The three largest newspapers in Denmark are reprinting this cartoon in support of freedom of expression.
Three men were arrested in Denmark accused of plotting to murder a cartoonist, two years after a dozen cartoons lampooning Islamic fundamentalism sparked violent demonstrations around the world.
The target was said to be Kurt Westergaard, 73, a staff cartoonist on Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons. Westergaard’s drawings depicted the Prophet Mohamed with a bomb-shaped turban and a burning fuse.
Police said they arrested the men while the plot to kill Westergaard was still in the planning stage. The chief of the Security and Intelligence Service, Jakob Scharf, said the arrests came after a long period of surveillance. They were intended, he said “to prevent a terror-related assassination of one of the cartoonists behind the cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed”.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Prime Minister, said: “Unfortunately… there are in Denmark groups of extremists that do not acknowledge and respect the principles on which Danish democracy is built. In Denmark, we have freedom not only to think and talk, but also to draw.”
Because of death threats, Westergaard and his wife Gitte have been provided with heavy police protection for the past three months and are moved frequently to secret locations.
I like the cartoon pic you have for this article.
I don’t know much about the history of Mohamed, but wouldn’t he have his disciples blowing them selfs up and not himself?
I like raisin danish.
// Too subtle?
Yeh yeh more hype about crazy Muslims.
If Christianity still played as big a part in the Western World as Islam in the East, and someone from the East drew cartoons of a priest molesting children, Im sure there would be huge outrage from the West.
Why are people spending so much time and effort tying to convince you of the irrationality and extremism of Muslims?
The only reason I can think of is that their way of life is just better than ours, happier families, happier communities, just nicer individuals.
They must be better in some way otherwise there would be no need for people to try and convince you otherwise.
“Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet.”
And, My Law generally opposes the existence of the murder-in-the-name-of-Allah Islamo-Fascists…only up to the point that they are eradicated to extinction like the diseased vermin they are. Great Cartoon!
GO CHOKE ON IT, YOU LYING ISLAMITES!
GOOD GOD MAN!?!?!?! Get that picture off this website before we’re all killed!!!
“Why are people spending so much time and effort tying to convince you of the irrationality and extremism of Muslims?”
I expect it’s because people are hoping that one day, rational and moderate Muslims will realize there’s a serious problem and start doing something about the teachings that fuel it.
Because its true. Islam is no more the religion of peace then George Bush is a liberal.
If a danish is a donut without a hole, what is a girl from Denmark called?
PRIMARILY====this is about the arrest of folks plotting to kill a newspaper man. Thats against the law.
The criminals motives are very secondary.
I think controlling the Muslim menance will be quite a challenge given how easily religious issues can cloud a simple situation.
This post will probably provoke the usual abuse I get whenever I post anything that is not saying all muslims are crazy. Basically moderate and rational muslims (yes they do exist) realized there is something wrong a long time ago the problem is you have entire countries an regimes like Suadi arabia who are just as crazy as the terrorists. But the regular people of the middle east do realize that there is something wrong and that its a big threat to everybody. Look at what happened in Lebanon(a country where only a christian can be president) last year the army fought against islamists for a month taking many casualties but finally crushed them.
Unfortunatley I cannot deny that there are massive amounts of people who have been completely brainwashed into believing islam is all about killing and martyrdom.(pakistan, afganistan, and again saudi) however there are alot of people in the arab world that do not want this anymore than you guys do mainly the majority of Jordanians(a country that is at peace with israel), Lebanon(A country with 19 different sects of 4 different religions), most egyptians, and believe it or not most syrians. People just want to live in peace and get on with their lives unfortunately it seems we are outnumberred by the crazies.
I was struck by the knee-jerk response of the Danes to reprint the article.
I strongly believe in freedom of speech — including offensive speech. (In fact, I specifically support allowing offensive speech because the other is never censored!)
However, I don’t applaud offensive speech nor think it is virtuous. That’s how I feel about these cartoons. The cartoons are a cheap shot and not funny nor informative but are deeply offensive to Muslims.
Yet, they keep reprinting them.
Muslims don’t kill people, images of Mohamed kill people.
I had the misfortune to spend 20 minutes in a taxi with a muslim driver.
He was talking about how his religion upheld their beliefs and that Christianity had all but forsaken theirs.
All the time I was thinking about how our Christian “prophet” had taught us to be tolerant, forgiving and to turn the other cheek.
…so I didn’t argue with him but I think the irony of that was lost on him.
Anon,
Join the club, buddy. For years I’ve been defending Muslims here. These guys have a slow learning curve, that for sure.
I’m not personally a Muslim — in fact I’m a devout Christian.
However, I know Muslims well and a thing or two about Islam, so I feel an obligation to tell the truth about them. (Which, of course, is that the vast majority of Muslims are just regular people trying their best to live their lives.)
They were planning to kill him a whole two years after he drew the cartoons? They’re really not very timely, are they?
That’s like a parent grounding a child today for having said a swear word two years ago.
Or maybe it hadn’t fully set in yet. Like a child who swears but the parents don’t notice it until they’re watching home videos two years later, and the video has the kid swearing in it.
