Cartoon of Mohammad creates International Row.
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By Tom Heneghan
(Source: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-02T113128Z_01_L02622515_RTRUKOC_0_UK-RELIGION-DENMARK-CARTOONS.xml&archived=False
PARIS (Reuters) - An international row over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad gathered pace on Thursday as more European dailies printed Danish caricatures of him and Muslims stepped up pressure to stop them.
About a dozen Palestinian gunmen surrounded European Union offices in the Gaza Strip demanding an apology for the cartoons, one of which shows Islam's founder wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.
The owner of France Soir, a Paris daily that reprinted them on Wednesday along with one German and two Spanish papers, sacked its managing editor to show "a strong sign of respect for the beliefs and intimate convictions of every individual".
But the tabloid staunchly defended its right to print the cartoons. Switzerland's Le Temps and La Tribune de Geneve ran some of them on Thursday, as did Magyar Hirlap in Budapest. Some European dailies ran cartoons making fun of the controversy.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the issue had gone beyond a row between Copenhagen and the Muslim world and now centred on Western free speech versus taboos in Islam, which is now the second religion in many European countries.
"We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work," Rasmussen told the Copenhagen daily Politiken. "One can safely say it is now an even bigger issue."
The clash has commercial repercussions. Danish companies have reported sales falling in the Middle East after protests against the cartoons in the Arab world and calls for boycotts.
SCATHING ARAB REACTION
Reaction in Middle East countries has been scathing.
"In the West, one discovers there are different moral ceilings and all moral parameters and measures are not equal," wrote the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.
"If the Danish cartoon had been about a Jewish rabbi, it would never have been published."
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Riyadh considered the cartoons an insult to Mohammad and all Muslims. "We hope that religious centres like the Vatican will clarify their opinion in this respect," he told the state news agency SPA.
In Beirut, the leader of Lebanon's Shi'ite Hizbollah said the row would never had occurred if a 17-year-old death edict against British writer Salman Rushdie been carried out.
"Had a Muslim carried out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the apostate Salman Rushdie, then those lowlifers would not have dared discredit the Prophet, not in Denmark, Norway or France," Hizbollah head Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday night.
The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called on Muslims in 1989 to kill Rushdie for blasphemy against Islam in his book "The Satanic Verses". Rushdie went into hiding and was never attacked.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Mohammad, and Syria have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark.
FRANCE SOIR'S SELF-DEFENCE
Defending its decision to publish the cartoons, France Soir wrote: "Imagine a society that added up all the prohibitions of different religions. What would remain of the freedom to think, to speak and even to come and go?
"We know societies like that all too well. The Iran of the mullahs, for example. But yesterday, it was the France of the Inquisitions, the burning stakes and the Saint Bartholomew's Day (massacre of Protestants)."
Other European dailies printed cartoons mocking the row. Le Monde in Paris ran a sketch of a man whose beard and turban were made up of lines saying "I must not draw Mohammad".
Jyllands-Posten has apologised for any hurt the caricatures may have caused, but police said the paper's offices in Aarhus were evacuated on Wednesday evening for the second time in two days after a bomb threat. Workers returned after the all-clear.
Denmark says it cannot tell free media what to do.
Danish police said on Wednesday they had told the country's imams they were "highly aware of the risks of an escalation of the case, including the calls to burn the Koran, which these days flourish on the Internet and via SMS (phone messages)".
Ignore signature block for the purposes of this thread. That does not mean that I actually check the veracity of my sources. And also, please don't sue. Thx.
Now, what is wrong with these fundamentalists? The cartoons were a satire for god's (OMG! Have i just offended someone?) sake!
IMO, this shows the hypocrisy and the true face of many islamic countries. It is alright to mock western ways, to say that all non believers will go to hell, but woe be to the person who draws mohammed. -
At the risk of having a Fatwa being issued against me, I present the cartoons.
http://www.muslimparody.com/Danish.html
Rascists, and people easily influenced please DO NOT click on the link. Reasonable, clear minded persons feel free to click on the link. Ditto for people easily offended. IE If you are one of those who ,before or after watching a movie, listening to some music, or seeing a cartoon, would be inspired to hate anyone/any organization, then please fcuk off and do not click on the link. -
its really very contradictory. islamic extremists publish all sorts of insulting, provoking things and nobody cares, a paper publishes a harmless caricature they make a big fuss...ought they to grow up.
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The European newspapers are too much.....they are not only dumb, but blind. They think they are so clever, when in actuality they become more stupid.
During this uneasy time of US-led 'war on terror' and the negative sentiments in the Islamic world, they publish cartoons mocking the religion of Islam as a religion of terror. How more stupid can they get.
And they say it's freedom of speech. -
Well I think the muslims are a sensitive lot, while the Danish are insensitive.
