish. No credible newspaper can be held to ransom by the beliefs of a section of a population," he told the South African Press Association.
"We are obliged to reflect the world that we live in -- not just a part of it -- for the benefit of all our readers. We must uphold the right to publish without fear or favour," Makhanya
Sanef chairperson Joe Thloloe described the interdict as alarming. He said Sanef believed the interdict amounted to pre-publication censorship.
The interdict "limits freedom of expression in that the decision on whether to publish or not to publish has been taken away from the editors and placed on the shoulders of the court".
"The editors of the publications that were gagged are aware of the law and the limitations the Constitution has placed on freedom of expression and would respect those.
"It is not for the courts to assume that the law is going to be broken and make the decision for editors," he said in a statement.
'Deliberate act of provocation' Meanwhile, demonstrators from both the far left and extreme right gathered on Saturday in Copenhagen to add to the uproar over the publication of the cartoons, which have now been reprinted as far away as New Zealand.
Leftist anti-racist activists were due to start their protests at 1pm (12am GMT) northeast of Copenhagen while the extreme-right Danish Front was to start its own march an hour later from the same spot.
The 12 cartoons, first published last September by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, have caused an uproar in the Muslim world and drawn the lines of a new cultural battle over freedom of speech and religious tolerance.
The leftist demonstration had been organized by SFU, the youth wing of the Socialist People's party, and could well include "troublemakers", police spokesperson Flemming Steen Munch told Agence France-Presse.
"We expect activists of the anarchist type and troublemakers to appear in this demonstration," he said.
The extreme-right organisers called for demonstrators to march calmly, but said that "one can almost expect that the anti-racists are fantasising about a violent confrontation".
In spite of appeals by western leaders the cartoons appeared Saturday in two New Zealand newspapers, drawing criticism from the government.
In the Muslim world anger continued to simmer.
Indonesia, the world's largest Islamic country, condemned on Saturday the publication of the cartoons as insensitive and an insult to Muslims around the globe.
"The publication of the caricatures is clearly an insensitivity towards the perception and beliefs of a religious group," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Saturday condemned the drawings as "a deliberate act of provocation".
"This deplorable act is a blatant disregard for Islamic sensitivities over the use of such images, which are particularly insulting to and forbidden by Islam," Abdullah said in a statement to the official Bernama news agency.
The cartoons show the West is against Islam, the ousted Taliban said on Saturday as Afghan religious leaders added to worldwide condemnation of the images.
A statement purportedly from the Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency since they were removed from power in late 2001, said the cartoons published in other European newspapers last week showed "the enmity of the West to Islam".
Dozens of religious leaders and tribal chiefs met on Saturday at a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar, once a Taliban stronghold, to express their disapproval of the cartoons.
Several dozen angry students hurled stones at the European Union headquarters in Gaza City early on Saturday in protest
A Dutch newspaper, De Volkskrant, that reprinted the cartoons has received threats, its editor said.
United Nations chief Kofi Annan on Friday urged Muslims around the world to accept the apology offered by Jyllands-Posten.
"I share the distress of the Muslim friends who feel that the cartoon offends their religion," the UN chief said. - Sapa, AFP
Didn't South Africa just abstain on the vote to refer Iran to the Security Council?
Don't have a clue. I don't follow that issue too closely though I should. On the other hand I personally think the potential that Western minds and thoughts will be corralled by Sharia PC a greater threat than nukes from mullahs.
FWIW, I think both the vote and the censorship are related.
CNN's been pixilating Mohammed's mug. C-SPAN showed all the cartoons intact, yesterday IIRC.
I'm sure. There are some really twisted views in SA.
Hey, Jack! Which way's Mecca?
The internet is having these cartoons spread like wildfire.
Bttt
Actually, I prefer the Euro approach to ours, which only allows damages after the fact, so that if you are accused of being a child molestor or mobster, you cannot recover your reputation, even if you win.
See if there is a trial on this, and if Mohammed "wins." I doubt it.
But no problem if the cartoon insults Christians, I'll bet.
CNN, among others, has flunked the test.
Ah. Now we see what this was really all about. Setting laws into place to not allow what they consider to be blasphemy.
I know it seems dark now, but Islam will never be victorious. They have already caused one dark age, and they are already trying to stat another one. This time however, it is our fault for being so freaking decadent and failing to have children. When Mother Teresa said the fruit of abortion was nuclear war, all laughed. Too bad she might very well have been on point.
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.