Danish Mohammed cartoons

In Islam there’s a, I’m not sure is this a rule or just a consensus that nobody may make a picture of prophet Muhammad SAW. that’s the matter. Anyway thanks for the picture link. I wanna write about it on my own blog.

The recent reactions in various Arab countries to this cartoon is outrageous. So many Arab newspapers publish anti Semitic and anti Western cartoons on a daily basis. Moreover, the violent reactions only validates the truth in the terroristic nature of the cartoon that sparked this debate in the first place. This is not what Islam is about, and it is up to Muslims to take responsibility for changing the negative perception that the outside world has of their religion by reacting to such material in a peaceful way which creates dialogue rather than justifying the publication of such cartoons.

I find it sad that those who condemn some caricatures of their prophet have no problem doing the same to the Pope or the whole Jewish people. See here: http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-21.htm

The original cartoons seems perfectly inocuous to me; a couple are vaguely sardonic, but very mild compared to the sort of thing published regularly about european political/religious figures.

What annoys me about the extreme reactions is that it’s yet another brick in the wall of the imam’s efforts to make any form of comment on islam a ‘thought crime’.

One had the cheek today (Feb 6th) on a BBC interview to say ALL european governments should make criticism of a ‘prophet’ (Jesus or Mohammed) a crime! Further that people should be tried by an ‘islamic court’!!!

It would be bad enough if this was just hypocrisy, however, I think it’s evidence of an underlying attempt to ‘islamisize’ the world. Tyy watching some of the videos distributed by The Society for the Propogation of Islam (I saw many whilst working in Africa).

Why hypocrisy? Well moslems have made a big thing about ‘respect’ for Islam and freedom of religion. Try being free to be a christian in Saudi Arabia. Try being free to be secular and follow a secular lifestyle in many moslem states!!

Ask the Koptic Christians in Egypt (one of the world’s oldest christian communities) how they have been ‘respected’ by moslems over the past few years.

Isn’t it interesting that there have been worldwide moslem demonstrations about these cartoons, but no demonstrations against ‘christians’ having their throats cut by Iraqi insurgents?

If there’s one message I want to say to any moslems reading this: European culture is secular, this gives freedom of religion (as in practising) and expression to all. An element of expression will inevitably involve criticism; we cannot always accept elements of ideas/religions ‘foreign’ to our own, particularly those that appear offensive.

Just as these cartoons may appear offensive to moslems, many fundamental concepts in Islam are offensive to non-moslems, women’s rights to name but one. Either learn to accept some criticism or exercise your freedom to go and live in an islamic state.

Perhaps, if our religion was under attack as theirs is by the christians, same now as in the times of sir arther of the round table and the holy wars, now bush and his holy wars. we would find anything of this kind offensive. these people are fighting for the right to believe in whatever god they want. if my people’s way of life was being slowly erroded away, piece by piece over the centuries, perhaps i might feel the same way too.

I think, there is a big mistake. We all must respect to muslism for their religious belief.

I condemn the danish magazine that was pusblished these.

I would strongly disagree with someone who was an apologist to Hitler, but I would certainly defend their right to express their opinion. The Danish cartoons were an expression of the artists perception of Islam, and as such were a satire on a belief system. That’s all religion is, a belief system. And no belief should be free from satire and criticism.

It is a great idea to post this cartoons here.
Freedom has to be protected in every moment.
DJ

HERE WE GO AGAIN

these pictures have started world war 3. you think its a joke. this is beyond a joke. us muslims beleave that taking a picture is against our islamic law. doing a picture of our prophet is disrespectfull. you say you live in a community with equal rights but wheres the equality in that. if a muslim was to say to a christian that jesus was a terrorist how would you feel?? yeah thought so…..

A Muslim states “if a muslim was to say to a christian that jesus was a terrorist” - any good Christian would “turn the other cheek” as Jesus taught and simply ignore the comment. A good Christian would certainly NOT begin a streak of violence and destruction to both public and private property. A good Christian also would not take a human life to show dismay. How would I feel? That the person was ignorant - and I would feel sorry for him/her - kind of like how I feel for you right about now.

To everyone else - this whole situation is a farce. You would think watching the news that you are watching real-life satire. Unfortunately that is not the case - and we still live in a world where intolerance, violence, and hatred are widespread. Thank God there are those willing to protect the freedoms some of us share by standing up to the the forces of hatred and tyranny in this world.

Ok… The Muslim community unfortunately is being represented for the most part by the extremist groups and they are the ones that are causing most of the turmoil overseas. I find it hard to believe that Muslims can buy pictures of Mohammed in most of their communities in the Middle East. Is this allowed? Why are those artists not condemned? Is it because they don’t understand that most of the free world is able to express their beliefs and opinions, and it is unfortunate that their religion suppresses them. Organized religion in general was created by man. And most people seem to forget that. Religion is nothing more than a control mechanism that has been around for thousands of years and it is the view of most of the Western World that Islam extremists are to blame, not the Muslim community as a whole. I say, relax. If this sparks WW3, then I say let’s have it. If in this day and age we beleive that God is going to intervene on behalf of one or the other group, or that one religion is superior to another, have we really evolved? I think it takes us back about 2000 years, in the same time that most Islamic extremists are currently living…..

all i know you are one of the wrost son of a bitch. even though there is something creating problem you put these picture here. thats fine let have internet war. i will put jesus picture on this block. well actully you know what no i will not i am degraded personality like you.

I also support freedon of speech. And my opininion is that Europe and Asia doesn’t understand each of other. Also I God is narked sometimes. I hope that the stupid fight end before it’s to late.

