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February 05, 2006

Moslem cartoon rioting - the background

Here

One issue that puzzles many Danes is the timing of this outburst. The cartoons were published in September: Why have the protests erupted from Muslims worldwide only now? The person who knows the answer to this question is Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, a man that the Washington Post has recently profiled as “one of Denmark's most prominent imams.”

Last November, Abu Laban, a 60-year-old Palestinian who had served as translator and assistant to top Gamaa Islamiya leader Talaal Fouad Qassimy during the mid-1990s and has been connected by Danish intelligence to other Islamists operating in the country, put together a delegation that traveled to the Middle East to discuss the issue of the cartoons with senior officials and prominent Islamic scholars. The delegation met with Arab League Secretary Amr Moussa, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi, and Sunni Islam’s most influential scholar, Yusuf al Qaradawi. "We want to internationalize this issue so that the Danish government will realize that the cartoons were insulting, not only to Muslims in Denmark, but also to Muslims worldwide," said Abu Laban.

Here
With all the attention that politicians and the media have devoted to the controversy generated by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten's publication of twelve cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, it's important to understand this controversy in its proper context. Jyllands-Posten decided to publish these cartoons because it wanted to test what editor-in-chief Carsten Juste described as "an article of self-censorship which rules large parts of the Western world."

In other words, Juste contended that there is a real fear of being seen as criticizing Islam in large parts of the Western world, and that this fear has bred self-censorship. Juste is right on both counts.

Along with the self-censorship from many Western news organizations and entertainment (any major Hollywood movies with moslem bad guys?), we also endure the "yes, the violence is wrong BUT" from the same people who would never excuse a rapist just because the victim wore her skirt too short.

Amazing.

Posted by Darleen at February 5, 2006 06:35 PM

Comments

More cartoons available at this Danish blog site:

http://retecool.com/comments.php?id=13539_0_1_0_C

Here’s another American website making complete fun of Christians:

http://www.landoverbaptist.org/

(Notice, no one is threatening hostage taking over this one.)

Posted by: Kevin Quail at February 5, 2006 10:05 PM

I think a lot of this "spontaneous outrage" is being orchestrated to distract attention from Iran at the moment. . .

Posted by: TalkinKamel at February 6, 2006 06:17 AM

It is dangerous ground when people start excusing bullying and violence by "You have to understand where they're coming from."

I've heard this one not only as an excuse for terror, but also an excuse for black children beating up on white and Asian children in schools, female colleagues bullying male colleagues, and even heart it from my own social work school when I was bullied by a Hispanic immigrant employee in my internship ("She probably resents your privilege.").

My husband and I joke that people who make those excuses would probably encourage us to beat each other up--I deserve it because I'm the white oppressor and he the minority, and he deserves it because I'm the woman and he's the man. :-)

Posted by: Marian at February 6, 2006 10:04 AM

Oops, this was intended for another thread. Will post there.

Posted by: Marian at February 6, 2006 10:04 AM