By the way I forgot to mention that I completely support the right of the newspapers to run the cartoon. I mean it is a CARTOON for god’s sake. My post was in response to:
“I expect it’s because people are hoping that one day, rational and moderate Muslims will realize there’s a serious problem and start doing something about the teachings that fuel it.”
11—Anon===why should people who think Muslims are crazy give you any grief? Your post totally supports their position. Well done.
12–GregA==similarly, you say “The cartoons are a cheap shot and not funny nor informative /// Gee–I found just the opposite. I guess political humor is not your thing?
“but are deeply offensive to Muslims” /// And they are pretty silly in that attitude right?==or do you think their outrage is most appropriate?
…And plots to kill people are deeply offensive to most people.
It’s not about Islam, it’s about fanatical fundamentalism – which isn’t a problem relegated entirely to Islam. There are crazies of all religions, races and nationalities hell bent on destroying all who disagree and offend them. They stain the name of all those whose beliefs they purport to represent. You can’t generalize about Irish people or Catholics because of the actions of the IRA. You shouldn’t generalize about Judaism because of the actions of the Israeli Government, or Americans because of the actions of the Bush administration. Then again America voted in W so Americans bear more responsibility for his atrocities (I voted for the other guy) then the Muslim community does for the actions of fundamentalist nutters among them.
As for the cartoon all Muslims have every right to be offended, to boycott Danishes and protest. People are offended by all sorts of things. No one has the right to murder or threaten.
c’mon bobbo,
I LOVE political cartoons — that’s why I recognize this one as crap.
I don’t believe for a minute that you think the cartoon above is either funny or informative.
Where is the humor? What is the new revelation?
No, the cartoon was designed to be offensive to Muslims and has become a symbol of free press.
I suspect the grief Anon feels is that “Muslims are crazy” is clearly false to anyone who knows Muslims.
Are some Muslims crazy? Of course!
Some Christians and Atheists are crazy too. And both those groups have had their eras of blood letting craziness, too.
Muslims aren’t all saints either. They have have some serious social problems. In my extensive experience: I’d estimate that Muslims are, on average, about as violent, religious and crazy as Texans.
Seriously: Texans, Muslims, about the same.
Greg, exactly people pass judgement on billions of people based on the crazies among them. I am not muslim either I am an athiest but being from Lebanon originally I know alot of muslims.
What’s weird to me is that there are so many people given the name Mohammad. How is that not against the rules? And How is the cartoon a depiction of Mohammad anyway? Is he labeled? And why were they plotting to kill the ONE out of the three cartoonists? There is something missing.
Hi John, the badge on the turban is arabic caligraphy saying Mohammed prophet of god.
John,
Clearly, it is not against the rules to give your kid the name Muhammad!
And, to us in the west, the horrible misdeeds done by guys named Muhammaed defame the name of Islam more than these cartoons do.
But, to be fair, Jesus once stole my car stereo. Another friend of mine says he dated a virgin Mary in high school and she was a total you-know-what.
23. Every parent names their kid Mohamed because they want them to be the next prophet.
I overheard a coworker ask a guy from Somalia, whose name was Mohamed, why so many of them were named that. He said it is just a common name, like John is for the USA. Not sure I believe that.
>>> # 16 kanjy said, They were planning to kill him a whole two years after he drew the cartoons? They’re really not very timely, are they?
I lived for ten year among Muslims and I have to say, sense of time is one of the huge cultural differences between us and them.
Take Afghanistan — it took the mujahideen a decade to defeat the Soviet occupiers. This was so long it broke the Soviet military. But the mujahadeen thought this was extremely fast! They were prepared to fight them at least as long as they resisted the British (a century? longer?)
That’s why I was appalled and fascinated when GW Bush got on that aircraft carrier and declared major combat operation over. Talk about a clash of cultures!
While Bush was strutting around in his codpiece, strategizing about mid-term elections, Iraq insurgents were back in their villages, drinking tea and talking about how they, their kids, grandkids and even great-grandkids would rid Iraq of the infidel invaders.
In other news, the Archbishop of Canterbury says that sharia law should be introduced to Britain.
Please name on act of terrorism in the last 10 years not carried out by a muslim in the name of islam besides the OK city bombing.
Not all muslims are terrorists but damn near all terorrists are muslim.
# 26 Personality said, 23. Every parent names their kid Mohamed because they want them to be the next prophet.
Maybe like The Prophet but not a prophet.
One of the core doctrines of Islam is that Muhammad was the last prophet. In my part of the world, people get killed claiming another prophet has come — or even insinuating it.
It’s a curious thing about Nation of Islam: In many Muslim countries they’d be jailed or stoned to death for claiming that Wallace Fard Muhammad was a prophet.
#21–Greg–ok, a thoghtful post. But I can only repeat what I said==I guess you don’t get political cartoons.
Look at any political cartoon that is about current topics. The idea is not to be “that funny” but merely to capture in a cartoon a subject that is current at the moment.
So, informative?===NO. You have to be informed to find it interesting at all.
Funny?–that would be a bonus==and just about impossible in a single frame. Now, the above single frame is funny because my first impression is that we have a foreigner who is wearing a beard and a turban. THEN I see the bomb and I take him to be a terrorist. You either see the humor, or you don’t.
Please keep the good stuff coming.