Live free and respect all the people

Kari from Finland

I read this in the news today:

“DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Hundreds of Syrian demonstrators stormed the Danish Embassy in Damascus Saturday and set fire to the building, witnesses said.

The demonstrators were protesting offensive caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed that were first published in a Danish newspaper several months ago.

Witnesses said the demonstrators set fire to the entire building, which also houses the embassies of Chile and Sweden.”

The morons who are commiting this violence need to pull their arrogant heads out of their ass and realize that the rest of the world doesn’t always share the same religious and cultural views as they do. People complain that Americans are arrogant and enthnocentric, but look at these guys. These Syrian protestors, as well as others in Gaza City, Iraq, and Palestine have the arrogance to expect us all to agree with their religious beliefs. In Syria they went as far as to burn down the embassy of three foreign nations…OVER A CARTOON!!

Somehow they fail to realize that the Danish government allows their citizens to have freedom of speech and religion, unlike Syria where you have neither. “Oh no, Denmark refused to stop the newspaper from printing the offensive cartoons!” These religious zealots are insane and work themselves up into a frenzy over the slightest things. The year is 2006 not 1100, I can’t believe this is even happening.

This reminds me of how religious zealots everywhere are trying to force corporations, broadcasting companies, and ordinary people to cooperate with, and even promote, their specific religous views. These groups, ranging from the lunatic Muslims above to the “Christian” American Family Association use protests, boycotts, threats, slander, conspiracy theories, government lobbying and in the case of Syrian Muslims, even violence all in an attempt to force others to agree with them on a religious or “moral” level. It’s all fascism if you ask me and although I think there are some moral standards society as a whole needs to agree upon, it’s just that, society as a whole….a compromise….not one group saying to everyone “you all need to fall in line with our beliefs or else!”

Thanks for publishing the pictures…..
we all need to be able to see what all of the fuss is about….
Much to do about not really that much….
Lighten up and enjoy life a little!
It is only one man’s doodles……

I was worried about this. I worried that the world could be taken over by the most vocal fundamental religious group terrorising everyone else. But then I though hang on these people are so dumb and narrow minded they get worked up over a few cartoons; we’ll kick their sorry asses. My apologies to any non fundamentalist religious people; although I disagree with you I’m happy for you to have your opinions (read ancient tribal myths).

The Danish cartoons that portray Mohammed having a certain inclination toward violence cannot be worse than the actual violence done in his name. As long as the portrayal of violence outweighs the actual violence in the minds of Mohammed’s followers, Mohammed is dishonered.

You know, this whole Mohammed Cartoon has been blown out of porportion by the extremists. The extremist again are giving a very bad name to the Muslim community and should absolutely renounce this type of behavior. Where are they though? Where are all those moderates that say, ” this is not Islam”? Why don’t we see more of them speaking up? These extremist know they will find their way to the media because it makes good news. Any opportunity to trash western freedoms and the western way of life. That is “freedom of speech and religion”. It makes good news. Why is it ok for the Muslim community to feel sooooooo betrayed when the same community will not hesitate to portray non-islamic religions in the same light? the Islamic community has their own mess. Like discouraging extremism wherever it exists. Once they achieve that, which i doubt will happen in my lifetime, they will change the way western culture looks at them. let’s also face it, the media is not helping very much either.

The danish newspaper did what they thought was right and the danish government refused to interfere not even in a symbolic or deplomlatic way.We moslems do what we think is right too.We as well express our opinion as freely as they do in Danmark by saying that those who published the pictures did it intentionally to hurt and provoque moslems.And they are responsible with the Danish government for all the outcome.We can never as moslems accept to see our religion and our symbols attacked and not react.Other people’s and nations’ dignity is not toy we can play with as we please.We know Jesus Christ better than quite a lot of Americans and Europeeans and show much more respect twards him than they may show.We don’t expect everyone all over the world to think the way we do or to believe in what we believe in.But we have the right to expect civilised people in a civilised world to show a little respect towards us as a nation and towards our specificities and our beliefs. freedom of expression is as important as freedom of belief.

Hi all, I a Muslim my self, and take pride in my religion. And would never delay in standing up to what Islam is.

But I also agree that the whole situation has been over blown. But what we need to understand, is that these riots are sparked by minorities, that just want a fight! they don’t care about Islam or anything else. So in a way this all boils down to politics, and west vs. east.

I actually thank you for publishing the pictures prior to seeing them people were over exaggerating the pictures which in turn made me image far worse than what I have seen, because after seeing them, I laugh for the reason is that I KNOW this is not my prophet MUHAMMED, but a silly cartoon!

But what I urge the Muslim community to do, is perhaps change the way Islam is portrayed. In a non violence manner. What we also need to understand that the US and the terrorist groups , that take on the name of Islam and jihad, don’t even care about Islam. They only use it as a means to getting their way.

So please, respect all religions, at the end it’s one god with many faces!!!

There is and never has been a picture of The prophet Mohammed in any moslem country .All Moslems know sidna Mohammed well enough not to need a representa

… …. a representation of him.It is not and never has been a question of freedom to draw or to acquire a picture of the prophet. such drawing or representation is not and never has been sought or thought of as the prophet is a sacred personality that doesn’t need to be represented on paper or what so ever.Don’t you believe that other cultures exist and do have a place in this world? Don’t you believe that freedom of thought and belief is similar to freedom of expression?

You say these pictures have started world war three. Perhaps you haven’t noticed but world war three started about 5 years ago and is now just starting to get serious. If I were a muslim I would be considering which side to be on, not rioting over cartoons because some islamic facist told them to. They should be tring to win there freedom from radical clerics and dictators who try to run their lives.

