I saw the cartoons and read the article when they were published - in my opinion this has blown way out of proportion. I know Denmark to be a very open society and most Danes are more than tolerant and respectful of others in every way, religion included.
Through the media, I see exaggeration, outright lies and misunderstandings communicated en masse to largely uneducated masses. Some of whom are seeking an outlet for and some of whom are being used as a vehicle to transmit desperate rage and oppression. This incident is increasingly being manipulated into an outside threat to rally around. A politic of fear with government officials, militia and police looking the other way.
Poor little Denmark is in shock, they don't know what to think seeing their
flag and
embassies in flames.
Now I absolutely believe in freedom of speech, but it is relative to your perspective. An illustrative point was brought home when I saw a high-ranking Saudi government official state in a televised interview that he
knows that the newspapers are licensed by the government and so the government can and should punish and stop them. The implication being that if not - then the government must be behind this, approving the defamation of the prophet. While that is certainly the state of media in many Middle Eastern countries and as certainly not here in Denmark, you can't blame the masses for assuming that is the reality everywhere.
An additional problem clouding the issue is that there are apparently copies of all sorts of
cartoons being circulated -which are far more inappropriate- that were never and would never be published in any newspaper in Denmark, but are being attributed as such. Gas to the fire. It is for this reason I choose to show here the original article with drawings (thanks to ganeshpuri89). Get the truth out.
A closer look at a couple of cartoons can be found here:
- Most infamous and most inappropriate is the turban as bomb drawing. There is no need to perpetuate the Muslim as terrorist stereotype
- Hard to see the problem here as this is just bringing the prophet into today, into the classroom. A teacher, a boy. I'm missing the insult here?
Comments are welcome. Dialog, tolerance and respect are the goals.
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