Cartoons and outrage, Part 2
Correction: Thanks to Garvey's Ghost for letting me know that the "pig" cartoon was a hoax.
I've now seen all the cartoons, and my original (unpublished) reaction stands--none of this madness (death threats, violence, burning of property, recalling of ambassadors, boycotts), absolutely none of it, was warranted by these mostly innocuous cartoons.
Some of the cartoons are offensive to me, as a non-Muslim. And also, analagous imagery depicting Moses, David or Jesus would be unlikely if not unthinkable in the political cartoons of Western papers.
What's truly sickening is that, in the face of US occupation and the illegal US wars of aggression which included the use of depleted uranium, a WMD which will deform, maim and carcino-kill for generations, in the face of US-funded Israeli occupation and all its crimes, in the face of massive abuse of men's and women's civil and human rights under every Arab government and also the governments of Indonesia, Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan, that a set of kot-tam cartoons becomes a flashpoint for legitimate rage and illegitimate threats and violence.
Various Western papers set this trap... and a number of extremists (by no means the vast majority of Muslims) fell right into that trap like suckers. Of course, when you've been bombed, brutalised, starved, tortured, WMDed by DU, lied to, manipulated and tricked by superpowers and your own authorities for generations, being bamboozled into madness isn't much of a surprise.
I've now seen all the cartoons, and my original (unpublished) reaction stands--none of this madness (death threats, violence, burning of property, recalling of ambassadors, boycotts), absolutely none of it, was warranted by these mostly innocuous cartoons.
Some of the cartoons are offensive to me, as a non-Muslim. And also, analagous imagery depicting Moses, David or Jesus would be unlikely if not unthinkable in the political cartoons of Western papers.
What's truly sickening is that, in the face of US occupation and the illegal US wars of aggression which included the use of depleted uranium, a WMD which will deform, maim and carcino-kill for generations, in the face of US-funded Israeli occupation and all its crimes, in the face of massive abuse of men's and women's civil and human rights under every Arab government and also the governments of Indonesia, Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan, that a set of kot-tam cartoons becomes a flashpoint for legitimate rage and illegitimate threats and violence.
Various Western papers set this trap... and a number of extremists (by no means the vast majority of Muslims) fell right into that trap like suckers. Of course, when you've been bombed, brutalised, starved, tortured, WMDed by DU, lied to, manipulated and tricked by superpowers and your own authorities for generations, being bamboozled into madness isn't much of a surprise.
Comments
Here is a link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4688466.stm
The thing is that they want to see who can insult the jews and enforce the "Holocaust myth" idea the most. Hamshahri also challenges those same European papers, who published the Muhammad cartoons (to defend their right to freedom of speech), to publish the anti-Holocaust cartoons as well. Now this, in a way, seems to be the most balanced response from the Muslim world to the Danish cartoons (when compared to the death threats, boycotts and putting things on fire). It challenges the Western world's double standards on "freedom of speech", how they have the right to insult Islam, but at the same time, no one has the right to question the Holocaust. But the problem with Hamshahri's response is that, the Jewish people (as far as everyone knows) had nothing to do with the Danish cartoons. Hamshahri's response is in fact ALMOST, but not exactly balanced. They're missing the point that, now by bringing the jewish people into this "crisis", they themselves are playing double standards.