From an American: A Message to Radical Muslims

Killing yourselves over a cartoon published in another country is not that much different from killing your own in Iraq. Get a grip. STOP IT! There is a better way - Mohammed should have made a note in his preophecy and left it for your more radical believers to newly discover TODAY. MORE MUSLIMS HAVE DIED THAN ANYONE ELSE - KEEP IT UP!

You are KILLING your own - is this what he would want? If so - FUCK Mohammed and FUCK you.

I respect all faiths - I respect all people. No disrespect is intended.

The nonsense exhibited by “faithfull” Muslims over a cartoon is absolutely assinine…

Killing your own in any place for including Iraq is assinine.

http://www.dictionary.com

Search on assinine.

With all due respect and a hope for rational behavior on your part.

God (or Mohammed) Bless All Free People

Paul

Once again, the Muslim world’s reaction to these cartoons further emphasizes the difference between a free world and and others. Thanks for posting the cartoons. Too bad each newspaper in the United States, to include small town weeklys, hasn’t let freedom ring by running the cartoons.

REPLAY TO PAUL
THIS IS JUST THE ATITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR ALL NON MUSLIMS ARE TALKING ABOUT THAT SPARKS VIOLENCE AND ANGER IN PEOPLE
DO YOU THINK ITS FAIR FOR ME TO SAY THAT ALL NON MUSLIMS
BELIEVE WHAT YOU BELIVE….?
I GUESS NOT
SO UNLESS ALL NON MUSLIMS WONT REACT TO A MUSLIM CURSING JESUS CHRIST….
THEN I WILL ADMIT TO IT BEING A LITTLE TOO MUCH
IF I WERE TO SAY IN ANGER “JESUS!” AM I NOT USING HIS NAME IN VEIN?
SO NO MATTER WHAT THE METHOD…
US MUSLIMS WILL & DO HAVE THE COURAGE TO PROTECT THE PROPHETS NAME AND ISLAM AT ALL COSTS……YES EVEN OUR LIVES…
WHICH I CANT SAY THE SAME ABOUT THE REST
REMEMBER IN THE BIBLE WHEN ONE OF THE DECIPLES DENIED KNOWING JESUS FOR FEAR OF HIS LIFE?
MUSLIMS ARE NOT OF THOSE PEOPLE…
A MUSLIM LIVES HIS RELIGION
IF HE DOESNT LIVE HIS RELIGION THE HE IS NOT MUSLIM
THAT IS HOW ONE CLASIFIES A MUSLIM…WHEN ISLAAM IS THEIR WAY OF LIFE..
WHAT EVER RELIGION YOU BELIEVE IN …DO YOU FOLLOW IT AS YOU SUPPOSED TO?
IF U R A TRUE CHRISTIAN AND I INSULT CHRISTIANITY YOU WILL FEEL HURT…DO NOT INSULT ISLAM CAUSE YOU WILL BE HURTING PEOPLE…WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU AFTER THAT IS THROUGH YOUR OWN DOING

BYE

fuck for this blog

I don’t think that those cartoons are that bad, but I suppose that westerners are used to everyone and everything being criticised.

But IMO the followers of Islam should be aware that they way that they behave (and which is not necessarily in accordance with their religion) is what creates this view of their prophet.

They themselves have created the perception of their religion as a radical, regressive and violent movement that should have no place in a modern world.

i’d just like 2 say 2 those who don’t know about Islam that Inshallah we’ll meet on the Judgement day n only then will u realise that u were soo sooo rong. may Allah guide u 2 the rite path. everybody take care
Allahafiz

Bad religious satire is not a crime — yet. Quite ironic, isn’t it, that muslims violently protest cartoons showing Islam as a violent religion?

I’m curious if any good muslims out there can identify for me the verse in the Koran that forbids reproducing Mohammed’s image? Is there really a Koranic basis for this “rule,” or is it merely a tradition in the culture? None of the news reports I’ve seen or read have specified why a picture of Mohammed is so abhorrent. Jews picture their prophets; Christians picture Jesus; Bhuddists use the image of Bhudda; and on an on…Why no pictures of Mohammed?

If the shoe fits… wear it.

Man cannot come to it (the realization of truth) through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique. If an organization be created for this purpose, it becomes a crutch, a weakness, a bondage, and must cripple the individual, and prevent him from growing, from establishing his uniqueness, which lies in the discovery for himself of that absolute, unconditioned Truth.

Check this link

http://rous.redbarn.org/objectivism/Writing/NagendraRentala/extramile.html

Greetings THAABIT,

You wrote, > US MUSLIMS WILL & DO HAVE THE COURAGE TO PROTECT THE PROPHETS NAME AND ISLAM AT ALL COSTS……YES EVEN OUR LIVES

If I got mad and burned an embassy every time an anti-Semitic cartoon was published in a Middle Eastern country, most of Washington D.C. would be in cinders. I didn’t think the cartoons were all that funny, but compared to a lot of the anti-Semitic stuff that’s published in the Middle East (such as the “scholarly” article in Saudi Arabia asserting that Jews drink the blood of non-Jewish children on Purim), they’re ridiculously tame. I understand the offense and think that Muslims have every right to peacefully protest the cartoons, but the key word there is peaceful. Burning down embassies and calling for beheadings is not peaceful.

