European Appeasement Reinforces Muslim Extremism

From the desk of Paul Belien on Tue, 2006-01-24 12:40

The Brussels Journal has reported on the developments in the Danish cartoon case since it started in October 2005. We are one of the few non-Danish European observers to do so. Last Sunday, instead of linking to a website with the twelve Danish Muhammad cartoons we decided to add them to our article about the case. In a sense we were republishing the cartoons, but as we are only a non-commercial website with some 5,000 visitors a day, have no paper edition and did not make a great fuss about publishing them we only received two “threats.” One e-mail, from a certain “Hayet” said:

hello;
Les vrais trait de visage de notre profet (que seul les musulmans) les
connais sont d’un homme le plus beau de monde donc votre photo est
raté
The real trace face of our profet mohamed are the best; he is the
best beautiful men in the word. Your photo is misfire

The other, from a certain “Siham,” said:

good morning
you must take us a lot of excuses We respect your profect and all profects; and you you must respect our profect for not to have in futur other problems between us

Both emails were sent via the same IP address in France, indicating that “Hayet” is probably “Siham.”

The best way to end the whole cartoon affair would be for as many websites, blogs and papers in Europe just to publish the cartoons in an act of defiance to extremists. Moderate Muslims take no offense at the cartoons, as could be seen last week in Denmark where the refusal of the government to give in to demands for press censorship has encouraged the moderates to speak out against the radicals. As Glenn Reynolds wrote in a comment on the affair: “I think that moderate Muslims are a lot more likely to speak out if they feel confident that the government will stand up to the immoderate ones.” This is an appeal to all of us, not just our governments: If we all stand up to the extremist Muslims the moderate ones will be encouraged to speak out.

We have been critical (and still are) of the Dutch Somali-born politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali on account of her opposition to religion and religious people but Ms Hirsi Ali had a point yesterday when she said that the only way to confront the radicals is a free and open debate. Sadly, she says, there is no free and open debate “because of the complacency and self-censorship of Europe’s political and intellectual elites, the self-pity of the Muslims, and the threat of violence by the jihadists.” Indeed, it is the appeasement attitude and behaviour of the Europeans that is strenghtening the power of the extremists over the moderate Muslims.

Hirsi Ali was speaking in The Hague where she received the “European of the Year Award” from our American friend (and former inhabitant of Brussels) Conrad Kiechel, the editor of the international editions of Readers’ Digest. The European commissioner Neelie Croes said in her speech that Hirsi Ali is sometimes criticised because of her confrontational approach. “If you believe in eternal life you can afford to be sophisticated. If you do not, you need rebels on this earth to bring about change. Ayaan is a rebel.” In our opinion the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen would have been a better candidate for the European of the Year Award. He is not a rebel but a man of principles. Europe does not need rebellion to change things; all it needs is to stand by its principles in order to safeguard its civilization.

One of our readers drew our attention to the wise commentary of Mona Eltahawy, a journalist of Egyptian Muslim origin, in today’s Daily Star. Unlike Ms Hirsi Ali, Ms Eltahawy has not turned against religion as the root of all evil, but practices a liberal Islam by speaking out against the militancy and terrorism committed in the name of her religion.

She writes about the cartoon case:

Can we finally admit that Muslims have blown out of all proportion their outrage over 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad published in a Danish newspaper last September? [...] The initial printing of the cartoons in Denmark led to death threats being issued against the artists, demonstrations in Kashmir, and condemnation from 11 countries. What did any of this achieve but prove the original point of the newspaper’s culture editor, that artists in Europe were censoring themselves because they feared Muslim reaction? [...]

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen was right not to intervene, insisting the government has no say over media – the argument used by Arab leaders when they are asked about anti-Semitism in their media, by the way. [...]

What should have remained a local issue turned into a diplomatic uproar that Muslims otherwise rarely provoke when fighting for their rights around the world. Perhaps the Muslim governments who spearheaded the campaign – led by Egypt – felt this was an easy way to burnish their Islamic credentials at a time when domestic Islamists are stronger than they have been in many years.

