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Younghusband
Author

Younghusband

Date

February 17th, 2008

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Solidarity in free speech

For one full week Denmark has been plagued by vandalism including torched schools, cars and garbage containers. Although still unclear it seems the unrest is in reaction to the reprinting of controversial Muhammad cartoons originally printed (and originally rioted over) in 2005. The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten reprinted the cartoons in a gesture of solidarity after police arrested three suspects plotting to kill Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who originally drew the cartoons. While condemning the reprinting the Saudi-based Muslim World League urged Muslims not to overreact. Effective?

I will post the entire page in solidarity (Chirol originally posted the cartoons individually) and recommend everyone relax and have a drink.

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad

Comments to this entry

dj
February 18, 2008
1:17 am
Note the comics that incited riots around the Muslim world were not always these ones. A lot of Imams had other images they used to incite the Muslim Street.
Mikey Muhammed
February 18, 2008
4:32 am
DEATH TO COMINGANARCHY!

ALLUUUU AKHBAAAAH!
Curzon
February 18, 2008
6:22 am
DJ: what were the actual images used?
Chirol
February 18, 2008
9:19 am
Curzon: They included someone wearing a pig mask (which was from some UK contest), mohammed as a dog and something to do w/ rape as I recall.

One should note that the cartoons were originally published in Egypt on the front page several months before the "spontaneous reaction"
Jesus Reyes
February 18, 2008
6:07 pm
Cartoons are no big deal. Here are some you can put up too.

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=176

Or how about these?

http://www.irancartoon.com/
Darin
February 19, 2008
1:05 am
I think you've mistaken putting these cartoons up as a show of support for the content of the cartoon by coming back with others. The point of posting them, and this is my interpretation so please correct me if I'm wrong Younghusband, is to show support for free speech and protest the violent protests that took place after these cartoons where run by a Danish paper.

Simply coming back with equally inappropriate comics only shows one's lack of understanding of the real issue which is what exactly the same type of person that would riot in the streets over such comics in the first place.
Jesus Reyes
February 19, 2008
1:41 am
Personally, I don't think any of these cartoons are inappropriate, but then I'm neither Muslim of Israeli. Within both these groups there is glee at one set of cartoons and outrage at the other set and that's the hypocrisy. "I cannot respect you, but you had better respect me." I dont respect any of them. Free speech for everyone.
kende
February 19, 2008
6:56 am
Israelis hardly start rioting whenever a cartoon they don't like is published. In fact, Israel is a stunning example of restraint in the face of continuous violence against it. A few mere cartoons, offensive or not, doesn't lead Israel or Israelis to go on a rampage. Not even elementary school textbooks promoting the destruction of Israel do that...
Moloch
February 19, 2008
7:04 am
Rather than falling into the self-congratulatory orgy of "Western Liberal supermen" that the Danes seem to be engaging in, we need to be addressing the real issue.

Danish Newspaper Cartoons really aren't funny.

Hell, even the Finkelstein stuff was at least occasionally well drawn (I quite liked the SuperArab one, actually).

More seriously, yeah, free speech, great etc. etc... but there's saying something because you genuinely feel it needs to be said, and there's saying something because your just looking for cheap controversy.

Further, note it was NOT these pictures that caused the trouble - they were reprinted in a booklet by Danish Imam's along with some weird ones involving a fezzed figure being raped by a dog - no one knows exactly where those came from. No one cared, of course, for six months until the Saudi's did their usual bad job of running the Hajj, and needed something to distract the rest of the Muslim world from criticism of the Saudi gov. Suddenly, mysteriously, there it is, five times a day on the front page of every Saudi paper...
Moloch
February 19, 2008
7:12 am
to Kende - Really? You seriously think that? The five to one casualty ratio, the collective punishment, the strangling of Gaza...Very restrained. Well done Israel.

No, representatives of Israel don't riot when you make cartoons about them. They call you a Nazi or an Anti-Semite instead. Gotta love that easy going attitude, and unwillingness to cheapen one of the darkest chapters of European history!
kende
February 19, 2008
9:56 am
"Really? You seriously think that?"

That has got to be one of the worst ways to respond to someone... At least if you want them to engage you in discussion, anyway. Doesn't show much respect for anything but the sound of one's own keystrokes.
kende
February 19, 2008
10:15 am
As for the rest of what you were saying, you are mixing up some question of "fairness" with my statement about restraint. There are two very easy ways of measuring restraint that I see here: First, to what degree are the Israelis using the force at their disposal. Once that question is answered, its inverse points directly to the degree of restraint. Second, how do Israeli actions in these situations compare to other nations in similar situations. The answer to this second question gives some sense of relative restraint. I very much do think the Israelis exercise both kinds of restraint in spades when dealing with Gaza, the West Bank, and neighboring states.

Now on the question of "fairness"... That's a huge and likely very subjective question. I don't think it's one well served by blog comments. I'd welcome you to get a blog and post your own lengthy considerations of that question, if that's what interests you. If you include the link to your blog in your username here or on any comments I happen to see somewhere else, and of course if what you have to say at that point interests me enough to click on through, there's a good chance I'll be happy to respond at length as well. And if not me, there's always someone else to bait with snippy taunts online.
Moloch
February 19, 2008
12:39 pm
Sorry for the overly...well, pithy, opener. Yes, it was a little misjudged, and overly snippy. So...[big breath].

I would agree 100% on the problem of fairness being extremely subjective. So I'm going to have to skip over that for the minute.
Restraint is difficult to judge since there's almost no comparable situation anywhere else on the planet of such prolonged and frequent low intensity conflict, so it is hard to say whether Israel is handling it better or worse than others might. I still feel that Israel's actions in Lebanon in 2006, as an example, were grossly disproportionate, and, worse, counterproductive to their own security and regional stability in general. At times (Lebanon in the mid 90's for example), Israel has been able to establish tacit balances of tit-for-tat with it's opponents that have been very successful in minimizing civilian casualties and allowing them to achieve real security - unfortunately, in many of these cases, it is the Israeli military that violated the rules of the game first by a disproportionate response.

Taking an example from my own country, Van Crevald suggested the reason that things eventually settled down in Northern Ireland is because the British were willing to take more casualties than they inflicted. What I consider a lack of restraint on the part of Israel, and a favoring for mass punishment over more restrained, but more risky, operations , is wildly counter-productive to their long term security.
(This is all a little off topic. Apologies to everyone else).
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