But still, by resorting to violence or violent retaliation, only further degrade the muslim religion, and affirms the world's impression of islam. -
I don't think there is a need to get worked up over cartoons.
Its like Rushdie's book Satanic Verses, had the mullahs not made a fuss, Rushdie wouldn't have won the Whitbread prize.
Had there been no fuss over these cartoons, the world wouldn't have known about it.
As for Li's comment that Danes were dumb, not true. Its a matter of principle, especially when it comes to free speech and the laws of the land. No laws were violated. Don't sweep thing under the carpet, lets confront the issue about religious tolerance and let it be an opportunity for education, not bend the law backwards just to appease some bigots who try to shut down alternative views. -
hahhahaha.....roflmao...
since singapore newspaper dont have the comic picture here it is from the Net
dont worry leh...this server is based in UK so police cannot touch at all
--"content edited away"--
enjoy
--"Sorry to have to edit this way"--
There is no need to add oil to the fire that is already raging. Let's make this place nice for all. -
This site claimed to reproduce the cartoons here
I cannot sure they are genuine nor endorse the comments on the sites.Newspapers in various European countries have published, in the name of freedom of expression, sketches with the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban and as a sword-wielding nomad flanked by two women shrouded in black.
fr Muslim anger unabated over prophet cartoons
I just let u read,if u believe the cartoons are those published by
Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and
its open letter toHonourable Fellow Citizens of the Muslim WorldOn 30 September last year--2005, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten published 12 different cartoonists' idea of what the Prophet Mohammed might have looked like. The initiative was taken as part of an ongoing public debate on freedom of expression, a freedom much cherished in Denmark.
2.Danish PM to discuss cartoons with envoysThe (Danish) prime minister's refusal to meet with 11 Muslim ambassadors in November has been seen as one of the sources of the conflict between Denmark and the Muslim world, which has resulted in diplomatic action against Denmark and a consumer boycott of Danish goods.
Dear PM Rasmussen,when some cartoons make people so angry to burn
Muslims felt the cartoons were sacrilegious, while PM Rasmussen called the row a free speech issue.
your flags or your pictures and ban your goods,pl think if it is a freedom of
speech.
I read from Reader's Digest there are 2 kinds of freedoms===
one is to do what i like to do
another is to do what i ought to do or not to do.
3.Just like Spore cannot allow Playboy to be sold here,
though we can read more nude images on the net.
This is one of the ways to respect other feelings.
Perhaps Spore officials can give u a free lesson of human
relationships.I think our civil services college can help.
Wishing u can settle this storm fast . -
'Like Jesus with an erect penis'
By The Copenhagen Post 02022006
U dunt mind Jesus with an erect penis,but others people mind their Almighty
Caricatures of Mohammed are the same as portraits of Jesus with an erect penis, according to Danish vice prime minister Bendt Bendtsen. .....
Bendtsen compared the 12 Jyllands-Posten caricatures of Mohammed to pictures of Jesus with an erect penis painted by Danish artist Jens Jørgen Thorsen.
images,stupid!! -
Christians don't make threats or rant over those pcitures did they?
I just don't buy all this intolerance.
Remember the Bamiya Buddha destruction? These are 2000 years old, unique and definitely irreplacable. No Buddhists riot and threaten death did they?
Remember the flushing of the Quran incident? There are billions of copies of Quran and it turned out to be nothing but a rumour, yet fanatics jump on it and rioted, threatened violence, resulting in deaths.
In principle, freedom of speech must be respected, otherwise, you will always have excuses to start violence. Even cartoons can end up being offensive and worthy or diplomatic rows. Where do you draw the line next time?
What about all those hatefilled messages from mullahs and imams? Why do they have the monopoly to criticise or degrade others. Even the Quran recorded that Muhamad said Jews are pigs and apes. Do we then ban Muhamad and the Quran for being insensitive?
So the best solution is, let there be freedom of speech for all and let everyone decide what he wants to believe in a free market of knowledge. -
What you said is true, and agreeable. But unfortunately my good man Salman, this isn't a perfect world.Originally posted by Salman:Christians don't make threats or rant over those pcitures did they?
I just don't buy all this intolerance.
Remember the Bamiya Buddha destruction? These are 2000 years old, unique and definitely irreplacable. No Buddhists riot and threaten death did they?
Remember the flushing of the Quran incident? There are billions of copies of Quran and it turned out to be nothing but a rumour, yet fanatics jump on it and rioted, threatened violence, resulting in deaths.
In principle, freedom of speech must be respected, otherwise, you will always have excuses to start violence. Even cartoons can end up being offensive and worthy or diplomatic rows. Where do you draw the line next time?