Must we really boycott Danish products, as one e-mail I received exhorted? [...] Here are a few facts we should remember. However offensive any of the 12 cartoons were, they did not incite violence against Muslims. For an example of incitement, though, one must go back a few weeks before the cartoons were published. In August, the Danish authorities withdrew for three months the broadcasting license of a Copenhagen radio station after it called for the extermination of Muslims. Those were real threats and the government protected Muslims – the same government later condemned for not punishing the newspaper that published the cartoons.

Second, the cartoon incident belongs at the very center of the kind of debate that Muslims must have in the European countries where they live - particularly after the Madrid train bombings of 2003 and the London subway bombings of 2005. While right-wing anti-immigration groups whip up Islamophobia in Denmark, Muslim communities wallow in denial over the increasing role of their own extremists.

As just one example, last August Fadi Abdullatif, the spokesman for the Danish branch of the militant Hizb-ut-Tahrir organization, was charged with calling for the killing of members of the Danish government. [...] Muslims must honestly examine why there is such a huge gap between the way we imagine Islam and our prophet, and the way both are seen by others. Our offended sensibilities must not be limited to the Danish newspaper or the cartoonist, but to those like Fadi Abdullatif whose actions should be regarded as just as offensive to Islam and to our reverence for the prophet. Otherwise, we are all responsible for those Danish cartoons.

We need Muslims like Ms Eltahawy, who speak out against the extremists. We need Western journalists and politicians who support them by not allowing themselves to be intimidated by the extremists. But where are these journalists and politicians? None of his European colleagues has dared to publicly support Mr Rasmussen. On the contrary, both the European Union and the Council of Europe (as well as the United Nations) criticized Denmark over the cartoons. Only a handful of Europe’s papers and magazines has publicly supported a Danish newspaper’s decision to publish the cartoons. Most European mainstream media have not even dared to write about the case, leaving the European public in complete ignorance of a very important international conflict that has been going on for four months now.

More on the Danish cartoon case:

Jihad Against Danish Paper, 22 October 2005

Cartoon Case Escalates into International Crisis, 27 October 2005

Out of the Iranian Frying Pan into the Danish Fire, 29 October 2005

Pigs Do Not Fly, 17 November 2005

Bounty Offered for Murdering Cartoonists, 4 December 2005

UN to Investigate Racism of Danish Cartoonists, 7 December 2005

Dispatch from the Eurabian Front, 9 December 2005

Europe Criticises Copenhagen over Cartoons, 21 December 2005

Cartoon Case: EU and UN Call Denmark to Account, 28 December 2005

Danish Cartoon Affair: Letter from a Muslim, 31 December 2005

Danish Muslims Divided over Cartoon Affair, 8 January 2006

Danish Prime Minister Shocked at Lies, 11 January 2006

Scandinavian Update: Israeli Boycott, Muslim Cartoons, 14 January 2006

Denmark: Moderate Muslims Oppose Imams, 19 January 2006

Danish Imams Propose to End Cartoon Case, 22 January 2006

The killing

Submitted by amira (not verified) on Wed, 2006-02-01 07:37.

I think Muslims and non Muslims should stop accusing each other of killing innocent ‎people, since human beings, no matter what religion or what nationality they belong to, ‎have been killing each other since the day of their creation. History has shown us so ‎many horrible and morbid examples, that one would hate all human beings, if one were ‎not a human being himself/herself! And we don't have to take wars or persecutions or ‎religious fanaticism as an example, we don't have to mention Nagasaki and Hiroshima, ‎Auschwitz or the apartheid in South Africa, Burundi, Sudan, the IRA or the Basque ‎separatists, the Palestinians or the Chechnyans to prove the evilness of the human soul. ‎Just look around the corner, you will find sons killing their mothers, husbands killing ‎their wives, school children killing each other... the stories are endless! This proves that ‎evil has been always there, not ignited by religion or beliefs, but by the wickedness of the ‎human soul. And unfortunately, I don't see an end to harming each other. We will always ‎be doing that, in the name of God, of religion, of oil, of freedom, of greed, of ‎frustration....‎

I really wonder why europe

Submitted by Tosin (not verified) on Thu, 2006-02-02 12:10.

