So, I havent blogged about the muslim cartoon controversy because of two reasons:
1. not much time
2. I havent got my head around it.
So, I am writing this in attempt to clear my head.prepare yourself for total rambling.
Firstly, I asked myself are the cartoons offensive?
I believe they are. These are my reasons:
1. They stereotype muslims as terrorists, and associate Islam and the prophet as instruments of terror.
It would be like drawing Christ torturing Iraqi civilians and keeping them locked up in prisons indefinitely because people who have committed these acts(Guantanamo Bay) are Christians.
2. I spoke to a friend of mine who is a extremely devout muslim and he explained why muslims across the world got so agitated. Muslims do caricature themselves and do make fun of their own community. They have Hodja jokes and even have comedy shows like Shazia Mirza who do make fun of their own religion and community. But, as my friend pointed out all muslims draw a line. They supposedly never make fun of their prophets. They hold thier prophets in the highest esteem and they believe that it is the greatest sin to idolise their prophets. So, in this case where the prophet was drawn it was insensitive of some other religion.
So, my argument here is not that the Danish newspaper did not have the right to print these cartoons but that they printed something that was deeply offensive and dangerously blasphemous in another's religion.
Interestingly, the one cartoon which I think succinctly describes the reason for the publication and commission of the cartoons has been overlooked. It shows a terrified artist drawing a bearded face with Mohammed written looking nervously over his shoulder.
Now, I suspect this cartoon would have presented the world with a clear view of the issue and the reasons for drawing such cartoons.
If you do wish to get a brief overview of the history of the event have a look here.
I got a brief overview from my Danish labmate. The story goes something like this:
Danish children's author wants someone to illustrate his book on Muhammed. He cant find anyone because of artists scared of extremist muslims. Danish newspaper publishes cartoons to show that Denmark has moderate muslims who will not undertake or condone such threats. End of story..beginning of madness.