I feel sorry for the poor Norwegians and Chileans, personally. What did they ever do to anyone? All they’ve got to show for this are a couple of torched embassies.

let muhammed speak for himself if he wants to.maybe if they print up enough stupid cartoons,these mindless robots will forget about their hate for Israel and America and just kill each other and do us all a favor.
5 gallons of gasoline@$4.00 a gallon=$20.00
1 American Flag=$2.99
1 disposable lighter= .99
Asshole muslim terrorist setting himself on fire= priceless

besides,there has been only 1 man in history that ever left a grave empty,and His name isn’t the prophet muhammed,it’s Jesus Christ.

Greetings all,

These cartoons simply gives us a clear clue of how the non-moslems (well, most of them) see Islam.

Actually, it’s a pitty for those drawers, I say. Why?

When I first saw those cartoons, I saw hatred. I sensed anger. Negative messages are emerging from those cartoons.

For all moslems around the world…

I suggest you handle this issue wisely. You don’t have to become fools to counter fools. You say Islam is the highest, right?

Well, show that to the world…

Do you fundamentalists not realise that by acting the way you are doing you are only isolating yourselves and islamic communities the world over or is that what you want? After seeing how certain countries handled the issue over the cartoon I’m pretty sure that Muslims just love kicking off with whoever.

I watched the news the other day (UK) and one guy was saying “One day you will see the islamic flag flying over Downing Street”. Yeah? I don’t think so dickhead! I have come to the conclusion that a lot of muslims, and I mean a lot, are not happy to have their section of the world and live in harmony with respect to other cultures and religions, they want the lot. I’m no racist but bit by bit I find myself becoming “religionist?”. Bit by bit I’m am growing to dislike muslims and I wish they’d just keep their shit to themselves. If they don’t like our country or our way of doing thing or our beliefs, tough shit go live somewhere else.

I know I shouldn’t say it like that because there are millions of moderate muslims who are no diffrent to me or you but these nob-head ones who stand in finsbury park spoutuing anti western bullshit all day have plenty of fans, why? These lot should be rounded up and fucked of to some despot country where they can run round with guns, blow stuff up and they will be happy because they won’t be in the “toilet” that is U.K.

The UK is fuckin brilliant an you know it that is why your ancestors moved here, probably peacefully not meaning for you bite the hand that feeds you fuckin pieces of shit!

Hello THAABIT,

Yes, you have the courage, but physical courage alone is not enough. You have to have the courage to face the truth when you don’t like it. The violence being done in the name of Mohammed is doing nothing to protect the Prophet’s name. The cartoon portrays that violence. What you really don’t like is the fact that the cartoon is accurate - not of Mohammed, but of some of his followers.

You need to face the fact that the point of the cartoon is that the image of Mohammed has been usurped by those who do not genuinely reflect his teachings. The violence in response to the cartoon gives validity to that image. You and your bretheren who do respect Mohammed have failed to stand up as one and denounce those who keep blowing up themselves and others in His name.

Many people see excessive violence in the name of the Prophet, and they see portraying the Prophet duplicating that violence as an honest commentary.

If that violent image of the Mohammed is false then back up your belief in him by stopping the violence done in his name.

Clean up your own house before you even think about burning down the houses of others.

Not too long ago in North American history, people were stoned, killed, etc because they were considered heretics. Since then, we have become “enlightened”. An awful lot of red, white, and blue blood has dropped so that we can now work 40-60 hours a week, get into more debt than we’ll ever be able to get out of and to make fun of others in the vain attempt to feel good. We’ve come so far!!! Oh, but wait! I guess that if you are a fat, Black, Jewish, four-eyed, Santa loving hermaphrodite then you are safe as it would be political incorrect to make fun of you. Apparently though, it would make for great press if someone drew a picture of you perfoming fellatio on Jesus Christ.

Freedom of this and freedom of that…blah blah. If we don’t learn how to use our freedoms responsibly, we may just lose them. Just because you can does not necessarily mean that you should. Will I defend the idea of being able to draw a cartoon depicting the most horrible things…absolutely. Do I think it was a moronic thing to do…absolutely.

I see nothing wrong with these cartoon. In my opinion, they are very funny for it shows the ridiculous aspects of this “religion of peace”, a religion that orders young people to kill themselves by suicide bombing, a religion that pursues the senseless slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians (children, men, women) in Iraq,in Indonesia, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Yemen, in India, etc., a religion that believes in the beheadings of those who are not Moslems. Surely, we, parents of the victims of this religion, who have suffered from this “little, tribal people” of the desert, should grant us some humor. After all, it is the practioners of Moslem religion who have sought to kill all of us in the Western world. It is only best to laugh at them. Moslems attempt to frighten us. I know that we non-Moslems have great stregth to protect our families, and this the reason that we are in solidarity with Israel. We have seen what the “religion of peace” has done in Gaza and in Palestine.

So, I hope that more cartoons can be printed so that we can all laugh at these “desert people” who believe that by killing other humans they are super in virtue and righteousness.

Well,you can make fun of North Americans if you want.Print some cartoons,I don’t care.I don’t have to read them.You should have the freedom to print them if you want.The difference is,you won’t find any North American Christian peoples who work 40 to 60 hours a week and would give you the shirt off their back,murdering others and destroying property over a stupid cartoon.
I thank God Almighty I live in a country where I can say what I want and think what I want to think-and read what I want to read.I don’t agree with everything thing my neighbor has to say-but by damn-his right to say it is worth fighting for.God Bless Our Troops!The sons and daughters of Freedom!You Arab peoples should be rolling out the red carpet for our kids,who are trying to help you be free.Instead,you thank us with roadside bombs!Well you do right to think about God,even if you have a warped idea of who He is.One thing is for sure,you won’t outsmart God,He’s been around awhile(and He loves you).
GOD Bless the USA!
If you think God(or anyone else)is whispering in your mind or heart,telling you to kill your neighbor,do us a favor-GET SOME MENTAL HELP!They have medicine for stuff like that,and we need to get you stabilized!The prophet muhammed would be happy if we got you stabilized!Or you can try coming out of your hiding spot and engaging those US Marines,and they’ll get you stabilized.(Saddam sure came out of his spider hole,when he considered the alternative).Notice how he didn’t want to die for Islam.

