CARTOONS, CONTROVERSY, BIGOTRY
Here we go again, the same controversial caricatures about Islam are being published!
The Islam caricature controversy hardly needs introduction, it was in prime time news all over the world in 2005. The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten invited cartoonists to participate in a caricature contest about Islam and its Prophet. Twelve cartoons were published on 30 September 2005. One of them, a man with a black turban bomb aroused the most furious protests.
It is strange, that already half a year earlier the same cartoons appeared in an Egyptian newspaper and went unnoticed by the large public. But this time Islamic activist spread the word and organized demonstrations, called in the media that was filming live burning flags and puppets. It turned sometimes quite violent.
The Jyllands-Posten newspaper claims the idea was starting a dialog about Islam and extremism, and freedom of speech. What hardly anybody knows and even myself found out only a few days ago is, that the same newspaper refused to publish well meaning cartoons about Jesus some time earlier of fear of upsetting its readers.
Article in the British Newspaper The Guardian: Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons
Quote: Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons
Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of protest throughout the Islamic world, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus Christ, it has emerged today.
The Danish daily turned down the cartoons of Christ three years ago, on the grounds that they could be offensive to readers and were not funny.
In April 2003, Danish illustrator Christoffer Zieler submitted a series of unsolicited cartoons dealing with the resurrection of Christ to Jyllands-Posten.
Zieler received an email back from the paper’s Sunday editor, Jens Kaiser, which said: “I don’t think Jyllands-Posten’s readers will enjoy the drawings. As a matter of fact, I think that they will provoke an outcry. Therefore, I will not use them.”
The illustrator said: “I see the cartoons as an innocent joke, of the type that my Christian grandfather would enjoy.”
“I showed them to a few pastors and they thought they were funny.
But the Jyllands-Posten editor in question, Mr Kaiser, said that the case was “ridiculous to bring forward now. It has nothing to do with the Muhammad cartoons.
“In the Muhammad drawings case, we asked the illustrators to do it. I did not ask for these cartoons. That’s the difference,” he said.
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My opinion is, that here the idea is not freedom of speech but there is a political agenda. Why are the same cartoons published again, at this time when the US backed Middle East peace initiative has been jumpstarted again?
Do we need proof of Islamic extremism and terrorism, again?
And WHY back in 2005 a cartoon competition at all with the specific theme Islam and Prophet Mohammed?
The answer is very simple: because there are political interests and an agenda to portray Muslims in bad light, to fan hatred and extremism.
Why now? When the US backed Middle East initiative is on track again and Pres. Bush is determined to achieve a PEACE agreement between Israel and Palestinians in a years time?
Top news from Middle East since January is not Iraq and its messed up democratization but the closure of Gaza by Israel. (”Gaza plunged into darkness as Israeli fuel blockade takes effect· Blackouts as only power plant is forced to shut.”)
Is there an urgent need to divert the attention of the world media from it? It has worked before.
Could there be some kind of connection between the political outlook of Jyllands-Posten (the star in their logo reminds me of the Star of David), their Jewish editor Flemming Rose, whose interview can be read in the German Mazazin Der Spiegel (”I Don’t fear for My Life”) and the elusive Middle East peace?
Roughly half of the citizen of Israel reject a Palestinian state and most of them would never agree to a divided Jerusalem. Palestinians claim the eastern part with the great Mosque as the capital of their future state.
So is there a need to portray Islam as the religion of hatred and violence and they cannot be trusted and no peace deal cannot ever achieved with them?
And sadly enough this ongoing slander is bearing fruits and the image of Islam in most non-Muslim countries is at its lowest point.
If only Muslims would see through all this and not let use themselves as tools in their political game. Muslims around the world should simply ignore them.
I believe if Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h.) would still live today, He would not approve the violence in his name because of a few poor caricatures. His idea of not to let portray him was his fear, that the early Muslims could start to worship him as a saint. He often critisized Christians to whom Jesus was divine, The Son of God. To Muslims Jesus was a Prophet like the other prophets before him and Muslims believe in all of them.
Before Islam the Meccans had hundreds of gods, idols made of diffenent materials. In the early years it was not an easy task to teach them monotheism, that there is only one almighty unvisible God.
Salaam, may God grant us all wisdom and insight!
“The true servants of The Merciful are they who walk gently on Earth, and who, when the foolish address them, reply with (words of) peace.” (Quran 25:63)
“And insult not those whom they (non-Muslims) worship besides God, lest they insult God wrongfully without knowledge. Thus We have made fair-seeming to each people its own doings; then to their Lord is their return and He shall then inform them of all that they used to do.”(Quran 6:108)
“When you are offered a greeting, reply with a better one, or at least return it. “(Quran 4:86)
