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FEBRUARY 27, 2006
Cartoonist Martin
Sutovec from Slovakia wrote to me this morning with news
that some college student cartoonists in Belarus are now facing
3 to 5 years in prison for criticizing the government in Flash
cartoons. The government of Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenka
is cracking down on all press criticism. A
web site has been set up to encourage cartoonists around
the world to submit cartoons critical of Lukashenka in support
of the student cartoonists. Here is the background info that
was sent to me by Balazs
Jarabik who is working on the issue for a foundation in Slovakia:
In August 2005 Belarusian "KGB
officers" searched the apartments of activists that belong
to the Third Way civic initiative of college students from Minsk.
The KGB, which is the name of the security service in Belarus,
a living legacy of the Soviet Union's KGB, seized 12 computer
equipments that belong to the students, CDs, other electronic
storage devices, materials used to produce the cartoons, and
interrogated three Third Way members.
The college students used to read and write on the website http://www.3dway.org,
and by doing so they caught the attention of Belarusian law enforcement.
By 2005 Lukashenka become the main target of political satire
and humor showing his declined influence on Belarusian society.
Created in 2004, the website, which is also called "The
Third Way", contains a sub-section featuring Flash cartoons,
called the MultClub (http://mult.3dway.org).
The Third Way members drew the cartoons at home and circulated
them among themselves by e-mail.
The cartoons are about life and issues
of Belarusian government officials, the opposition, and ordinary
citizens. Some of the cartoons were about Lukashenka and electoral
fraud, Belarus' isolation and Lukashenka's well-known fondness
for sports. According to Belarusian legislation "Offending
the honor" of Lukashenka is criminally persecuted. The cartoonists
four of them - face up to five years in prison under Article
367 of the Criminal Code. Four people are classified as witnesses
in the case, none charged yet. Three of them - Andrei Obozov,
Oleg Minich, and Galina Senatorskaya has fled Belarus in
September 2005, while Pavel Morozov still resides in the country.
The case is still open.
Thanks to the Comics Reporter for finding the next
two stories. Cartoonist Naushad Waheed from the Maldives
was recently freed after being sentenced to prison in 2001 for
"taking part in political debates."
The editor of Kaltio magazine in Finland
was fired for printing this cartoon of Prophet Muhammad wearing
a mask and talking about press freedom. According to this report:
After the posting of the cartoon, many
permanent advertisers including the Finnish insurance companies
Tapiola and Pohjola and the financial group Sampo announced that
they would withdraw their advertisements from the magazine. The
sacked editor Jussi Vilkuna said that he published the cartoon
by comic artist Ville Ranta, as he believed that it is the task
of a cultural magazine to arouse debate on important issues including
freedom of speech.
Cartoon by Martin Sutovec
FEBRUARY 26, 2006
At least 25,000 people rallied against the Muhammad cartoons in Karachi Pakistan
today. Protesters chanted "Down with the blasphemer,"
"Death to America," and "End diplomatic ties with
European countries." Police
prevented a similar rally in the Eastern Pakistan city of
Lahore by arresting dozens of organizers; one report puts the number of arrested organizers
at 70. About 1,000 demonstraters staged a peaceful rally against
the cartoons in Hong Kong. Thousands of women took to the streets of Kanpur
in Northern India to protest the cartoons and their perceived
lack of respect for Shariat law from the West. There are continuing
reports of American college newspapers that dare to reprint the
cartoons and either draw protests or are sanctioned by their
universities.
 NEW
CARTOONISTS
We've added some new cartoonists to the
site! Russian cartoonist Alexandr Zudin left us for a short time and
has just rejoined us. That is Alex reading our Big Book of Bush
at the right, in his studio in St. Petersberg. See Alex's cartoon
archive here. We've added Derkaoui Abdellah from Morocco, Ana von Rebeur from Argentina (a rare woman
cartoonist); R.P.
Overmyer who draws the weekly Hollywood Dog, that we are
now
featuring on the front page; Alex
Falco, a talented cartoonist from Havana, Cuba; Fares Garabel from Syria and Rico from Brazil. We'll soon add Kevin Pope, who draws Fishstiks, another
feature that we currently have on the front page. All of the
new cartoonists on the site work in color.
FEBRUARY 24, 2006
Danish cartoon related protests were held throughout Pakistan today after Friday
prayers, despite bans on the protests. The government actively
sought to quell violence by making further arrests in anticipation
of the demonstrations.
