Danish Cartoons Redux

Seems that the Danish cartoon controversy has once again reared its ugly head. This
article in the New York Times gives some perspective on the lives of the cartoonists who drew the cartoons. The cartoons had recently been republished in the Danish newspapers.

The newspapers decided to do so because a death plot was recently uncovered against the cartoonist. Not surprisingly, this republication aroused all sorts of protests in Muslim countries.

Good news from French Court: It's OK to publish the Danish Muhammed Cartoons

In contrast to the previous post in which a German judge took multia French court has shown the good sense to rule that a paper which published the Danish Muslim cartoons had every right to do so. The charges, which had been brought by the Paris Mosque and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, accused the newspaper of “publicly abusing a group of people because of their religion.”

As the NY Times reported, the French paper, Charlie Hebdo

published the cartoons in solidarity with the Danish newspaper and to make a point about freedom of expression in France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe.

The Times also noted that the French paper published an original drawing by the French cartoonist Cabu depicting a crying Muhammad with his head in his hands, saying, “It’s hard to be loved by idiots.”

While the French court's decision is reassuring, I wonder why the NYTimes did not publish this original drawing. Are we seeing the chilling effect of the Muslim protests???

I am withdrawing from serving as a "judge" in Holocaust cartoon contest

I made a mistake.

When I first learned of the Isralie cartoon contest I saw it as a ironic or sardonic [never sure which is which] way of responding to the absurdly antisemitic Iranian contest.

Things however have become more serious with Arab and Muslim news outlets announcing their intention to run the cartoons.

I thought of the whole thing as a spoof. I was wrong.

It reminded me of the joke from Nazi times. One Berlin Jew meets another. He is carrying Der Sturmer. The first Jew is shocked.

"You read that Nazi antisemitic paper??!!"

"Of course. If I read the Jewish press I only see all the trouble we are in and the horrible things happening to us. If I read Der Sturmer I see how powerful we are. How we run the world. What strength we have."

So I thought of this. But I was wrong. This is being used by others for wrong purposes. I urge the organizers to cancel the contest.

I am going to judge the Jewish cartoon contest

My offer to be a judge has been accepted.

It will be a strange experience. The whole notion is so absurd that it provides the proper commentary about the other contest.

Iran now "insulted" by soccer cartoon

MSNBC's Daryl Cagle is a cartoonist whose blog contains considerable background on the cartoon controversy, as well as daily updates on the violence that has ensued. Cagle notes:

It's not just Muhammad cartoons making the Middle East angry - the Iranian embassy in Berlin demanded an apology for a cartoon in a German newspaper that insulted the Iranian football (soccer) team. To quote from iransportsnews.com:

In a statement addressed to chief editor of the daily Der Tagesspiegel, the embassy demanded a "written apology and measures aimed at rectifying this immoral act". The communiqué added the offensive caricature had caused "outrage among the Iranian people".

The Iran Sports News item displays a copy of the "offensive" cartoon and is headlined:

Iran demands apology from German daily for insulting football cartoon

The Iranian Embassy in Berlin on Monday demanded a full apology from a Berlin-based newspaper for depicting Iranian national football team players in an insulting cartoon.

The article concludes by noting that the graphic artist has already "voiced his regret to the Iranian nation."

The Jewish cartoon contest: I am volunteering to be a judge

I am exhausted by all the sturm and drang of Butz, Irving, AAUP, and others. [I never thought I would string those two names with the AAUP. For details on AAUP see previous post of February 10th.]

I think I need a breather, so I have decided to volunteer to be a judge in the Jewish cartoon contest.

There are few people who can judge antisemitism better than I. [Not an accolade I claim proudly.]

Let's see if they will accept my offer.

A Jewish cartoon contest: brilliant and bound to offend lots of people!

An Israeli webpage is sponsoring a contest for antisemitic cartoons. And here's rub: entry limited to Jews.

The antisemites must be gnashing their teeth in anger and frustration. I can almost empathize. Almost... but not quite.

Check out http://www.boomka.org/

Ahmadinejad and the Holocaust: Like a dog with a bone, i.e. he can't let go

Check out the Memri post on the latest speech [diatribe?] by the Iranian president. The responsibility for the cartoons has been laid squarely at the feet of the ubiquitous Zionists.

Furthermore, in another example of moral equivalences that Arab/Muslim leaders have been pushing since this thing began, he says in Europe you can insult the Prophet but you can't deny the Holocaust.

Similarly, I heard the Saudi Ambassador to the US interviewed last week and he sang a similar tune. "I am not allowed to say anything antisemitic in Europe. But I can disparage Islam." [I am paraphrasing.]

I think rational Arab/Muslim leaders are a bit upset by the reaction against the Muslim reaction. I just don't know how many of them there are and how much influence they have.

[I almost changed the title of this post because I anticipate that some people will take my words out of context and charge that I called the President of Iran a dog. The fact is that I did not do that in this post.]

Why I think the Danish editor was wrong to want to publish the Holocaust cartoons

A few posts ago I promised to explain to a critic [see comments on Danish editor panders] why I think it was wrong of the Danish editor to want to publish the Iranian contest Holocaust cartoons.

Simply put: cartoons are a form of an editorial. The Muslim Prophet cartoons were published to say something about what is going on in the Muslim world.

What would be the point of publishing the Holocaust cartoons? If [with a big emphasis on the IF] they were being published to illustrate how these cartoons [the ones that have consistently been published in the Arab/Muslim world about Jews and about Israel] evoke a kind of cartoon which was familiar in the Third Reich, I would not be against that at all.

That would be an effort by the newspaper to educate its readers. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, that is what newspapers are supposed to do [as opposed to entertain readers].

