Another Growing Muslim Firestorm Over A Cartoon?
It sounds as if this should be filed in your Here We Go Again Department File:
Fears grew of a new confrontation over images deemed blasphemous by Muslims as Pakistan joined Iran in protest over a sketch by a Swedish artist portraying the prophet Mohammed as a dog.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the Swedish charge d’affaires to condemn “in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet”.
The move adds to a chorus of criticism over the series of drawings, by artist Lars Vilks, one of which was published earlier this month by a regional Swedish newspaper.
Do you get a sense of deja vu yet?
The drawings show the head of a turbaned man attached to the body of a dog, in front of various settings including a football goal.
The publication, in the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, came after several galleries had refused to display the drawings, apparently for fear of violent retaliation from offended Muslims.
Early last year, violent demonstrations erupted throughout the Muslim world after the publication in Denmark of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed which were also deemed blasphemous.
“Alongside the picture, we published a comment piece saying that it was serious that there is self-censorship among exhibition [galleries],” said the Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief, Ulf Johansson.
And it seems like protests are growing. According to The Telegraph, there was a small protest demonstration outside the newspaper’s office. That was followed Monday by Iran expressing its ire by calling Sweden’s chief diplomat in Tehran to give him an earful.
And, of course, Iran being Iran under it’s present leadership that doesn’t attend many bar mitzvahs, you can just GUESS who Iran’s President blamed:
Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has blamed “Zionists” for the images but said he would not hold the Swedish people responsible.
Meanwhile, Pakistan reported that it got reassurances from the Swedish government it wasn’t happy about the cartoon. And it seems like that the Swedish government truly wishes it would all go away:
In Stockholm, the Swedish foreign ministry said it now considered the matter closed.
Still, perhaps it won’t. This news report already gives indications that the protests are snowballing. The question is whether some militants will now see the growing cartoon protests as an issue they can pick up and run with by fanning the flames of already surfacing disapproval.
2 Responses to “Another Growing Muslim Firestorm Over A Cartoon?”
I hope the Swedes and the Swedish government stand by there right to freedom of speech and don’t give us the grovelling spectacle some “authorities” gave us the last time this happened.
What’s most frustrating is this pretend “respect”. I’m sure that the Swedish government has said that they aren’t happy and it’s only because they think it’s disrespectful to someone else’s religion. Everyone knows that’s a lie, it’s not respect it’s fear, and seemingly many Muslim extremists think fear is a good enough substitute for respect. Like most dictatorships, they don’t care if hatred for them grows, if real respect diminishes, as long you don’t dare say anything about it.
Ok, heres the issue that I like to call the Mohammed Cartoon Paradox, left unanswered after the last round of protest.
If there are no graven images or drawings of Mohammed allowed by the tenets of Islam, than how do you know that any particular image or drawing is of Mohammed?
I guess we could ask Mel Brooks world’s oldest man. He probably remembers what Mohammed looked like.