FEBRUARY 23, 2006
STILL MORE MUHAMMAD CARTOON MADNESS
The cartoon story has dropped out of the headlines but the turmoil
continues. Today in Indonesia About 1,000 protesters
rallied outside the Danish Embassy in Jakarta after the Danish
ambassador returned to Indonesia with orders to reopen the mission
as soon as possible. The embassy had been closed due to security
concerns. On Thursday, about 1,000 people from an organization
in Banten province in western Java traveled in buses and cars
to Jakarta and gathered at the embassy in the opulent office/hotel
area of Mega Kuningan to protest against the cartoons. The protesters
carried banners with the slogan 'Denmark Satan of the World'.
Other banners called for a boycott of all products from Denmark
and its allies. The protesters were apparently unaware that Indonesia
and Denmark are allies, with the latter providing considerable
aid to organizations such as the Indonesian Red Cross.
The AP reports that the death toll has risen
to 120 in cartoon sparked sectarian violence over the weekend
in Nigeria. The latest Nigerian violence was touched off Saturday
in the northern city of Maiduguri.
Another report puts the Nigerian death toll at 138.
The Muhammad cartoon mania has reached into the comics pages
as noted by Editor & Publisher:
A Malaysian newspaper said the government
may take action against it for publishing Monday's "Non
Sequitur" comic mentioning the Prophet Muhammad, according
to a Bloomberg report. Wiley Miller's Feb. 20 cartoon, which can be viewed here, shows an artist
next to a sign saying: "Caricatures of Muhammad while you
wait!" The caption reads: "Kevin finally achieves his
goal to be the most feared man in the world."
After the cartoon was published in the New Strait Times, police
received complaints from Malaysia's Islamic opposition party
(Parti Islam SeMalaysia) and three nongovernmental organizations.
The Times got a show-cause letter from the Internal Security
Ministry and was given three days to explain in writing why action
shouldn't be taken against it for running the cartoon, which
the ministry said breached the conditions of the newspaper's
publishing permit.
FEBRUARY 22, 2006
RISING DEATH TOLL
CBS News reports that the death toll in cartoon sparked religious
violence in Nigeria has risen to 96 since the major cartoon demonstrations
last Saturday. Here are some excepts from the report:
"I've counted more than 20 people killed today,"
said Onitsha resident Isotonu Achor after gangs of rioters armed
with machetes and shotguns poured through the mainly Christian
city. Similar violence followed Monday and Tuesday in the northern
city of Bauchi, where witnesses and Red Cross officials say 25
people were killed when Muslim mobs attacked Christians there.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of more than 130 million
people, is roughly divided between a predominantly Muslim north
and a mainly Christian south. Thousands of people have died in
religious violence since 2000. In Onitsha, residents and witnesses
said two mosques were burned down and least 30 people were killed
Tuesday, most of them northern Muslims. Several local newspapers
reported between 30 and 35 dead. Thousands of Muslims with origins
in the north fled to the military barracks in the city. Christian
mobs attacked Muslims and their businesses in Onitsha Tuesday
in reprisal against violence in Maiduguri and Bauchi, which like
most of northern Nigeria, are dominated by Muslims. Onitsha,
like most of the south, is dominated by Christians. Powerful
Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola said in a statement Tuesday
that it was disturbing that cartoons published in Denmark "could
elicit such an unfortunate reaction in Nigeria" and alleged
it was part of a plot by unnamed people to Islamize Nigeria.
The editor of a magazine in India was arrested
for printing the cartoons. Editor Alok Tomar was initially called
to a police station for questioning and later arrested when he
admitted to publishing the caricatures. "We arrested Tomar
on charges of hurting religious sentiments of a community,"
said Anil Shukla, additional deputy commissioner of police.
Two
University of Illinois student editors were suspended after
printing the Muhammad cartoons. The
Government of Belarus has initiated a criminal prosecution
of a Belarussian newspaper on charges of "incitement of
racial, ethnic and religious hatred" for re-rpinting the
cartoons.
We're still getting your e-mail about the Tribune Company's cartoonist
layoffs and the form letter response from Gary Weitman, Tribune's
VP of Communications. It seems that Weitman stopped responding
to your e-mails again for a while, and then resumed sending out
the same form letter. Today Editor & Publisher reported that
the Tribune Company's CEO Dennis Fitzsimons is getting a raise
of 3.1% to $985,000; in addition to the salary he receives a
yearly bonus which was lowered "substantially" to only
$250,000 in 2005 --his bonus was $1.2 million in 2003. Goes to
show that if the employees are suffering, Dennis has gotta suffer
too, huh?
Read
my column with background on the Muhammad cartoon controversy
here.
Read
my column about why newspapers should publish the Danish Muhammad
cartoons.
Read my column about why the Danish Muhammad
Cartoons are misunderstood.
Read
my column with comments by top cartoonists from around the world.