In closing,we can remember some words spoken by a great man,US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy,”If we cannot now end our differences,at least we can help make the world safe for diversity”(spoken June 10,1963)

Bleach, for somebody who wants to make the world safe for diversity, you seem to only support one cause, and you are not very tolerant to people woth other ideas. Once your country was attacked, and accoring to your leader, the stuff you believe in, your so-called freedom etc., and the first thing you did was go to another country and kill. Then a year and a half later you went to another country, without any reason and did the same. Now some people are burning flags for their cause, and you call them mental. Hey man, get a grip of yourself. You seem to support the statement that the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter is whether the USA is behind you.
Bleach, those north american christians have performed their own cruelties, or have you forgotten about Vietnam, or even now some of them make mistakes in Iragi prisons, maybe not over a cartoon, but are there ever any good arguments to kill civilians? I didn’t think so.

There will be no world peace unless people start respecting each other in every way possible. Only when people start minding their own business, and do not act on fear and hatred spread by politicians (on both sides) we can solve the many problems in this world. It is not about who is right or wrong, it is about how we can make people forgive mistakes made by others, and make sure we understand each other and not want to hurt one another any more. Stop spreading hatred, calling people stupid, this is not the way. Criticizing a whole population (distinguished by belief or nationality) on the behavior of one person, or a few is not correct. Respect, respect, respect. You have to have it to earn it.

The limits on freedom of speech are set at endangering other people, or creating chaos, hatred, or even insulting people’s beliefs. If you want to disagree, then tell me why you cannot say f**k on television in the USA.

I don’t think the cartoons were published to insult one single person, or insult a group of people. But if they did, apologies should be made (they were made) and accepted (??).

Richard, I see your historical knowledge does not go back further than a couple of years. Senseless slaughter is not only done by muslims. Have you forgotten former Yougoslavia, if I’m not mistaken, the muslims were victims of cruelties by christians. Rwanda had nothing to do with the islamic belief. Second world war, I’m not sure but was the main oppressor and slaughter of a whole belief not christian. I’m also pretty sure that native (south) americans did not give up their way of life to the conquerors of the new world without being slaughtered (a calculated 6 million).

Maybe some of us should try to look at problems from both or all sides before strong opinions or insults are made. Hell, why don’t we look at the problem from all sides all the time before we do things we might regret.

I am not pro or con any country, any belief; I am pro respect and con violence. Let’s all live together on this little peace of earth as long as we can.

I think the cartoons are funny! Who cares if the Muslims are offended! They are the most violent scum on the earth. The Prophet Mohammed? Never heard of him! As for the Koran, I bought two copies from the local bookstore, fiction section of course. I keep a copy of the Koran in my bathroom and use its pages as toilet paper.

Religion sucks. In any form. Hey, why don’t you two groups just start killing each other a bit faster, so the rest of us normal folks can have more room on a rapidly overpopulating planet.

well,im just a human.saying im an atheist only gives creadence to the idea that a god exists!.the sooner ALL religious groups”wake up and smell the coffee”to the fact there isnt one,is when the world will be a better and happier place to live.lets face it more people have died in the name of a god than for any other reason.so money aint the root of all evil after all!!

Who cares if you care or not. And who cares if you are so selfish that you think you are the smartest person on earth while all the rest is but idiots.Ignorant and narrow minded Tommies of your kind who are the ones who push people to such extremism that scares you to such an extent that you get mad at shadows!

SORRY THE COMMENT ABOVE IS IN RESPONSE TO TOMMY!!!

Tommy
(not candian perspective)

Who cares if you care or not. And who cares if you are so selfish that you think you are the smartest person on earth while all the rest is but idiots.Ignorant and narrow minded Tommies of your kind who are the ones who push people to such extremism that scares you to such an extent that you get mad at shadows!

What do you think yo’re doing? insulting muslims? expressing your free opinion? All right, the koran doesn’t mean anything to you but you pretend you read it (of course in your dirty language)Don’t you see that only mentally ill people like you can use book paper as toilet paper let alone holy books.Look deep in your subconscious and you will certainly realize that you got fucked one day by someone who has to do with Islam and Moslems.

The cartoons are not really the issue, they’re just the catalyst that allowed expression to something that’s been building steadily for the past 10 years or so.

There are basically 5 important groups here:

1. The American Populace:

Generally anti-muslim (check out latest surveys - or for an even more interesting stat, try check out what % of americans surveyed who believe there were actually Iraqis flying the twin tower planes!)

a) This anti-islamic fear in the US populace is understandable, when you consider:

i) americans are constantly fed on distorted and simplified 9/11 pop stories,
ii) are engaged in distant wars against misrepresented foes (safety, popularity & certainty is always a powerful pull-factor in opinion formation, on the other hand if you are morally anti-war, its probably because its often cool among your circle of friends to hold such liberal attitudes),
iii) constant media sensationalism and patriotic buzzwords,
iv) widespread religious and political leaders’ extremist/jingoistic rhetoric.

b) Opinion is obviously still going to be dispersed along a wide spectrum from tolerant to skeptical to macho-psycho-attention-seeking-sad-life. However on average americans are now highly xenophobic as a result of the above.