But just to publish them to show that "we can be equal opportunity offenders" is misguided, silly, and smacks of pandering.

Obviously the powers that be at the Danish paper thought the same thing because they immediately pulled back from the offer.

The Cartoon Battle: one picture [or maybe two] says it all

Though this cartoon has some disturbing overtones, it is a pretty accurate reflection of what is going on. http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/recent/20060204.gif

Danish editor changes his mind

According to a report in the Guardian, the editor of the Danish paper will not be publishing the Holocaust cartoons, whatever they will be.

See the two comments on the previous post. One of the disagrees with my criticism of the Danish editor. More in next post.

Editor of Danish Newspaper Panders to Iranians and Muslims

According to the Guardian, the editor of the Danish newspaper which printed the cartoons about which Muslims worldwide have been so upset and out of control, is apparently trying to get in touch with the Iranian newspaper which is running the Holocaust cartoon contest.

He says he wants to print the Holocaust cartoons the same day the Iranian paper does.

Now I think this guy has lost his marbles. In order to placate the Iranians he is going to run a bunch of antisemitic cartoons?

The Muslim cartoons were trying to make a point about suicide bombing in the name of the Prophet. What point will running the Holocaust cartoons make? That it's ok to insult Muslims if you also insult Jews?

If there were a specific incident involving Jews and/or Israel [which in his mind is probably one and the same] and he ran a cartoon which was offensive but made a point, I would probably be angry but I would understand the context.

But now there is no context. This is just pandering. The guy is probably trying to save the Danish economy ... and his own skin.

I am entering the Holocaust cartoon contest

I may not be able to blog for a few days. I am very busy preparing my entries to the Holocaust cartoon conference [in case you don't know about it, see previous blog] being sponsored by the Iranians.

I am pouring through my large collections of Holocaust related cartoons. They are pretty vicious and should be very popular with the Iranians.

I bet they will also love the fact that they all come from Arab/Muslim newspapers. Some are in Farsi and don't even need to be translated.

I have been collecting these cartoons for a long time. They are filed under: Antisemitic: Arab-Muslim.

It's strange that no one from the Arab-Muslim world who is demanding respect for their religion ever thought to protest these.

I wonder what the prize is. Here's a thought [with apologies to W.C. Fields]

1st Prize: One week in Teheran with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

2nd Prize: Two weeks in Teheran with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

3rd Prize: 450 days in the former American embassy with those nice hostage takers.

A Holocaust Cartoon Contest [courtesy of your friendly Iranians]

The Tel Aviv University Center for the Study of Antisemitism has reported that one of Iran's leading newspapers, Hamshahri, has announced an international Holocaust cartoon contest as "a response to the Danish cartoon scandal."

In a similar vein the virulently anti-Zionist Belgian Arab-European League began its "Freedom of Speech Campaign" on 6 February with cartoons denying the Holocaust and ridiculing Jewish victims of Nazi atrocities.

American Holocaust denier Michael Hoffman II published antisemitic ‘Holohoax’ caricatures on his site as an "antidote to the anti-Muhammad cartoon."

Sources: revisionistreview, 6 February 2006; albawaba.com, Februaryry 2006guardianan, 7 February 2006; y-netnews 7 February 2006; arabeuropean.org, 6 February 2006; abcnews.go.com, 7 February 2006.

Antisemitic Cartoons in the Arab Press: A Double Standard

Here are a few examples of highly offensive cartoons from Arab/Muslim [Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Syria and Egypt and the Palestinian Authority ]newspapers.

They are unequivocally antisemitic.

Some of them would have fit in perfectly on the pages of the Third Reich antisemitic publication, Der Sturmer.

They drip with hatred and contempt.

How can the Muslim leaders egging on the protestors and their thugs on the street protest the Danish cartoons but ignore these? How can they....?


The answer is obvious. For these people [and that absolutely does not include all Arabs or Muslim] when it comes to Jews and Judaism anything goes. When is comes to Islam and Muslims......

There is an irony about these cartoons. They acknowledge there was a Holocaust (see the Jordanian cartoon with Birkenau imagery) and make the charge that Jews are now conducting a Holocaust against the Palestinians.

I wonder how these cartoonists feel about the Iranian president's charges? It reminds me of some Holocaust deniers: they deny the Germans purposely murdered Jews, but, given how awful they think Jews are, wish it had happened.

The Cartoons, Laws against Holocaust denial, etc: Who is to say what is and is not allowed?

The cartoons may be terribly insulting to a Muslim, yet I cannot understand how these same Muslims kept silent all those years when the Arab/Muslim press were -- and are -- filled with cartoons of the most antisemitic character.

In fact the leaders of the Arab countries in which these cartoons appeared, defended them in the name of "Free Speech."

Well, what is good for the goose is good for the gander or, to put it another way, you cannot have it both ways.

Holocaust denial is terribly hurtful and insulting. It comes from people who are fans, on one level or another of the Nazis, yet they have a right to say these terrible things.

The cartoons have hurt many Muslims -- they may be in the worst of taste -- but you cannot outlaw them, not in countries where free speech still stands for something.

And as the writer in Spiegel online [see previous post] asks: if the West is so horrible why are so many Muslim choosing to live in Western societies?

Maybe they are doing so because they think they can fundamentally change those societies. If that is indeed so, it is even more incumbent upon those of us who understand the value of free speech to defend it even as we abhor the uses to which it is put.

The Infamous Cartoons Depicting Muslims

I don't have time to comment about the cartoons which are causing such a ruckus in Europe right now but there is a very powerful piece in Spiegel Online about it. I tend to agree with the author. More later.