[RalphyS]

I think we need to rehash the cartoon-story a bit.

Q&A: The Muhammad cartoons row

Quote:

The Danish newspaper that originally published the cartoons commissioned them after the author of a book about Islam said he was unable to find a single person willing to provide images of the Prophet.

The newspaper's culture editor, Flemming Rose, says he did not ask the illustrators to draw satirical caricatures of Muhammad. He asked them to draw the Prophet as they saw him.

Rose has insisted that there is a long Danish tradition of biting satire with no taboos, and that Muhammad and Islam are being treated no differently to other religions.

So one Danish newspaper wanted some images of 'the Prophet' and some illustrators turned it into cartoons, satirical images in which wrong views of the general public towards islam are overemphasized for humor's sake. Everyone in western nations knows that cartoons are not truth. Some imans can not only not see the humor in it, but they write home too islamic organisations and nations, that they should protest these cartoons. Not in a civilized manor, but with the burning of flags and threats of violence. And now the illustrators and editors are being blamed for being insensitive. The muslims shout 'disrespect', but respect is something you have to earn and by reacting in such a manor to innocent drawings, that is exactly why the people in the west view islam as an intolerant religion and see most muslims as possible terrorists. Ofcourse this is not true for all muslims, but by allowing reactions like these to occur they only increase this view.

Quote:

Many Muslims say that the cartoons - one of which shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban - are extremely and deliberately offensive, expressing a growing European hostility towards and fear of Muslims. The portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad and Muslims in general as terrorists is seen as particularly offensive.

Yes, and ofcourse the appropriate moderate protest from the islamic community and out of islamic nations has changed the view of islam as an intolerant and terrorist religion altogether now.

Quote:

In many European countries there is a strong sense of secular values being under fire from conservative Islamic traditions among immigrant communities. Many commentators see the cartoons as a response to this.

There are also issues of integration - how much should the host society compromise to accommodate immigrant populations, and how much should immigrants integrate into the society they are making home.

Exactly, must we now adapt our moral standards in the west, even our sense of humor, just because in the east they cannot handle it. We cannot let the sensibility of any religion dictate the freedom of press and speech in the west. In Rotterdam Maroccan youths were celebrating when they heard the news of 9/11, the whole of The Netherlands (and the world as far as they heard of it) was appalled, but alas there is no law against it.

In hindsight was it wise to publish these cartoons, probably not, was it wrong, no, and this is the reason why other European papers also published the cartoons, not to instigate more riots, but just to substantiate the basic right that the Danes had to publish these cartoons. Sure we can be tolerant to a point and somewhat sensitive, but we have to draw a line somewhere, as too how far we go to appease some radical opinion.