Free Republic

From What the Cartoons Were About: The drawings were commissioned by the Jyllands-Posten (Jutland's Post) to accompany an article on self-censorship and freedom of speech after Danish writer Kare Bluitgen was unable failed to find artists willing to illustrate his children's book about Mohammed for fear of violent attacks by extremist Muslims. Islamic teachings forbid pictorial depictions of Mohammed. The cartoons were published on September 30 with an explanatory article by the newspaper's culture editor, Flemming Rose. The following is a translated summary of the article and explanation of the cartoons published in the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia. "The modern, secular...

U.S. Says It Also Finds Cartoons of Muhammad OffensiveBy JOEL BRINKLEY and IAN FISHER Published: February 4, 2006 WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 — The Muslim world erupted in anger on Friday over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in Europe while the Bush administration offered the protesters support, saying of the cartoons, "We find them offensive, and we certainly understand why Muslims would find these images offensive."