The Danish Cartoons

The most widely known cartoon of the series

The “controversial” Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed were published in Sept., 2005, leading to riots and murders perpetrated by Muslims in 2006, and death threats that persist today against the cartoonists involved. As I wrote in DLMSY at the time:

Thousands of Muslims around the world got all worked up about 12 cartoons published back in September in a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. Outraged that some of the cartoons dared to suggest that Islam is a violent religion, many of the “faithful” have poured into the streets threatening to kill those who would utter such a slander. Others went right to the killings of random Westerners, the burning of any buildings associated with Denmark, and so on, all in the name of the Religion of Peace. Some slightly less nutty groups began a boycott of Danish goods. Gee, a person might get the wrong impression about Islam from the way its adherents overreact to such small things. Well, it’s not the “wrong” impression, we guess, but a bad one anyway.

Despite (or more accurately because of) the controversy many people have never seen the actual cartoons that sparked it. American mainstream media generally declined to broadcast or print the cartoons, as the riots were occurring or afterwards. A recent book from Yale University Press devoted to the topic did not even show the cartoons it was discussing. These acts of self-censorship were generally dressed up as nods to “sensibilities” of Muslims, but the root cause was obviously fear. The cartoon with Mohammed’s turban as a bomb is probably the image, if any, that most people saw and remember. I can understand why Muslims would find this offensive. Do Muslims understand that murder, rioting and terrorism in the name of Islam is not just offensive, but evil and bad for Islam? Those behaviors have done far more to hurt Islam’s reputation than a million cartoons could.

Today free speech continues to lose ground even here in America where it is deeply rooted in our culture. If we keep taking the “safe,” easy way of self-censorship we let the most violent elements of Islamic Fascism define what is acceptable discourse. If we do that we have de facto Sharia law. In the name of standing up for freedom of expressiont, here are the rest of the Danish cartoons, along with something else that stains Islam. See if you can pick that one out.

Not much to be offended about with this one.	Note the Islamic crescent as horns.	More of a caricature of the cartoonists.
Apparently a police lineup w/ Danish polticians dressed as Mohammed.	Caricature of cartoonists: PR Stunt to the Head	The best of the 12. The cartoonist is in the process of penning a perfectly harmless drawing of Mohammed. He's in a dark room, sweating profusely, hiding the drawing with one hand, and glancing furtively over his shoulder in fear. That gets right to the heart of the matter, with subtlety, sharpness and humor.
Combining opression of women and violence	Not much to be offended about with this one.	Actual caption: "Relax folks, after all it's just a drawing made by an infidel from south Denmark..."
I don't care who you are. That's funny.	Which dishonors Mohammed more: cartoons or this?	Click to see translation of the Danish poem.