2. The American Elite:

a) Are very happy. This is because:

i) They have successfully replaced the ‘faceless external threath’ of the ‘commie aggressors’ with an even more invasive and amplifiable enemy: ‘global terrorism’. This allows them to continuously use the fear lever to do whatever they want to advance their own agenda at the expense of every other broad interest group involved with them in some way.

eg 1: Wolfowitz: I have always wanted to invade the middle east.

1990s Populace: Thats ridiculous, we don’t want to spike oil prices, and go where we have no business.
2000s Populace: Thats quite appealing, we now fear muslims and sort of want the hit back at ‘them’ somehow anyway. Oil prices are already riduculously high, and we could really use some sort of show of strenght or we would realise we’re overspending, have an enormous housing asset bubble, an unsustainable national debt, and no real leaders who inspire us to unite despite the fact that many of us no longer speak english and fear our neighbours.

eg 2: World Court: USA, we would like you to respect the rights of prisoners, at the very least not torture them.

1990s USA: Yeah,,,,,, “human rights”…….. eh fair enough, we do say we support that alot anyway, so it would be pretty blatent if we tortured people. ok, we wont,,,, much.
2000s USA: HAHAHAH……oh, eh, sorry I was thinking of the something george said this morning. Anyway, no torture is a very messy word. You see, ‘Global Terrorism’ is a threath that justifies us in doing anything we want, dont you know that? I mean, theres no REAL difference in us killing and torturing both average and elite people in S.America since 1900, and what we are doing now in Eastern Europe and in dictatorships like Kazahkstan with which we have unofficial agreements, but now its just so much easier - because people can almost imagine the ‘ticking bomb’ scenario, and generally really think of muslims as slightly more faceless and therefore worth less because they aren’t white like the russians were.

eg 3: Top-Bracket Tax Breaks:

1990s Populace: I will not reelect you if you do this, with no external threaths I am focused squarely on the economy and taxes.
2000s Populace: I don’t really care that people I can barely imagine are getting taxed less, I am afraid of muslims are you are protecting me and getting revenge on them for me.

There are really alot more examples of this in everyday life. In fact, just try and imagine you are a leader. Imagine you had an excuse, a wonderful magical excuse…. whenever you used this people were both sympathetic to you, and they thought you were strong, and they thought you were morally justified. You wouldn’t just use this excuse on stuff it applied to, you’d keep pushing the limits, trying to see just how much stuff you could get away with! And you would LOVE it. You wouldn’t really want to stop this excuse, but you’d be happy to do alot of stuff that looked like you were stopping it, all the while fulfilling your own agenda. In fact, Global Terrorism, you would conclude, is one of the best things that ever happened to you.

3. The European Populace:

Europeans look on amercians as stereotypically arrogant, isolated, egocentric, coming from an unhealthy society, poorly educated, gullible, naive, loud, brash, un-classy, simplistic, etc. Core social beliefs and attitudes differ, and you are very aware of this. You would however, still prefer a white person whose attitudes differed to a non-white person whose attitudes differed even more. Therefore, you are sympathetic, but not supportive of genuine anti-islamic policies. Mock/disguise anti-islamic/anti-’global terrorism’ policies, ie policies where you use the excuse when it has nothing to do with the issue, you do not support, and don’t you generally cannot appreciate the factors above which make the american populace buy them.

4. The European Elite

You don’t like the USA getting too powerful, you don’t like the way recent developments have made relations between christians and muslims in your own countries unstable.

Meanwhile, you gain nothing like what the American elite is gaining and your populace is a lot more cynical about your ‘Global Terrorism’ excuse. In fact, in most cases, people laugh at you and tell you exactly where to go when you’ve tried to use it so far. So the excuse doesn’t work for you, and you don’t like how its working for their elite, becuase they are gaining power that might otherwise be yours, or at least you not theirs.

If you are a rich naton you resent them, but want to use them when you can, which is often. If you are a poor nation, you resent them, but want to use them when you can, which probably isnt that often, but when it comes, its very useful indeed.

5. Muslim Populace:

Generally anti-american
You resent america, and are told that it will never help you. in fact it wants to hurt you, and it has hurt people like you and is continuing to do so every day. You don’t really care about abstract “freedom” but you don’t like tangibly getting hurt. This is about the core of the logic here.

6. Muslim Elite:

On the one hand, you resent america and you would like to continue to use them. On the other hand, you’re quite scared they could remove your position of power. Your populace doesn’t like them, if you tell them to shut up, they will, but if you want to say something really popular, and pretty true like ‘america wants to hurt you and we want to protect you and few of us like jews’, thats a good option too. So really, what you say will just depend on how america is treating you. If they look like they wont remove you, then you tell the populace to shut up. If they look like they might remove you, its probably a good idea to get everyone behind you by being anti-american and hope the opportunity never arsises for them to carry out their wishes.

Analysis following from these groups:

American elites and European elites are innately friends, but resentment of power sours this relationship.

American populace and European populace innately dislike each other, but are told to like each other by elite, so this is not expressed. The important thing is that they would take each others corner against a non-white target, especially a muslim one, any day.

Western relations with the Muslim world have deliberately entered a troubled phase.

Traditional support for the status quo has been shattered by the new atmosphere and carte blance excuse. The policy/ideology of ’spreading democracy’ to you is newly aggressive in tone, and American have already invaded Muslim neighbours.