I really wonder why europe should be so scared of islam. They created the extremism in islam by not been able to face up to them. They allow the extremist to rule over the europeans and with their believes.
The fear of not been able to have a freedom of speech on whatever there is to speak about, write about or even caricature, is the beginning of stupidity and the end of the western culture.
I could recollected seeing on CNN the alqaeda trainning camp video where they had the image cross of christ and Bill clinton been shot at as a target, Imagine that!!! and now they are provoked about the caricature of Mohammed. which actually is nothing compared to the statements made by that very useless and bastard of a son iranian president, calling on israel to be wiped off the world map or the killing of the dutch film producer by an extremist in the name ao Allah. Or should i bring them back to 9/11 when there was jubilation and sharing of sweets on the arab streets on the accomplishment of the terrorist killing over three thousand human beings. There was no such huge condemnation from any arab leader concerning that very issue. Now they are making a whole storm in a tea cup of this caricature issue
The leaders and the people of Europe needs to be firm on their believes towards freedom of speech and stand their ground by not apologizing to no arab country or groups of islamic whatever, because that very freedom of speech is what gave them the opportunity to be able to live here in europe and actually gave them the right to protest against this very caricature of Mohammed.

Muslims are the kind of people that bits the finger that feeds them. They dont care about what favour you do for them, they will always come back to hurt you.
WHY? Because they believe that western culture is evil and that they will surely rule the world through jihad war.
I must confess they are getting there because they are successfully building mosques around western countries and habors terrorist in the same mosques while the western leaders turn blind eyes to that fact. The train bomb in Spain and that incident that occured in UK is just the beginning and how coward are the spanish that withdrew their troops from Iraq. That shows how the so called European Union Which I believe is more of European DisUnion wont work as well. To allow turkey into the Disunion of Europe community will be the last straw that will break the camels back.
Quote me ..."Time will come when sons and daughters or europeans will be killed or turn to slaves by the muslims" for the fact that the politicians are damn too tolerant of this islamic radicals that that lives,spends and even eats from the western sweat but still dont even respect western culture.
They left their respective useless countries because they lack freedom of speech and poverty that was imposed on them by their leaders.
They are now enjoying that freedom that they were ben denied over here to the extent that, they can even insult the leaders of the western countries in the public without any reprahsals from the european citizens.

Has any western leader thought about this situation, where a western woman going to the real islamic country has to cover her head even before stepping out of the aeroplane. What a western woman can do in her country, all her rights becomes vanity when she goes to an islamic country. But over here the so called moslims are allowed the freedom to live as they wish and do whatever they wish as per their religion.

Europe needs to wake up or might be giving its live and right away. The doom day is near.
I am a Nigerian and I must tell you I Hate the ARABS

why islam is allow in europe when we cant practise in sau arabia

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2006-02-02 12:25.

why we allow islam faith practise in europe when you cant practise in saudi arabia ?
when they allow practise other faiths in saudi arabia let them practise their in europe
are saudi arabians more handsome than us or what ?
this last show the truth of islamist ,
fanatical people.
their acts speak more than their words,
they say they are peaceful but they stone people to death,they are peaceful and hang up people for adultery,etc.
women live repressed.
do we want that behavior in europe ?
No thanks
,
our politicians should do something.
and forgot turkey join us in europe
they are not europeans only 5% of turkey is in europe and thye stolen from greeks in a cruel war by their "peaceful"religion.
go to grow a camel!

I think now we need to

Submitted by Anton (not verified) on Thu, 2006-02-02 15:56.

I think now we need to publish these cartoons in Russia too.

Arabs too stupid

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2006-02-02 12:36.

I dont blame the muslims I only balme the western leaders, they are too useless and the muslims are using that freedom against the west ...Dictatorship is the best regime and government the muslims deserves. Democracy can never work in that part of the world cos they are too stupid to practice that. Camel is all they understand...hahahahaha

the last day

Submitted by fateh (not verified) on Tue, 2006-01-31 22:52.

wait all to know haw's the face of our prophet and not his face but all his caracters at the last day in this world
we wait you there...

