Threats of violence escalate over cartoons of the prophet
Mohammed after they were reprinted in France and Germany.
The cartoons were first published in September 2005 in a Danish newspaper,
Jyllands-Posten, which asked 40 cartoonists to draw images of Mohammed. The chief editor
said, "the purpose is to examine whether people would succumb to self censorship, as
we have seen in other cases when it comes to Muslim issues."
"Enough lessons from these reactionary bigots!" France Soir editor Serge Faubert
wrote in a commentary explaining why his newspaper had printed the cartoons. "Just
because the Koran bans images of Mohammed doesn't mean non-Muslims have to submit to
this."
Germany's Die Welt printed a similar piece to accompany the cartoons. It said: "There
is no right to be shielded from satire in the West. Christianity has been the object of
ruthless criticism. "Being able to make fun of the holiest things is a non-negotiable
core tradition in our culture."
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said France supported press
freedom, which "should be exercised in a spirit of tolerance and respect for beliefs
and religions".
Editors of French and German papers that republished them said press freedom was more
important than the protests and boycotts the cartoons have sparked across the Muslim
world.
The Danish embassy in Damascus was evacuated after a bomb threat that turned out to be a
hoax and Syria recalled its ambassador from Denmark in protest against the cartoons, one
of which shows the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.
In Copenhagen, security police met Islamic leaders in a bid to calm reactions there.
Muslims consider images of prophets distasteful and caricatures blasphemous.
Dalil Boubakeur, head of the French Muslim Council, denounced the publication of the
drawings as a "provocation".
Burhan Kesici, a leader of Germany's Turkish community, said they reduced Islam "to
two or three terrorists".
Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons last September,
has apologised for any hurt they may have caused.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was happy Jyllands-Posten apologized
but said press freedom allowed it to publish the comic. The Danish government meanwhile,
has remained relatively neautral on the issue, saying it cannot tell free media what to
do.
Muslims have boycotted Danish products and say the newspapers are reprinting the cartoon
just to spite angry Muslims.
The BBC reports seven papers in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain have
followed the Dutch paper Jyllands-Posten in printing the comic.
The reaction of media and government heads lobbied by Muslims to take action has been
mixed.
Reporters Without Borders said calling for censorship is a sign of misunderstanding the
importance of a free media in a democracy.
Under the headline, "Yes, we have the right to caricature God," French newspaper
France Soir ran a front-page cartoon of Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian gods
floating on a cloud. "Don't complain, Mohammed, we've all been caricatured
here," the Christian deity says.
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The Arab press pokes fun at the 9/11
attacks and the Holocaust.
Qatar's Al-Watan newspaper nine months after the 9/11 attacks shows former Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon watching as an Israeli plane crashes into the World Trade Center.
The Arabic words alongside the Twin Towers are "The Peace."
The Jordanian newspaper Ad-Dustur in October 2003, depicted the railroad tracks to
Auschwitz-Birkenau. The punchline? Israeli flags have replaced the swastikas flying above
the death camp - with a caption that reads: "Gaza Strip or the Israeli Annihilation
Camp.”
A cartoon that ran in Saudi Arabia's Arab News in April 2002, shows Prime Minister Sharon
wielding a swastika-shaped axe to chop up Palestinian children.
Most print media in the Arab world are under the full or partial control of the ruling
regimes.
Mideast media watchdog Tom
Gross has collected on his Web site a few of the cartoons
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/LeMonde.htm
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