don't shoot me, i'm just the tracer... - petescully

don't shoot me, i'm just the tracer...

Oh my God! If I can still say that. What is happening in ffice:smarttags" />Europe?

A newspaper in Denmark publishes 12 satirical cartoons portraying the prophet Mohammed, and unleashes a volcano of hatred and counter-hatred across the continent. Fundamentalists have called for the offices of the Jyllands-Posten to be bombed, and all the cartoonists killed - as if that is somehow the same thing as drawing a cartoon. Several newspapers across Europe have shown support for the Danish paper, and published the cartoons in solidarity against fanatical censorship; the editor of France Soir even lost his job over the issue. All this at a time when the religious hatred and censorship debate is going on in the British Parliament (there's a nice article about it on blood sweat and tea).

No British newspaper has yet published the cartoons, but you can see them on the website of The Brussels Journal (tagline: “We Are All Danes Now”). Now some are pretty good, some funny, some badly drawn, and others are clearly drawn intending a strong reaction (such as the one with Mohammed wearing a bomb on his head). This may seem unnecessarily provocative, but bear in mind the cultural climate in a Europe which has seen people like Theo Van Gogh brutally murdered for making a film that criticized violence against women in Islamic culture. I guess you could say that they republished to show that such murderous acts shall not frighten the free press. My only worry is that this whole situation will be exploited by far-right groups in Europe, a problem Denmark certainly is not immune to where the ultra-right (or ultra-wrong?) DPP is the third largest party.

The wholesale anti-Scandinavian fever that has been whipped up in the Arab world is shocking. This hasn’t been seen since the Vikings! The flag burning is pretty sad, not just because it shows how people can be taught to HATE very quickly for no solid reason other than the fuzzy logic of 'blasphemy' (a religious term meaning 'you're taking the mick and i can't think of a comeback'); but because the Dannebrog is the world's oldest flag. Can't they just draw a cartoon of it being burnt instead? Show some manners. I have to laugh though when I see that an International Muslim Intellectual group has called on Muslims around the world to boycott Danish products. So, no more Lego, and certainly no more bacon – hang on, no, they were boycotting that anyway...

Of course, I’ve not seen any of this reported here in the US. I bet if Cindy Sheehan had worn a T-Shirt with one of the Danish cartoons on it, she might not have been thrown out of Congress. fficeffice" />

3.2.06 06:57

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To date 8 Comment(s) TrackBack-URL

(3.2.06 12:21)
Thanks for the link Pete... its strange what news does and doesnt make it across the pond (in both directions).

For my part, I think anyone whose faith is so offended by a drawing published in another country can't be that sure in their faith to start with. Now would "god" really want us all to spill this much bile over a fecking drawing?

That said though, If you do have some bile to spill we've set up a debate about it at http://forum.bstea.org/index.php?showtopic=16

(hope you don't mind me using your comments to advertise but since you link to us anyway...)

(3.2.06 22:22)
Feel free! You guys are doing a good job over there.

(3.2.06 22:43)
Thanks for putting the link... although I would have been really pleased to see the first glimpse of the cartoons in UK newspapers. Denmark had been one of the most tolerant countries in the world I can think of, for many years, and to see so little solidarity shown for fear of mind-poisoned cretins is very, very sad.
Bidstrup didn't live to see this day eh?

(4.2.06 02:46)
I wouldn't mind, but some of the cartoons aren't even very good. I could understand them protesting against that. "It doesn't even look like Mohammed!"
The Dane-bashing really upset me. I love Denmark, it has a special place in my heart, ever since I spent a summer there as a youthful 19 year-old, picking strawberries, many ugly strawberries. I may even write a post about it.

(4.2.06 15:52)
When you do write a post, make sure you make it sound terrible - I've been wanting to visit it more than any other country for a few years now, so the temptation to do so immediately might be just too great...

(4.2.06 16:22)
Well it's expensive there, that's the only down side - but then again it's really cheap to fly there from the UK.

(6.2.06 13:24)
The Guardian ran a piece that includes the outlines of the cartoons, with all the detail removed. It's a hard one, obviously people want to know what the complaints are about, but if I were an editor, I wouldn't want to run the cartoons in case that led to repurcussions. While you may be in the business of reporting the news, your first responsibility is too your staff.

Personally, I don't get this at all. But then, I'm a reasonable, rational & tolerant individual. I can accept criticism of myself & my beliefs (or lack of them). The worst thing is the whole open to interpretation issue. The picture with the two women in burkhas (correct term? I'm not sure which culture/religion/etc refers to them as what, though I'm fairly sure that they're not yasmaks) in the background with blokey's eyes blacked over in a protecting his identity type way was yesterday referred to as blasphemous because it implies that Mohammed is blind. Not a conclusion that I would ever have drawn from that, I'd think that it was merely a satire reflecting the inverse of the burkha.

But then, as I said above, I'm a tolerant person.

However, I am considering taking the afternoon off, going to Legoland, building a big fuck off Lego Danish flag & then setting fire to it. That'll teach 'em.

(8.2.06 09:29)
I believe the phrase you are looking for is 'that'll learn em'. It won't, though. You will have to make the flames out of lego.
the whole thing about not showing people what they are actually complaining about reminds me in some ways of the scene from Life of Brian where the guy is getting stoned for saying 'Jehovah', and the guy leading the stoning gets stoned to death himself for accidentally saying it. It's simple hysteria, and I bet if the people that are stirring this all up actually said, oh well, that's what they do, this is what we do, let it be, the crowds of flag-burning maniacs would probably just go home and have a nice cup of tea.
But the way national governments in the Middle East have thrown Denmark to the wolves just because it does not like some cartoons which it will not even show to the very public who denounce them is really really serious, and belies a terrible truth - it's not about the cartoons, is it? It's just that they are angry with the West and want a scapegoat.
To all those in the world who think it's ok to commit arson and murder just because somebody's drawing offended you: GET OVER IT!!!! The Danes do loads of stuff you don't like, like make bacon and drink beer and let their women sunbathe naked in the park (oh yeah..), but SO WHAT???? Live and let live!!!!
Please excuse me...just turned thirty today...