Islaam is the fastest growing religion in the world today

Submitted by nermin on Tue, 2006-01-31 22:57.

What would you call a religion whose beliefs, practices and followers are being bashed and bad-mouthed in practically every sphere of activity, in almost every corner of the globe, yet it attracts ever-increasing numbers of people?

A Paradox? A Miracle ? Or simply, The Truth: Islaam.

The fact that Islaam is the fastest growing religion in the world today, is proof that our Creator has taken it upon Himself to perfect the Truth that He sent all His prophets and messengers with -- from Aadam [AS] to Muhammad [SAW].

Studies conducted in the West show that the sheer number of new Muslims is changing the demographic profile of countries all over the world, and not all of them are born into Muslim families. With some 6 million adherents in the United States, Islam is said to be the nation’s fastest-growing religion. One expert estimates that 25,000 people a year become Muslims in this country; some clerics say they have seen conversion rates quadruple since Sept 11.

Ironically for a religion that is routinely bashed for “subjugating” and “oppressing” its female followers, the number of female reverts to Islaam outnumber the males 4:1!

The fact that more and more people are finding their way to Islaam, notwithstanding the relentless propaganda, deliberate misinformation and outright prejudice against it, never ceases to amaze me.

How do these people navigate in the darkness to find the light of Islaam in spite of all the obstacles in the way?

The answer is that our Creator has granted each one of us a guiding light -- a pure, undefiled innate nature called the fitrah. Unlike Christians who believe in the doctrine of Original Sin and assert that each baby is born tainted with the sin of Adam’s disobedience to God, Muslims believe that every child is born into a state of purity where it recognizes its Creator and is naturally subservient to His laws.

Numb is short for Nermin

Submitted by Zodi (not verified) on Tue, 2006-01-31 23:56.

“Muslims believe that every child is born into a state of purity where it recognizes its Creator and is naturally subservient to His laws.”

Really?

When will you stop teaching your children how to be soldiers as a toddler? When will you stop seeking weak, poor, women to carry bombs so their families will be supported after they are gone. Yet, no matter how much you target Europeans, Australians, or Americans, it is Muslims that are mostly killed by these bombings. Muslims killing Muslims – that’s what usually happens. Target a wedding party in Jordan – brilliant. Did they believe Europeans were there, what were they thinking?

Sadly there is no more divided group than Muslims. Where Sunni’s fight Shiites to the death daily in Iraq.

Nermin the only religion you seek is the one sect you belong to. If a person does not belong, even if it is another Islamic religion, they are put down, ridiculed, and even killed. Could you imagine Baptists killing Catholics – chastise them simply because they are from a different sect of the Christian religion? It doesn’t happen.

Well not now anyway – perhaps 300 years ago it did. But Christian Religions have evolved, when will that happen?

You are moron – that’s the only sect you belong to. I have many Muslim friends who would be embarrassed by people like you who call themselves a good Muslim. Your entire religion is divided, until it is rid of people with such undeveloped immature thoughts that you have shown here, it will never being as great as you think it is. Right now that is ONLY in your mind.

Maybe another 300 years...

muslims guilty of double standards

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2006-01-31 17:59.

Smell the hypocrisy. It's time to demand apologies from the muslim world for their despicable cartoons of Jews and Christians.

[url]http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ArabCartoons.htm[url]
you must view the cartoons at the website since they dont seem to transfer with a copy and paste

Cartoons from the Arab World
A selection of cartoons from the media of seven Arab countries (Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Syria and Egypt) and from the Palestinian Authority is displayed below. A number of these countries are regarded as moderate or allied to the West. Most print media in the Arab world are under the full or partial control of the ruling regimes.

One picture can sometimes be deadlier than a thousand words.

