Posted on 02/07/2006 10:26:38 AM PST by summer
NEW YORK -- On Saturday, the Philadelphia Inquirer became one of the first major U.S. papers to carry a drawing featuring Muhammad -- with a lit bomb stuck in his turban -- that have sparked riots abroad. On Monday, more than two dozen Muslims offended by that decision picketed the newspaper.
"It's disrespectful to us as a people," Asim Abdur-Rashid, an imam with the Majlis Ash'Shura, an umbrella group for mosques in the Delaware Valley, told the Inquirer for a story today. "It's disrespectful to our prophet to imply that he's a prophet of violence."
The group may call for a boycott and a further protest on Friday if the newspaper does not apologize.
Amanda Bennett, The Inquirer's editor, and Carl Lavin, a deputy managing editor, talked with the protesters outside the building.
"Neither I nor the newspaper meant any disrespect to their religion or their prophet," Bennett said in her paper. "I told them I was actually really proud of them for exercising their right to freedom of speech."
But Bennett stood by the decision to publish the cartoon, saying it "is one of the things newspapers do to communicate directly with people" about issues important to all communities.
She told The New York Times, "There's been a whole history of newspapers publishing things that people would find controversial and offensive. My view is that we need to publish it for a good news reason, we need to publish in context and we need to explain to readers why we did it."
Few U.S. newspapers have reprinted the cartoon. The New York Times, in an editorial today, noted that it had not carried any of the cartoons and "much of the rest of the nation's news media have reported on the cartoons but refrained from showing them. That seems a reasonable choice for news organizations that usually refrain from gratuitous assaults on religious symbols, especially since the cartoons are so easy to describe in words."
Some newspapers have carried links to the cartoon images on their Web sites, however.
In an e-mail to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau declared he would never use images of Muhammad. "Nor will I be using any imagery that mocks Jesus Christ....I may not agree with their reasons for dropping any particular strip, in fact, I usually don't, but I will defend their right and responsibility to delete material that they feel is inappropriate for their readership," he said.
"It's not censorship, it's editing. Just because a society has almost unlimited freedom of expression doesn't mean we should ever stop thinking about its consequences in the real world."
Poynter Institute faculty discussed the journalistic issues relating to the controversy in a roundtable (read the transcript or download the 21-minute podcast).
E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com)
You obviously haven't seen his posts that mock Christian Fundamentalists.
"Amanda Bennett, The Inquirer's editor said, 'I told them I was actually really proud of them for exercising their right to freedom of speech.'"
The same paternalism the media uses toward blacks.
I'll bet the blacks and Muslims really like it when some rich white guy or woman pats them on the head.
THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS:
I followed your link to here ...
http://www.faithfreedom.org/challenge.htm
.. where the challenge to defend Mohammed was laid down by an ex-Muslim who claimed
"I accuse Muhammad of being:
a rapist
a pedophile (had sex with a child)
an assassin
a mass murderer
a ruthless torturer
a terrorist (I have been made victorious through terror)
a lecher
a misogynist
a narcissist
a thief and plunderer
a cult leader
a mentally deranged (was paranoid, heard voices, hallucinated of seeing jinns, Satan and angels, used to think he had sex with his wives when he did not, suffered from depression and had suicidal tendencies)."
This reply from a Muslim leader he was challenging in my mind 'says it all' ...
"Thank you for your email. I certainly do not object to you posting whatever you like about Islam on he Internet. As an About.com Guide, I have an obligation to provide my users with truthful and accurate information about the faith. I would be interested in reviewing your site. However I am accessing he Internet from Saudi Arabia at the moment, and your URL comes up as "blocked." The government of Saudi Arabia has strict Internet access control, and any sites that are perceived as blasphemous against the faith are blocked at the server level. Thus, I cannot access any of the pages."
HAHAHAHA! Considering the mayhem committed in his name, how could you imply that he's anything BUT?!?!?!
Well, so is running airplanes into buildings.
Re your post #84 - I think you meant to post that to someone else, as I did not write what you quoted.
I think you meant to post that to someone else, as I did not write what you quoted.
PS My post #87 was re your post #48.
Re your post #45 - I think you meant to ping someone else, as I did not post what you quoted.
RE your post #42 - I think you meant to ping someone else, as I did not post what you quoted.
The quote I responded to was from one of the protesting Imams.
Peaceful picketing is an appropriate response by those concerned about this. That I totally support and is within the rights of the picketers.
It is far better than the "I will Kill you for claiming Mohammed was a violent man" alternative.
Why? They are exercising their rights in an appropriate manner for once.
Trudeau is talking about the papers which refuse to run some of HIS cartoons.
As soon as you pull that "alternative fuel" source out of your azz we will.
Creationists are not a religion.
Tell that to the terrorists who slaughter people in the name of allah and muhammad. Oh...and tell it to your fellow picketers worldwide who are calling for beheadings...oh, and don't forget those who do things such as stab movie makers because you don't like their films. Hypocrite.
Bush should call a press conference..say that being on the dole is not noble...and annouce the end of all welfare payments. Then watch em jump up and down.
Remove all government subsidies. That community would sream bloody murder.
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