I dont know about minimal significance but the reaction has certainly been over-the-top It does make the muslim community as a whole look bad!

We don't need to fuel the fire anymore but is there a scarey pattern evolving here? First Salaman Rushdie, then the Dutch film director who was killed, then the Theatre performance in Birmingham was stormed and cancelled (admittedly by Sikhs not Muslims) and now this furore over the Danish cartoons. Intolerance of any satirical or artistic reference to religion is now being combined with threats of genocide and murder. Right wing Christian groups have often gone up in arms about various films, TV progs, works of art etc. In a democarcy the right to protest is a basic human right (so is the right to draw nasty cartoons). What is not a basic human right is to call for a repeat of the London bombings, and the behaeding of anyone whyo "offends" Allah or whoever.

Has anyone seen the cartoon?

They said on Newsnight last night that the cartoon in question had been published back in early January, so it's been around for a while. I ain't seen it though.

Apparently, the cartoonist had also penned some other images at the same time which, believe it or not, were denied publication by the magazine because they might píss some people off.

One of them portrayed Allah with a pig's head instead of his own imaginary head...

quote:

Has anyone seen the cartoon?

Yeah.

here

That link didn't work.

Try this: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/698

Religious satire has gone on for years. Iranian presses are constantly producing anti-Semitic material and Monty Python's The Life of Brian was as blasphemous as anything I've seen on TV.

What is the big deal? The issue is between the concerned individuals and the newspaper, not Danish diplomats and Middle-Eastern governments.

Turkey FA

Have at last been given a punishment their fans deserve.

BBC link

IIRC these pictures were published sometime last year. It's interesting that the timing of this 'international uproar' coincides with a Hamas election victory. It suits the leaders of other Middle Eastern non-democracies to deflect popular attention from Hamas to something far more trivial. The same goes for Fatah, who I'm led to believe were behind the protests against these cartoons which were held in Palestine. There's a lot more to this than simply liberal atheistic Scandinavians v fundamentalist Muslims.

Excellent observation.

I think the global context matters a great deal. With the presence of "Western" forces in Iraq and the whole War on Terror reaching a pinnacle of anxiety, the cartoon row has served as an excuse to dissent.

quote:

Originally posted by Dels2:
Has anyone seen the cartoon?

Ignore the web site it an American Right wing pressure thingy but ALL the cartoons are here:

danish cartoons

If you open these in an interent cafe . . . watch your back. They might be in bad taste but as many posts suggest there are worse things out there.

Mido

Thrown out of Egyptian squad and banned for 6 months from national squad.

Good.

Going back to the cartoons - the Danish protesters claim that another, unpublished, image shows the Prophet with the face of a pig (thus massively offensive).

It transpires that this is untrue - the picture is not a cartoon or representation of the Prophet, but from some bizarre contest held annually in rural France.

Porcine porkies - see the final paragraph.

It also seems that we can infer that this was widely circulated in the Middle East, and given that this was potentially even more offensive than the 12 cartoons, it would appear that someone (or several) in Denmark have managed to make the situation even worse.

It seems we've reached a stalemate with neither side willing to back down. Where do we go from here?

War.

Actually, we're at war, it's just that nobody seems to have noticed...

The Danish embassies that have been attacked are sovereign territory according to the Vienna Convention.

There is evidence (not gathered by the CIA or Mossad, so it therefore has some credibility) that the protests/attacks were at the very least condoned (and perhaps organised) by the Syrian government. The Iranians seem less than eager to stop people hurling rocks at various western embassies, but as yet haven't done the invasion bit (although this isn't stopping dear old Condie Rice from hinting that they are inciting the attacks).

Thus, the Syrian government appears to have been responsible for orchestrating an attack on Danish sovereign territory.

Denmark is a member of NATO.

Article V of the NATO charter lays down that an attack on one is an attack on all. Throw the attacks on the Norwegian embassies into the mix (geographically challeneged demonstrators), and two NATO countries have been attacked.

As a result, under Article V, we are now at war with Syria.

This, anyway, will be the excuse for launching Operation Damascus Freedom.

The Americans, Thank God, have not yet realised that a case could be made to say that they are still, technically at war with Iran, since the Iranians invaded US sovereign territory when the US embassy staff were taken hostage after the revolution.

Of course, using this rationale is problematic, since it means that France and New Zealand are also at war (sinking ships in neutral harbours is a no-no that can constitute an act of war).

When the West retaliates, you'll know it's war.

This is all so tedious. I bet half those peeps haven't even seen the bloody cartoon. Is a cartoon worth dying for ?

I had a good laugh when that guy in the suicide bomber outfit got sent back to prison though.

Thanks to those who showed me limks the photos.