What about all those hatefilled messages from mullahs and imams? Why do they have the monopoly to criticise or degrade others. Even the Quran recorded that Muhamad said Jews are pigs and apes. Do we then ban Muhamad and the Quran for being insensitive?
So the best solution is, let there be freedom of speech for all and let everyone decide what he wants to believe in a free market of knowledge.
In my opinion, I find the muslim religion rather problematic compared to all the others. Always jumping the gun on every little incident to start a war.
I don't recall any religion teaching followers to go to war?? Can one religion be mightier than the rest? Is that it? -
i wonder why Straits Time didnt publish them
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Pfft, these erudite Europeans needs to flex their intellectual muscles and my expected reactionary fellow Muslims. Anyway, the drawings were published FOUR MONTHS ago. Yeah I've seen them, they're drawn badly, but nothing so vile about it lah. I'm indifferent towards these instigations, to and from Muslims, but I like seeing it from the Quran's point of view.
First of all, its stated that Prophets and mocks goes hand in hand. It iz za nothing new about ita. Abraham, Moses, Jesus (Peace be upon them), the same thing happened to them. "Mocked were (many) apostle before thee; But their scoffers were hemmed in by the thing that they mocked." Chapter 21: Verse 41
The "free speech" rhetoric (*cough*freedomtooffend*cough*) is as well endorsed in Islam in the 5th century. "And when you see those who enter into false discourses about Our revelations, withdraw from them until they enter to a different theme." "And when they hear vain talk, they turn away therefrom and say: "To us our deeds, and to you yours; peace be to you: we seek not the ignorant." Chapter 28: Verse 55
Peace, no threats.
The following verses among others also mandate free speech and the freedom to practice a religion of personal choice. "Say: 'The truth [has come] from your Sustainer: let, then, him who wills, believe it, and let him who wills, reject it." Chapter 18: Verse 29
The initial reluctance of the people of Arabia to accept Islam disturbed the Prophet. Then, chapter 10, verse 99 was articulated to fight coercion in any form. It states: "And had your Lord willed, whoever in the earth would have believed all together. Will you then coerce the people to become believers?" According to the above verse, not even God forces a particular form of religion upon anyone.
Therefore, mockers of prophets or Islam have the God-given right to believe what he wants to believe. However, the Islamic response is to point out, in a kindly manner, what is wrong with the mockery. The Qur'an states in chapter 16, verse 125: "Call thou (all mankind) unto thy Sustainer's path with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and argue with them in the most kindly manner: for behold, thy Sustainer knows best as to who strays from His path, and best knows He as to who are the right-guided." Unfortunately, that doesnt take place.
Whatcha talking about Salman? There is no such thing in the Quran at all. Jews together with Christians are called honorably as "People of the Book". The closest you can get to that verse is, "Curses were pronounced on those among the Children of Israel who rejected Faith, by the tongue of David and of Jesus the son of Mary: because they disobeyed and persisted in excesses." Chapter 5: Verse 78.Originally posted by Salman:Even the Quran recorded that Muhamad said Jews are pigs and apes. Do we then ban Muhamad and the Quran for being insensitive? -
LOL! I thought we already have enough Christian preachers.. What gives?Originally posted by Gauze:Pfft, these erudite Europeans needs to flex their intellectual muscles and my expected reactionary fellow Muslims. Anyway, the drawings were published FOUR MONTHS ago. Yeah I've seen them, they're drawn badly, but nothing so vile about it lah. I'm indifferent towards these instigations, to and from Muslims, but I like seeing it from the Quran's point of view.
First of all, its stated that Prophets and mocks goes hand in hand. It iz za nothing new about ita. Abraham, Moses, Jesus (Peace be upon them), the same thing happened to them. "Mocked were (many) apostle before thee; But their scoffers were hemmed in by the thing that they mocked." Chapter 21: Verse 41
The "free speech" rhetoric (*cough*freedomtooffend*cough*) is as well endorsed in Islam in the 5th century. "And when you see those who enter into false discourses about Our revelations, withdraw from them until they enter to a different theme." "And when they hear vain talk, they turn away therefrom and say: "To us our deeds, and to you yours; peace be to you: we seek not the ignorant." Chapter 28: Verse 55
Peace, no threats.
The following verses among others also mandate free speech and the freedom to practice a religion of personal choice. "Say: 'The truth [has come] from your Sustainer: let, then, him who wills, believe it, and let him who wills, reject it." Chapter 18: Verse 29
The initial reluctance of the people of Arabia to accept Islam disturbed the Prophet. Then, chapter 10, verse 99 was articulated to fight coercion in any form. It states: "And had your Lord willed, whoever in the earth would have believed all together. Will you then coerce the people to become believers?" According to the above verse, not even God forces a particular form of religion upon anyone.