[just in case anyone takes 'spreading democracy and human rights' seriously, another interesting fact is that the US overseas aid spend on a country is inversely proportional to that country's governance and human rights record. This means that the USA's foreign aid programmes de facto encourages/sponsors human rights violations. The more violent and less democratic a country is, the more the USA in generally willing to help it out financially and militarily. However, 'spreading democracy' is a another good excuse to get the populace fired up - it is just not as powerful as 'terror' becuase it is appealing to people's sense of paternalistic benevolence, whereas fear is a much more powerful motivator.]

Sumumary:

I am not proposing a ‘clash of civilizations’ or a great war. Elites would never ever endanger an arrangement that is working so well for them at present. Rather they will continue to utilise the climate of fear of an unseeable enemy that validates their more aggressive and self-interested policies happily.

What seems to be happening though is that the USA (elite) because pissed off with the Mid-east following OPECs formation. USSR collapsed, no one strong enough to oppose intervention in the area. Friendly/’Moderate’ (ie controlled) regiemes like Saudia were fine, the sons and daughters of their elites could play games and make business deals with american elite sons and daughters. Hostile/’Fundamentalist’ regiemes (ie not doing 100% what would like) were a problem. Post 1990 Saddam was not doing what he was told. Iran never really had since the revolution, but had been quieter.

‘Axis of Evil’, now contains Iran,,,, somewhere ‘ Global Terrorism’ lurks and hides and multiplies, heard of but unseen so feared, and scheming up new ways to hurt average americans.

American elites now have no need to lurk or hide, they do multiply, they are largely unseen but are also unfeared becuase they are not demonised and publicised to anything but a marginalised extent. They are not scheming up new ways to hurt average amercians, nor muslims, nor anyone. They are ordinary people but in extraordinarily powerful positions. However, like all but great people thrust into this position, they are weak, they don’t scheme to hurt others, but they don’t REALLY mind if they do hurt others either. And so they hurt alot of others. Alot.

Why do they do this?

1. No Counterbalances:
* No strong enemy (USSR gone, very weak UN authority)
* No internal supervision (waived by new excuses)
* No strong leaders who take a moral postion
[note: the US President's role has changed dramatically in comparison with e.g. FDR.
Then = decision maker, who sets tone of policy
Now = decision approver, who acts within a premade policy framework]

2. Human Nature.

Conclusion:

The Cartoons are not really the issue, they are just the catalyst for the tension caused by the situation that has been building for at least 10 years.

These tensions WILL GET WORSE.

I can only speculate what will occur in the next 10 years, so I won’t do so. That’s not what I wanted to write about. I wanted to try to give my view on a possible clarification of the issue with the Cartoons. I hope this posting does give some people who read it another perspective on the general situation, and will allow for a more psychologically realistic and pragmatic approach to discussing the underlying issue causing problems here, namely: how to change our world and create structures that mitigate the divisional influence of Religion, Race, Social Class and limit the potential for such Abuses of Power as currently occur freely.

To Evin, WELL SAID!

This whole thing is completely outrageous. So youre offended at these cartoons. So what? Of course I would be offended if someone showed me a picture of Jesus as a terrorist, or of him in some other disrespectful way. But I most certainly would not get 1000 of my buddies together and start a riot, burning cars and killing people along the way just because I was offended. It seems to me like the Muslim community is throwing some sort of adult-version temper tantrum. GET OVER IT YOU IMMATURE, CLOSED MINDED JUVENILLES! Write a letter, hold a peaceful protest, but don’t start riots! The muslim community is only reinforcing the concepts drawn in those cartoons with their responses. Not to mention the absolute and total hypocrisy of these rioters. Have you seen the kind of cartoons they draw about Jews and Christians and their leaders? Far and above, these cartoons are much more disturbing.

fuck all the fuckun dachins that says bad things on my prophet and its god that gonna replace it but you made me realy sad and i will never remmemberet

firstly i wanna say this cartoons is an attack to religion islam and its prophet muhammed.we do not agree with this pictures.muhammed was always very kind to everyone. and he never approved terrorism. shame on you danish newspaper

Those who protest in Islamic countries are expressing their anger and their refusal as a reaction to that naughty Danish kid who published that stuff.If protest turns out to be violent or destructive, It’s a question of organisation.Crowds are not easy to control when you have heated them.Danmark has a certain amount of responsibility in it. They should have interfered in a deplomatic way and apologize.After all It happened in their country and they represent everyone even the danish Julliands Posten and its staff.

you will not believe the number of pamphlets printed in my country {Nigeria} by muslims about Christianity and Jesus. Nothing could be more derogatory. yet these people protest the cartoons. the cartoons were just cartoonists expressing their perception of Islam and Mohammed. i think the resulting violence shows how right their perceptions are.

bastards all of the denmark peoples envolved in these picture making mother fuckers

1.) The Danish cartoonist most likely isn’t racist, or some sort of hate-monger.
2.) They are satirical cartoons.
3.) This means that they are meant to convey a MESSAGE, not HATRED.
4.)The artist is commenting on a situation.
5.)The situation is where a peaceful world religion has a splinter sect that has broken away from the mainstream religion that promotes violence, through manipulating the one thing that everyone holds as a holy thing….Mohammed.
6.) This might remind you of something such as Hitler, or the crusades, etc.
7.) People are looking too far into this situation.
8.) Yes muslims in general are angry, but so would I. But I would have enough respect for the freedom of speech and religion to step back and examine the cartoons critically and take the artist’s message from it, and speak out against violence.
9.) It is the silent sects of Islam that need to stop this.
10.) Yes, us westerners are often very ignorant, but Muslims should recognize that we are a third party in the situation, and respect that we have opinions too, just like you.