See the offending cartoons here.
FEBRUARY 21, 2006
TUESDAY, CONTINUING PROTESTS
The
AP Reports that thousands chanted slogans and burned Danish
flags in Pakistan and Iraq to protest Danish cartoons of the
Prophet Muhammad on Tuesday. Italian Ambassador Francesco Trupiano
said domestic opposition to Col. Moammar Gadhafi had joined forces
with religious extremists in a protest that began in front of
the Italian Consulate over caricatures of the prophet. "Benghazi
is still out of control," said Trupiano, who was speaking
from Tripoli. "The situation can precipitate any minute."
The demonstrations had been widely seen as instigated by an Italian
minister, who wore a T-shirt featuring one of the caricatures
while appearing on Italian television. The reforms minister,
Roberto Calderoli, has since reSigned. Protests continued elsewhere
a day after Iran backed calls from other Muslim and world leaders
for an end to the violence over the series of cartoons that first
appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been reprinted
in other publications elsewhere. About 2,000 people in a small
town near Pakistan's Afghan border yelled "Death to America!"
and "Death to Denmark!" and burned effigies of U.S.
President George W. Bush and the Danish prime minister and flags
of Denmark. A demonstration in the southern Iraqi city of Karbala
drew about 10,000 people who burned Danish flags and demanded
that Iraq sever ties with Denmark.
A
Muslim religious court in India has sentenced the cartoonists
to death. It seems the court has jurisdiction only over Muslims.
This is the same place where an Indian Minister offered a big
reward for the murder of the cartoonists.
Saudi Arabia closed a newspaper for printing
the cartoons. A
Danish Ambassador reportedly says that Denmark is considering
a law to bar religious slander. A
second Russian newspaper is closing because of the Muhammad
cartoons, as Russian prosecutors prepared to prosecute the editor
of the paper for printing the cartoons. A
report on the protests in Pakistan notes that the organizers
are less interested in cartoons and more interested in deposing
President Musharraf and imposing Sharia law.
Thanks to the Comics Reporter for noting this interesting interview with Ali Dilem, the
Algerian cartoonist who was recently sentenced to one year in
prison for drawing cartoons critical of Algeria's president Bouteflika.
FEBRUARY 20, 2006
MONDAY MUHAMMAD CARTOON NEWS
I hear the media repeat how American newspapers
have not reprinted the Danish Muhammad cartoons, and the Philadelphia
Inquirer is often cited as being one of the only papers to choose
to reprint the cartoons (the Philadelphia paper printed only
the one with the bomb in the turban). I've been hearing from
quite a few editors who have chosen to reprint the cartoons,
some have sent me tearsheets. One paper is the News-Press in
Fort Myers Florida, which explains their decision to reprint
the cartoons this weekend here
on their web site.
There were protests in Vancouver and Toronto
where 2,500 people rallied outside of Ontario's legislature.
Canadian Muslims plan to launch a new newspaper in response to
the cartoons. Cartoon protesters in Afghanistan shouted
praise to Osama Bin Ladin and threatened to join Al Qaeda.
Cartoonist Scott Stantis wrote a nice piece
(below) about the Muhammad cartoons, timid editors and our suffering
profession. E-mail Scott.
See Scott's cartoons.
Why cartoons still matter - a lot
By Scott Stantis
While rioting packs of Muslim men in Afghanistan, Syria and Iran
shout 'death to cartoonists' newspapers in the United States
have been doing exactly that for years with lay-offs, buyouts,
firings and dropping cartoons from the editorial pages.
Altogether, the ranks of American full time staff editorial cartoonists
has shrunk from a high of over 200 in the 1980's to under 80
today.
Newspapers with a long and storied history of cartoonists have
seen fit to cut loose this valuable resource. Papers like the
Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun are now without a staff cartoonist.
The Chicago Tribune, which recently dedicated a room honoring
the late, great cartoonist Jeff MacNelly while at the same time
mocking his legacy by leaving the editorial cartoonist position
open since his death in June of 2000.
These same newspapers now go days without running any cartoon
on its opinion sections. Presumably because the editors believe
that nothing attracts and engages readers better than massive
stretches of gray type.
And the cartoons that do find their way into print are more often
jokes then commentary. Guy Cooper, former editor of the popular
Perspective section in Newsweek magazine, told a gathering of
editorial cartoonists that he would never run a hard hitting,
substantive editorial cartoon on his page. He viewed them strictly
as entertainment. The New York Times, which runs a small number
of editorial cartoons in its Sunday Week-In-Review section has
recently renamed the collection "Laugh lines".
