Propaganda analysis of caricatures of the prophet Mohammad - International Religion - Anarkismo

Most of us are now well aware of the caricatures of the prophet Mohammad, solicited by and published last September in the right-wing Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. This week several publications resurrected those controversial images of Mohammad as a bomb-turbaned terrorist and another where he refuses suicide bombers entry into Heaven as “We’ve run out of Virgins.” Then our news sources informed us that due solely to these images “outrage sweeps across the Muslim world.” Such coverage has elicited miles of text and a Babel of blather denouncing those who would dare threaten OUR freedom of speech because it offends THEIR “backward” beliefs. published for free discussion siehe auch: Protest rallies over Prophet-desecrating cartoons spread out, Publish and be damned. IT WAS always intended to generate a debate about freedom of speech but, buried innocuously in the culture section of a newspaper, no-one guessed it would spark global protests, the burning of effigies and the unlikely cry of "Death to Denmark". The subject matter, admittedly, was contentious, involving a writer's struggle to find an illustrator for his book about the Koran, and in particular the sacred prophet, Muhammad. There were warning signs. Three cartoonists turned down the job. One cited the murder in Amsterdam of film director Theo van Gogh, slain in broad daylight in 2004. Another complained that a lecturer in Copenhagen had been assaulted by a mob who disagreed with his decision to give a reading of the Koran to non-Muslims, A few bad cartoons are no reason to fall out. A few bad cartoons are no reason to fall out I thought I knew exactly where I stood on freedom of speech. But the furore over the depiction of Muhammad raises issues even passionate rationalists must reconsider, Protesters Burn Two Embassies in Syria Over Cartoons of Prophet. Muslim anger continues to grow even as leaders appeal for calm. Iran threatens to cut trade with nations where the drawings have appeared, 'Cartoons reflect Europe's Islamophobia'. After Hamas's electoral triumph, Palestinians are in the news again, with thousands of them demonstrating against Denmark and European countries for publishing cartoons that they say depicts the Prophet Muhammad in an unfavourable light, How cartoons fanned flames of Muslim rage. Embassies burning. Riots and demonstrations across the globe. Journalists in hiding. Presidents and preachers joining the furious debate. But just how did a series of second-rate cartoons buried deep inside the pages of a small Danish newspaper produce such an incendiary dispute?, Focus: Freedom v faith: the firestorm. Not since the Salman Rushdie affair have secular Europe and Islam traded insults so vehemently. Stuart Wavell on the cartoons that threaten to force us apart, Danes march against cartoons. Danes on the far left and extreme right took to Denmark's streets on Saturday, adding a political dimension to a blistering row over cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish newspaper, U.N. appeals for calm over Muslim cartoons. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appealed for calm in the row over depictions of Muslims in cartoons. "I would appeal to everybody not to take any measures that will inflame an already difficult situation," he told reporters Friday at U.N. World Headquarters in New York. "We in this organization have always respected freedom of speech along with the right to worship.", The Image of Mohammad, Free Speech, and Religious Outrage, The Muslim protest. The violence that has accompanied the outbreaks of protest in the Arab and Muslim world against European countries in which caricatures of the prophet Mohammed were published deserves harsh denunciation. The torching of embassies, the commercial boycotts, the kidnappings, the beatings and certainly the calls for murdering the desecrators of Islam must be condemned, War of the Cartoons: Belgians in a Pickle. The Cartoon Affair is putting the Belgian authorities in a pickle. On Friday one of its citizens, the Arab immigrant Dyab Abu Jahjah, who lives in Brussels, decided to put a daily cartoon on the website of his organization, the Arab European League. “After the lectures that Arabs and Muslims received from Europeans on Freedom of Speech and on Tolerance […] AEL decided to enter the cartoon business and to use our right to artistic expression. […] If it is the time to break Taboos and cross all the red lines, we certainly do not want to stay behind,” he wrote. According to Mr Jahjah he has the right to show abusive cartoons if Western papers have the right to show cartoons that are considered abusive by Muslims whose faith forbids the mere depiction of the prophet Muhammad, When the cartoonist's pen is mightier than the sword. Attitudes towards Muslims are hardening even in Europe's most liberal, multicultural societies, writes James Button, Violence in response to caricatures a profanation of religion - FJCR spokesman, Norwegen im Bildersturm – oder: Wer definiert die Standards für Pressefreiheit und Demokratie? Norwegen und Dänemark befinden sich zusammen mit einigen anderen westlichen Länder mitten in einer genauso tragischen wie überflüssigen Konfrontation mit großen Teile der islamischen Welt. Der Konflikt kulminierte während des Wochenendes, die Bilder von brennenden skandinavischen Botschaften gingen um die ganze Welt. Wir müssen davon ausgehen, daß die Sache mit diesen dramatischen Ereignissen nicht überstanden ist, das Gegenteil ist eher wahrscheinlich. Wie wird dieser Konflikt in Russland aufgenommen? Eine an sich eher unbedeutende Provokation, die im letzten September in Dänemark ihren Anfang nahm, ist überraschend mit einiger Verspätung zu einem Konflikt aufgeblasen worden, der mehrere Kontinente umfaßt und sogar Menschenleben gekostet hat. Die wahrscheinlichste Erklärung dafür ist, daß dies der berühmte Tropfen war, der das Faß zum überlaufen brachte. Die eigentliche Ursache jedoch findet man in dem allgemein angespannten Verhältnis zwischen der westlichen und der islamischen Welt