THEREFORE…we can all have a sad irony laugh over the situation, because the very situation that the artist was commenting on actually worsened over his critical examination.
The World is a sad place.

İ am a muslum and educated person and lived in europe for a sorth while. So İ understand all of you in this case that you find it very silly that we ae getting angry about that cartoons.
We also sport free speech.
There are things you should understand about islam,muslum culture. We have belives.
Please just respect them.
And donnt forget that İSLAM MEANS PEACE
But some stupid people just gave us bad names and make you think we are all killers.
Please just respect….
Lets live together in peace…

There was a great quote on a programme i saw the other day(uk)”The root of all evil”
“in a normal world good people would be doing good things and bad people would be doing bad things. BUT IT TAKES RELIGION TO MAKE GOOD PEOPLE DO BAD THINGS”
To conclude, live and let live eh!

Ok hamza, you get middle-eastern governments to apologise for all the christian/western hatred cartoons and properganda and we’ll get the danish government to say sorry….. fair? remember its daily out there, but we just ignore it…. like the short angry bloke!

who ever wrote that respond to Hamza. hey listen you say you forget about the daily things which happens against you. well thats your problem and you christian/western don’t even give a crap about your parents how the hell you would have any feeling about your religion. first learn to follow and understand your own religion then you would know who it feels when some dum ass draw a horibal picture of your belief. if danish newpaper has the courage to draw the picture then bare the consequence.

Dear Eiza, you are obviously devoted to your religion and i respect that. Personally im not a christian, muslim, hindu or anything, at the end of the day there is not enough evidence to prove any one religion is right but i do believe in a higher power that guides us. I try to do my best in life, for me and the people around me and would consider myself a moral man. I make mistakes but im only human. However I am a westerner so I am offended by the anti western properganda. If you read my reply again, I did’nt say forget i said IGNORE! So the reason I dont burn down an Embassy building over it, the reason i dont give it a second thought is because i’m far to busy living my life to the full…….. try it!

Basically muslims are protesting for no reason. Whatever small reason they get they start violence. I mean they came into the western world for a better life and “freedom of speach”. If it was in their own country - they protested, then i’m sure many of them would be killed. Muslim religion is very restrictive and very miss-interpreted by millions of muslims. Overall many muslims behave erotically. take for example, the muslim who dressed like a suicide bomber in london during the protest - He was a convicted drug addict. I mean he is protesting on one side and on the other hand, he is a disgrace to Allah - by doing illegal things like drugs. So what reason does he have at all to protest?

I think what the muslims all over the doing destruction is wrong as many innocent ppl are getting damaged by this.Although, the guy who published this should be punished heavily as Pophet Mohammed is like second god to them in form of a human being.If anyone would have published something wrong about the pope u can imagine the hype in the western world.their protest is right as long as it doesnt harm anyone.And Denmark should just apologise as Norway did.So muslim worlds boycotting their goods is right so that the learn a lesson not to insult anyone’s religion and faith.

The point is michelle there are cartoons of the pope or similar daily and there is no outcry! As for boycotting the goods, big deal, I dont think bacon and beer sold that well out there anyway!

Who is harmed by the muslim protest against the cartoons.
Denmark no. Less than 2 % of our export goes to muslim countries, Danish industries have lot of orders to rest of the world. The industry is busy.
We get a bad name in the muslim world, but our name have been to good in the past so we might not get so many muslim imigrant in the future that is certainly not bad.

The muslim harms themselves, in Pakistan, Iran and Libya they have at least killed 20 people because of the protests. Danish help organizations have left Palestina and Pakistan, the money can now be spend elsewhere, Africa or Asia. Other poor people in the world will benefit from this money.
It sad to realize but Islam is a religion of selfdestruction a blind alley that leads nowhere.

In Denmark we have learned from Monthy Python “Always look at the bright side of life”.

Olfert, Copenhagen.

Ok…so people are offended by some drawings. If I see something that I find offensive, I sure as hell don’t feel the need to riot, kill, burn, etc. Grow up people… for your Alah’s sake. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. Simple as that. Hasn’t anyone learned by now that if you make a big deal about something, it just causes it to be in the spotlight longer. If people would have shrugged it off, we would be talking about something else right now.

Religion has always hurt more people than it has helped.

o my! is that all it is? a few doodles?
please tell me muslims really do have a sense of humor!

christians acepted Monty Python’s “life of brian”!

chill people chill!

well there has been some insensible moves from the Muslims. but i just wanna know that has all the Muslims have bombed embassies, has all of them have gone on to rioting n burning stuff ? ? NO rite ? there have been peaceful demonstrations aswell. if just because of a few people who call themselves Muslims n burn things doesn’t mean the whole of the Muslim community is violence loving. the westerners abused iraqi Muslims in abu-guraib does that mean all the westerners would do that if they got a chance ? ? perhaps most of them would but not all of them. n talking about freedom of expression, it has some limits too. u abuse a guy walking on the road n then say, “i’m using my right of free speach”. does that make any sense ? n some1 said about cartoons against the westerners, those cartoons were political n not religous.

I think the funniest part about these cartoons is their orgins. The newspaper was holding a contest because there was a Muslin childrens book writer who was having difficulty finding an artist who would illustrate his book about Mohammed because they all feared that nomatter what the portrayal, even though the book was just to edjucate young Muslims about Mohammed, they would be harassed for drawing the images. So the newspaper had the contest, and what do you know, there is backlash against them. Just radical Islamics proving the fear potential illustrators had true. That’s like when you won’t give someone a knife because you say they’ll cut themselves, they go out and buy a knife and cut themselves.