Posted on 08/30/2007 2:25:33 PM PDT by WesternCulture
Pakistan has added its voice to that of Iran in condemning the publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad in newspaper Nerikes Allehanda. Sweden has told Pakistan it is sorry if the publication hurt Muslim feelings.
The protest concerned a cartoon by artist Lars Vilks, which showed the head of Muhammad on the body of a dog. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad said Pakistan condemned the publication "in the strongest terms."
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"Regrettably, the tendency among some Europeans to mix the freedom of expression with an outright and deliberate insult to 1.3 billion Muslims in the world is on the rise," the statement said.
The Swedish Chargé d'Affaires in Islamabad, Lennart Holst, was given a dressing down on Thursday by Miangul Akbar Zed, a middle-ranking official at the Pakistani Foreign Office. The official protest was relayed during the course of a planned meeting.
According to the Pakistani statement, Holst said the Swedish government "fully shared the views of the Muslim community" and called the publication on August 18th "unfortunate."
Swedish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Björkander told The Local it had been a "misunderstanding" on the part of the Pakistanis to conclude that the government fully shared the views of the Muslim community.
Björkander added, however: "The Chargé d'Affaires said he was sorry if the publication had hurt Muslim feelings."
She also said that Holst had told the Pakistani official that freedom of the press is strongly protected in the Swedish constitution.
"Otherwise the Swedish government has no opinion on the matter," she said.
Nerikes Allehanda editor Ulf Johansson told The Local that it would be "strange" if the Swedish Chargé d'Affaires had apologized over the cartoon, and would contradict the Swedish government's previous line of not interfering with press freedom.
"We have noted this and contacted the Swedish Foreign Ministry for an explanation," he said.
Johansson said that he was not particularly concerned by Pakistan's intervention.
"The most important thing for me is our relations with the local community here. I am less interested in what foreign governments have to say."
A demonstration was held outside Nerikes Allehanda's headquarters in Örebro on Friday, and another is planned tomorrow.
Johansson said that Friday's demonstration was peaceful, with demonstrators shouting slogans and brandishing placards.
The complaint from Pakistan comes several days after a Swedish diplomat in Teheran was summoned by the government there to face a similar protest.
Pakistan says it plans to consult with the Organization of Islamic Conferences to determine its future course of action when cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were published.
Just think how upset the muzzies would be if the artist had drawn the head of Muhammad on the body of a PIG.
What gets me is the logic -
No one is ever supposed to make an “image of Muhammed” (though I make one every day then flush it).
So, supposedly, no image has ever been made.
How do the rage boys know what Muhammed looks like,
and therefore, how do they know that this cartoon is “Muhammed”?
“Just think how upset the muzzies would be if the artist had drawn the head of Muhammad on the body of a PIG.”
- Yes, a devout Muslim would probably get even more enraged by such a drawing than if anyone cut the throat of his mother and paraded around with her head on a pole while humming Village People tunes all day long.
I think the bigger question is what kind of a society considers dogs unclean and groups them with pigs? There’s something horribly wrong and inhuman with that.
“What gets me is the logic”
- Muslim rage sure has a logic of its own.
A typical example is this common attitude;
“-Kill everyone who says Islam is violent!”
You might recall some of the Islamofascist reactions in connection to the Pope quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor, namely Manuel II Paleologus, who accused Islam for spreading its faith by the sword.
While it’s important to point out that many Muslims are not Islamofascists, it’s even more important to realize how fanatic and downright insane many other Muslims actually are.
Thanks for posting!
All animals are animals, but some animals are more animals than others.
"Regrettably, the tendency among some Europeans to mix the freedom of expression with an outright and deliberate insult to 1.3 billion Muslims in the world is on the rise"...
What was meant:
"Fortunately, the tendency among most Muslims to nix the freedom of expression with an outright and deliberate threat to 4.7 billion non-Muslims in the world is on the rise"...
Well put, Fellow FReeper.
I'll believe there are really 1.3 billion Muslims in the world when there's no more death penalty for converting to something else, and no Dhimmitude, in Muslim countries.
You know you are a liberal if you are outraged that someone offended muslims with a drawing.. but make excuses for muslims who behead christians.
“You know you are a liberal if you are outraged that someone offended muslims with a drawing.. but make excuses for muslims who behead christians.”
- Couldn’t agree more.
Lol, good one!
Before the Swedes apologize for this cartoon, how ‘bout the Muslims apologize for their ongoing violence, persecution, beheading, and terrorizing of the Christians and other “infidels” since the 7th century.
- Islamofascism sure has a lot of inner enemies. In the long run, I don’t think it can survive. It’s intrinsic to human nature to strive for extended freedom. The real problem connected to Islamofascism is the amount of human suffering it will cause before it is eradicated.
Things like Sharia laws are like taxes; some people wish to enforce them on others while few people think they themselves ought to be more heavily taxed.
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