The Cartoons that Launched a Jihad
I think that those of us who follow the news all remember the massive controversy that arose as a result of a Danish newspaper’s (Jyllands-Posten) publication of 12 satirical cartoons about the prophet Mohammed in September of 2005. For those who have forgotten, Wikipedia is as helpful as always in providing a refresher course. We here at It's Still News believe in free speech so in case any of you have not seen them, the individual cartoons are available here. Here is a collage of all 12 of them:
Ouch…they are a bit on the harsh side but also kind of funny for those of us who don’t take ourselves very seriously. Number 7 (the turban bomb) seems to have caused the most outrage but I think that number 5 is particularly amusing:
Should the cartoons have been published? This is a reasonable question and there are valid points to both sides of the debate. What is not up for debate is the ridiculousness of the overreaction of some extremists in the Muslim world, especially that of a certain Haji Yaqoob Qureishi, a minister in Uttar Pradesh (India) state government who announced in February 2006 that he was offering a cash reward of Rs 51 crore (roughly about $11 million) for anyone who beheads the Danish cartoonist who caricatured Prophet Mohammad. The peak of the news coverage on this issue came in February of 2006 with the protests against Denmarks and Jyllands-Posten during which over a hundred people died. As far as the U.S. media was concerned, this story had longer legs than usual but ultimately there were riots, there were demonstrations, there were boycotts and then there was…nothing. Hey, can we help it if our society suffers from collective ADD?
In all seriousness, this story’s significance has not been forgotten and its repercussions are being felt to this very day. So what has happened since the protests? As always, It's Still News has the answers.
The Muslim nations of the world organized a boycott of Danish goods, which appears to have been fairly effective. From February to June of last year, exports of Danish goods to Muslim countries declined by 15.5%, costing the Danish economy about 134 million euros. However, consumers in the West, especially in the United States, have more than picked up the slack, with a bunch of rightwingers (including the politically ambidextrous Trotskyinst-Neocon Christopher Hitchens) organizing a buy-Danish campaign in the U.S. and other Western countries. As a result, Danish exports to the U.S. soared by 17% in the first half of 2006 according to this article in The Guardian. That’s right, if you want to stick it to the Islamists, drink Carlsberg and buy some Legos for the kids. In all honesty, it is moments like this that make me proud to be an American.
On the one year anniversary, the cartoon controversy was given new life by the members of the youth wing of the Danish People’s Party (an exremist right wing party which is currently the third largest party in the Danish parliament) who decided to celebrate the occasion by posting a video of their competition to draw the most offensive anti-Mohammed cartoon possible in summer camp on the internet. Somehow or other, this video made it onto Danish television in early October, causing yet another uproar, a summary of which can be found here. Among the masterpieces penned by these young racists-in-training was a cartoon showing a camel with the head of Mohamed and beer cans for humps and another showing a bearded man wearing a turban next to a plus sign and a bomb, equaling a nuclear mushroom cloud.
While there are plenty of reasons to be ambivalent about the initial controversy, this “second” controversy is far less justifiable. Sometimes, people just need to learn their lessons and move on instead of pouring fire on a flame which had almost been extinguished. Naturally (and justifiably), most Muslim countries protested this video though fortunately things did not get out of hand to the same extent that they had after the initial hullabaloo. As soon as the controversy erupted again, the Danish government immediately pulled the videos from the internet and warned Danish citizens not to travel to any Islamic countries. For the sake of the people of Denmark, we hope that this is the end of this story.
We will keep you posted…