-- Tom Gross

The cartoon above, clearly depicting the railroad to the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau – but with Israeli flags replacing the Nazi ones – is from the Jordanian newspaper Ad-Dustur (October 19, 2003). The sign in Arabic reads: “Gaza Strip or the Israeli Annihilation Camp.” This accentuates the widespread libel that Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians have been comparable to Nazi actions towards Jews. Jordan is supposedly a moderate country at peace with Israel.

In this cartoon, from Al-Watan newspaper in Qatar (June 23, 2002), Ariel Sharon is shown watching on the sidelines as an Israeli plane crashes into New York’s World Trade Center. The Arabic words alongside the Twin Towers are “The Peace.” This cartoon restates the widely held myth in the Arab world that Israel and the Jews were responsible for the 9/11 attacks which were in fact carried out by al-Qaeda.

The cartoon above, from Arab News (April 10, 2002), shows Ariel Sharon wielding a swastika-shaped axe to chop up Palestinian children. Arab News is a Saudi-based English language daily which is supposedly one of the Arab world’s more moderate papers.

In September 2005, at a time when non-Arab Moslem-majority states like Pakistan and Afghanistan were making peace overtures to Israel, even supposedly moderate Arab states like Qatar were continuing their anti-Semitic approach. Above, Israeli jets over Gaza form a swastika in this cartoon published on September 27, 2005 in Al-Watan (Qatar).

This cartoon from the Internet site of Omayya Joha, portrays an Israeli soldier who, having chopped off the foot of a Palestinian man, holds up a bloody hand to the camera and orders “No photographs.” Omayya Joha is one of the staff cartoonists employed by Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, the Palestinian Authority’s official daily newspaper. Her cartoons continue to regularly appear in the official Palestinian press.

Above, Ariel Sharon is shown sitting in a large cup overflowing with blood. This cartoon, also by Omayya Joha, appeared in Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, the Palestinian Authority’s official daily newspaper, on April 22, 2003.

In this cartoon, from Al-Watan (Oman) (August 10, 2002), Jewish acts are equated with those of the Nazis. This Nazi-type anti-Semitic caricature of a Jew has a hooked nose, a hunched back, has no shoes, and is sweating.

In the above cartoon, from Akhbar Al-Khalij (Bahrain) (June 10, 2002), the anti-Semitic caricature of a Jew on the right says: “Say: ‘I hate the Arabs!’” and American president George W. Bush, made to resemble a parrot, repeats: “I hate the Arabs, I hate the Arabs.”

Above, another cartoon from the Internet site of official Palestinian Authority cartoonist Omayya Joha, showing alleged Jewish control (in the form of snakes) of the United States. The snake was often used to portray Jews in historic European anti-Semitic images.

This cartoon, from May 13, 2005 (a month when many western papers were claiming that the Palestinian Authority media had adopted a more moderate tone), shows a Jew impaling the northern region of a map of the Islamic world with the flag of Israel, with blood spurting out. At the lower end is what seems to be an Arab man hanging upside down, holding a white flag of surrender. This cartoon appeared in Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, the official daily newspaper of the Palestinian Authority.

This cartoon, from the Syrian newspaper Al-Ahram (May 29, 2002), shows an anti-Semitic caricature of a Jew with a long beard and hooked nose, fuelling the “World Media” with “Zionist Media” propaganda, while in the background bombs are falling on the Moslem al-Aqsa shrine on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. This cartoon stereotypes Jews, repeats the anti-Semitic myth that the Jews control the world media, and adds the lie that the Israeli government has damaged the al-Aqsa complex on the Temple Mount.

The cartoon above, with text in English designed for a foreign audience, was posted on the official website of the Palestinian Authority State Information Center on April 6, 2003. The Palestinian Authority State Information Center regularly posts ugly anti-Israel and anti-American cartoons, including this reiteration of the anti-Semitic blood libel that Jews kill non-Jewish children.

The cartoon above, from the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram al-Arabi (June 8, 2002), shows not only members of the Likud party murdering Arabs, but long-time Labor Party leader and Israeli “dove” Shimon Peres standing aside and applauding with bloody hands. Egypt is the second highest recipient of U.S. aid in the world. The U.S. senate has approved a $1.84 billion aid package for Egypt for 2006.