Therefore, mockers of prophets or Islam have the God-given right to believe what he wants to believe. However, the Islamic response is to point out, in a kindly manner, what is wrong with the mockery. The Qur'an states in chapter 16, verse 125: "Call thou (all mankind) unto thy Sustainer's path with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and argue with them in the most kindly manner: for behold, thy Sustainer knows best as to who strays from His path, and best knows He as to who are the right-guided." Unfortunately, that doesnt take place.
Whatcha talking about Salman? There is no such thing in the Quran at all. Jews together with Christians are called honorably as "People of the Book". The closest you can get to that verse is, "Curses were pronounced on those among the Children of Israel who rejected Faith, by the tongue of David and of Jesus the son of Mary: because they disobeyed and persisted in excesses." Chapter 5: Verse 78.
You don't see me preaching the 12 scrolls of karma or whatever right? Anyway, My christian friend told me things about the Quran and I find that the teachings are meaning and good but the rewards are just so wrong.. I mean, VIRIGNS? Sounds like the Pandas China sent to Taiwan -
And the Freedom of speech, When the Indonesidna islamic association announced that they will go all out if duty calls for a holy war.. How is that not offensive?
And apparently, The Quran allows suicide bombing during holy war.. You guys are just getting just rewards
Why does the religiously-overly-strong religion are so sensitive to other religions? CHC guys told me that Taoism, Buddhism are rubbish and now this guy is saying that we don't have the right to freedom of speech?!
HELLO COMMUNISM!!!
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Preach? Haha, I was being descriptive of my religion only and you associated it with your well being.
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1. The European papers are practicising Freedom of Speech.Originally posted by Li Ka Shing:And they say it's freedom of speech.
2. The Muslims are over-reacting
3. The Muslims' response only demonstrate their lack of tolerance.
4. The Muslim's demonstrations are also a form of Freedom of Speech
5. If the Muslims should not demonstrate, then the European papers should not publish the cartoons.
6. The Muslims should seek other form of response that is more acceptable, so both parties can enjoy the freedom of speech. -
We should also remember that Islam was the reason that terrorism arised in most part of the world
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there is a reason why there is no pictorial depiction of the prophet or prophets b4 him...its not allowed
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Lol. I can't believe you are saying that. Even most of our fellow Western mates directly affected by the terrorism refused to entertain that kind of conviction.Originally posted by ceecookie:We should also remember that Islam was the reason that terrorism arised in most part of the world
Yeah its to prevent any believers in worshipping him as a deity/idol and to direct to God. Prophets are just messengers.Originally posted by Rockhound:there is a reason why there is no pictorial depiction of the prophet or prophets b4 him...its not allowedOriginally posted by Agenda:
And, no, suicide bombings aren't ever allowed in any circumstances. And what? Virgins as rewards?
And apparently, The Quran allows suicide bombing during holy war.. You guys are just getting just rewards. Dude, its okay scoffer religion, and you are usually probably right about it, because the religionists themselves display obvious cultish behaviour rather than acts of sensibilities. But you're looking at the over organized phase of hundreds of years of human fallibilities rather their purported Original Teachings. -
But whether it is not allowed depends on the laws of each country? I think this exercise in free speech has acheived a lot.
For one, the hypocrisy of many of the countries and their people have been exposed; I do not see them rioting when someone claims to kill in the name of islam! I do not see them recalling ambassadors when people encourage assasination in the name of islam! The beliefs of these people are frankly incomprehensible to me and these cartoons have forced many people to confront that.
In addition, the barbarism of many have been exposed. Hamas, for instance has certainly lost whatever goodwill or legitimacy its winning of elections have produced. You do not storm the property of others just because you feel wronged.
Now, some have blamed the danish. I do not see how that can be. The danish did not institute boycotts over a cartoon. They did not threaten suicide bombs. They exercised their hard fought right of free speech. At worst they were insensitive. The other parties however are, at the very least, violent, barbaric and frankly very stupid.
My message to these people is: You are not the only people on earth. There are many cultures around and if you even remotely want peace, then perhaps you ought to learn the virtue of tolerance. As You can tell me I am going to hell, so can i mock you.
Lastly, I will be clogging up my arteries with some danish butter cookies tonights. Sure it will send me on my way earlier....but its my life and i am not harming anyone.
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haha kid, who thaught u that? ur mum?Originally posted by ceecookie:We should also remember that Islam was the reason that terrorism arised in most part of the world -
stoopid
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i heard the danish apologised edi. Orite, show's over
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actually its the end of the cold war that arise in most parts of the world....Soviets invaded Afghanistan....then the US helped...soviets pulled out...US left the afghans with their warring tribes.....slowly these tribes evolved to wat is now known as Terrorism...dont blame the religion...blame wat brought the change in the worldOriginally posted by ceecookie:We should also remember that Islam was the reason that terrorism arised in most part of the world