Things continue to heat up in the Islamic rage over cartoons of Mohammed. The paper that originally posted the cartoons the Danish Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's largest newspaper, evacuated its offices in Copenhagen and Arhus after a bomb threat was phoned in Tuesday. And Syria joined the parade of Muslim countries that have recalled their ambassadors from Demark. This is starting to go beyond a mere temper tantrum.
The paper issued a statement under tremendous pressure, stating that it apologized for `inadvertantly offending Muslims'. That apology apparently wasn't enough as riots demonstrations and the boycott continues.
To add to the mix, the cartoons were reprinted Wednesday in the French newspaper France Soir and in Germany's Die Welt. The papers asserted a "right to caricature G-d" and a "right to blasphemy," respectively. As my little gesture towards western fredom of speech, I've reprinted the most inflammatory of the cartoons here above.
I might take all this a bit more seriously if Muslims came across as less hypocritical. And if these countries showed the same sensitivity towards non-Muslims in their countries that they demand Westerners show to Muslims in theirs. Christians in Muslim countries pray only at Muslims sufference, as Churuh bombings and burning in Indonesia, Pakistan and Northern Nigeria among other places have shown.And there was no protest in the Muslim world when the Taliban blew up ancient Buddhist sculptures and statues in Afghanistan. A primetime programme on Syrian TV portrayed a rabbi as a cannibal and Egyptian TV ran a whole series demonizing Jews based on the anti-Semitc `Protocols of Zion' and even a casual glance at the Arab press reveals the most hideous carictures of Jews.
Tolerance works both ways.
The Swedish newspaper Expressen expressed disappointment in the Jyllands-Posten apology, which it sees as a retreat in the face of "fundamentalist threats."
"Defending freedom of expression against fundamentalist threats is a cause. It is a matter of principle, whether it involves Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses', a film about veils and the oppression of women or some clumsy drawings in a Danish newspaper."
5 comments:
Forgive me, I voted yes on your poll by mistake.
Great blg by the way.
Thank you...come back and weigh in anytime.
Old Europe, or at least Old Europe's old media, seems to be awakening from their slumber of PC-ness. Everything is at stake: the world contained in a grain of sand? How about all of our Western freedoms contained in a cartoon?
here's a link to the BBC of all places, reporting on other papers reprinting the cartoons. good for them. good for them. you should update this story.
and keep up the good work robert. g-d knows you've been slimed for years on the fray but i always thought you had it together and said it like you saw it. the squishes couldn't abide that.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4670370.stm
Thanks Shabs.
Yes, Europe IS finally getting its act together...today, a `religious hate speech' bill backed by Islamists and their apologists was defeated in Britain.
Lucky for them..they would have had to close down almost every mosque and madrassah in Britain and severely censor the Qu'ran!
Europe is slowly awakening from its slumber..almost too loate,but still in time.
Thanks for the kind words, my friend.
Hi Larsen,
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Jihad TV to support freedom of speech.
Islam means `to submit' and the religion is about submission, not freedom and certainly not tolerance, though many individual Muslims certainly practice it.
The reason for the crazed response it that the jihad mindset is built on an intellectual and spiritual house of cards, and cannot stand any form of ridicule or even examination.
I would have thought the death threats against Salmon Rushdie would have shown that.
Eventually, Europe will have to confront the contradiction between its love for freedom and the jihad mindset of many Muslims it kindly allowed to have asylum there, fleeing from their own wretched countries.
That confrontation started with the London and Madrid bombings, le Jihad Francais and now, this.
Thanks for weighing in...stay strong!
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