This cartoon is from Al-Watan (Qatar), May 13, 2003. The U.S. and Israel are shown eating from two sides of an apple that represents “the Arab states”. This cartoon is also noteworthy since it was published in Qatar, home to the influential Al Jazeera TV network. Qatar is considered by many in the U.S. State Department to be a U.S. ally and a relatively moderate state.

The cartoon above, from Arab News, depicts rats wearing Stars of David and skullcaps. They scurry backwards and forwards through holes in the wall of a building called “Palestine House.” Arab News, an English-language daily widely read by expats in Saudi Arabia, is widely-regarded as a moderate publication. It is published by a state-owned Saudi corporation. The imagery in the cartoon may well be inspired by a well-known scene from the Nazi film “Jew Suess,” to which it bears a close resemblance – a scene in which Jews are depicted as vermin to be eradicated by mass extermination.

Selection, text of the captions and juxtaposition of cartoons © Copyright Tom Gross

The beauty of Mohammed and Islam

Submitted by amira (not verified) on Tue, 2006-01-31 13:12.

I am a Muslim myself, but I must admit that I was not in the least bothered by these cartoons, ‎simply because I am sure prophet Mohammed himself would not care about something ‎trivial like that! He was insulted and mistreated during his lifetime so often and still he ‎never acted aggressively or offended. You know what he did to anyone insulting him or ‎Islam? He prayed for them, he prayed that God may show them the right path. He was a ‎forgiving man with a beautiful soul. And he definitely would not support boycotting ‎Danish products or mistreating Danish people simply because he would never support ‎harming anyone, neither innocent nor evil. Therefore, I am urging my fellow Muslims to ‎try to imitate his beautiful, compassionate, peace loving behavior. Try to show the rest of ‎the world that our Prophet and all of us Muslims are too noble and too pure to care about ‎some silly cartoon in some unknown newspaper! ‎

Cartoons

Submitted by Zog (not verified) on Sat, 2006-01-28 15:19.

Bashar, visit this address - node/287 - to see that someone has got in ahead of you.

Cartoons

Submitted by Zog (not verified) on Sat, 2006-01-28 15:23.

... It mentions a Belgian-based Arab artist who has published a poster of the Virgin Mary with bare breasts. Far from being in fear of his life, he's being subsidised by the Belgian government. By the way, Aiman - Jews are a racial group, Muslims are not. You mention Arabs, but the cartoons are not making fun of, say, Arab Christians, so they are not racist.

Mohammed Cartoons

Submitted by Aiman (not verified) on Sat, 2006-01-28 03:53.

If the cartoons were degrading to, say, jews ... you will not be talking about freedom of expresion, rather everyone in the world will paint you as antisamites. But Arabs and Muslims are fair play ... so you can be racist and "safe" in the same time. Cartoons about christ might not offend you, but you have to understand that people are different. I am an Arab atheist, but I find the cartoons very offinsive. I only hope to see you stop asking "we they hate us?".

Aww isn't that nice

Submitted by DanishDynamite (not verified) on Thu, 2006-01-26 18:43.

Awww isn't that nice. A muslim who went against his religious upbringing.
You are ofcourse aware that you are not allowed to depict ANY of your prophets, and that includes Jesus. If you have actually done so anyway, then I suggest you burn your drawing as soon as possible, unless you want to face the wrath of Allah and Muhammed in the afterlife.
Ofcourse, I guess you can always redeem yourself by strapping on some dynamite and blowing up some innocent people.

As a Dane, I couldn't care less if you've drawn a picture of Jesus and/or the virgin Mary. Do you actually think that would upset us? Idiot tbh... Religion hasn't been important in this country since before the 19th century.

In other news:

Saudi Arabia has recalled its Danish ambassador in dissatisfaction with the government's reaction to the publication of drawings of the prophet Mohammed

Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador in Denmark on Thursday in protest over the government's handling of what it calls the Danish press's 'insulting' of the prophet Mohammed.

'The Saudi Arabian government has recalled its ambassador for consultations on the basis of the Danish government's failure to take action against the country's newspapers regarding the insulting of the prophet Mohammed,' said a Saudi Arabian government spokesman.

Daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed 12 drawings of the prophet Mohammed in September as a way to challenge what it considered the intimidating tactics of fundamental Islamists.

Attempts to obatian further comment from the Saudi Arabian embassy in Copenhagen or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Source: http://www.cphpost.dk/get/93577.html

dear newspaper publishers in

Submitted by bashar dannaoui (not verified) on Thu, 2006-01-26 14:30.

dear newspaper publishers in norway denamrl sweden...i have a special drawing about how they the roman shuffled a big cross up your profit Jesus and how the virgin Mary poping up her virginaty in a big wild mass orgy..
would you publish this and i mean it here is my e-mail [email protected] contact me and let me see if indeed you have the spirit of press freedom..published please ah bythe way another one the wholy pop fucking your queen to give her blessing
thank you
regards
bashar dannaouui

Go for it!

Submitted by truth serum (not verified) on Thu, 2006-01-26 17:56.

Send it in Bashar! You might get lucky!

dear muslims god said treat

Submitted by bashar dannaoui (not verified) on Thu, 2006-01-26 06:06.

dear muslims god said treat them the way they treat you.....ask all muslim cartoonist to do the same about the cross jessus and the virgin mary and the fucking holy the pop uppppssss soory can i say that???? let me how you are serouis about press freedom...let us make fun also about the nazim how they did the jew and all king of thing ahh by the way make some funny one about the whore royal danish family and publish them in they own newspaper let us these colonizer whitich arian europpean they can handle it????/

Not supposed to like it

Submitted by truth serum (not verified) on Thu, 2006-01-26 14:07.

Bashar:
The Europeans have had to handle it. Jesus Christ, the Pope, etc. has been cartoonised and lampooned for a very long time now. They don't like it any more than Muslims like seeing Mohammed portrayed in negative way. The difference is, they did not make an international incident out of it.

Bullying on an International Scale

Submitted by truth serum (not verified) on Wed, 2006-01-25 19:27.

Appeasement never works, not on the playground with a resident bully or on a international scale. It only brings on more demands.

While I do agree with most of what Mona Eltahawy says in her article, I must take exception to the comment:

"right-wing anti-immigration groups whip up Islamophobia in Denmark"

A phobia is an irrational fear. I think it is entirely rational to be fearful when Islamist, inspired by their faith, have killed thousands by plowing airplanes into buildings, blowing up train stations, killing small children at school, etc. You get the point I am sure. Additionally Islamists have threatened and are still threatening countries, newspapers and individuals. How is that irrational?

Islamophobia is a word created by Muslims groups to dismiss any person as irrational who trys to openly debate or discuss anything that might be unfavorable towards Islam or Muslims. That is one of the reasons that most politicians and journalists will not openly speak out. They are afraid of that label.

The sorry thing is that the EU has bought into this theory of Islamophobia by stating that they will try to combat it. They believe, however, that it is the European's own fault for feeling that way, not the Islamists who made them feel that way...so be prepared for more attempted censorship.

That is why Jyllands-Posten, the cartoonist, and the Prime Minister stand out. They have had the bravery to be openly labeled and critized by the Muslim world, the EU and the UN. Bravo to them!

Not everyone can afford to be brave, however. Moderate Muslims who indeed want to speak out will not likely do so, even if politicians and journalists give them a voice. They risk being shunned within their own community and family or being threatened with their lives just as Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Can we duplicate the cartoons

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2006-01-24 14:23.

Are the cartoons in the public domain, that is, can we post them elsewhere legally?

It'd be great if we can.

Public domain

Submitted by Paul Belien on Tue, 2006-01-24 15:01.

Frankly, I do not know. I do not think they are public domain though I think one can make a legal case arguing that it is necessary to show them to the public in order to be able to inform them adequately about this case. Moreover it would surprise me that Jyllands-Posten would start prosecutions against people posting them. It would make them allies of the Muslim fanatics who want the cartoons censored and removed.

The imams have also published them in the report they presented to the Arab politicians and journalists.