Cartoons can show an issue in high definition clarity better
than any ten thousand words. It's interesting to note that when
the editors of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten decided to
deride Europe for not confronting the issue of growing radical
Islamism it choose to do so with cartoons.
I won't pass judgment on the decision whether or not to run the
Mohammad cartoons other than to say they were drawn solely to
provoke. And provocation for its own sake is immature and a waste
of the valuable real estate given to cartoonists work by newspapers.
Having said that, it's important to note great cartoons provoke
thoughtful and passionate debate. The good ones, any way. If
we're doing our job right we engage the readers. In an age when
publishers are terrified of losing a single of their remaining
subscribers, the angry call from a reader canceling his subscription
because of today's editorial page cartoon is not a welcome reader
response.
Editors may think cartoons are irrelevant but people don't. A
good cartoon can get you in your gut and make you double over
in pain or laughter.
Happily, there are still a handful of newspapers, (The Birmingham
News being chief among them), that believe in the mission of
engaging cartoons.
From the beginning of our republic cartoons have challenged and
provoked. From Benjamin Franklin's dismembered snake with each
individual colonies name on each piece and the caption' join
or die.' To Thomas Nast dismembering of the corrupt Tweed Ring
in 19th century New York City. Cartoons also define an issue
and even make caricatures of real flesh and blood politicians.
Herblock and Pogo diminishing Joseph McCarthy. Or Herblock's
rendering of Richard Nixon emerging from under a sewer cap. Jeff
MacNelly drawing a hapless Jimmy Carter buying the Brooklyn Bridge
from the Soviet Union. These cartoons left an indelible mark
on history.
Talk of relevance, (or lack thereof), has been grinding on the
editorial cartoon profession for years. In fact, in 2002, the
year I served as President of the Association of American Editorial
Cartoonists, I had a panel address the issue, 'Do we matter?'
To answer this question editors might ask themselves: Do you
think the streets of the Arab world would be ablaze if that Danish
newspaper had run a series of editorials on the same subject
as those cartoons?
E-mail Scott Stantis.
FEBRUARY 19, 2006
CARTOON DEATH TOLL AT 43, NEW BOUNTY FOR MURDER, HUGE PROTEST
IN TURKEY
 An
Indian state minister, Yaqoob Qureshi,
minister of minority welfare in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,
has offered $10 million plus the weight of the killer in gold,
as a reward for anyone who kills one of the Danish cartoonists.
(Sounds like a better deal for murderers who are very fat.) Mogens
Blicher Bjerregaard, president of the Danish Journalist Union
and spokesman for the cartoonists, condemned the bounty. "It
is totally absurd what is happening. The cartoonists just did
their job and they did nothing illegal," he said. The death
toll attributed to the cartoons has now risen to 43.
CNN
reports that tens of thousands of protesters gathered in
Istanbul to protest the cartoons.
Kurt
Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who drew the most reprinted
of the Danish Muhammad cartoons, the image of Muhammad with a
bomb in his turban, said he has no regrets about the drawing.
Westergaard said that his inspiration for the drawing was "terrorism",
which he said received "spiritual ammunition" from
Islam; he defended the Danish cartoons as freedom of expression
and the press.
According to an AP report, thousands of police
and paramilitary forces, some in armored personnel carriers,
others behind sandbag bunkers, were deployed in and around Islamabad
Sunday to block a planned rally organized by a coalition of hardline
Islamic parties. Authorities mounted roadblocks around the capital
and declared they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of
more than five people. Pakistani police fired tear gas and guns
to quell hundreds of stone-throwing protesters, who attempted
to join the planned rally in Islamabad. A three-hour clash left
a street littered with rocks and spent tear gas shells. An Associated
Press reporter saw two injured police, one bleeding from his
head, and several injured protesters. In Karachi, Pakistan's
largest city, police said 15,000 protesters, most wearing white
shrouds of mourning, splashed with red paint to symbolize their
willingness to die defending the prophet's honor, rallied peacefully.
Among them was 12-year-old boy, Amar Ahmed, who carried a sign
that read, "O Allah, give me courage to kill the blasphemer."
Hundreds
of Muslim protesters brandishing
sticks and hurling stones have attacked the US embassy in Jakarta
Indonesia, claiming the United States was on a mission to destroy
Islam. No one was injured in the melee. The crowd was protesting
the Danish cartoons, and blaming the United States for the cartoons
- for these protesters that seemed to make sense.
Flemming Rose, the culture editor for the Jyllands-Posten who
commissioned the caricatures of Muhammad, has a long, interesting piece in the Washington Post.
here are some excerpts:
I commissioned the cartoons
in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe
caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing
with issues related to Islam. And I still believe that this is
a topic that we Europeans must confront, challenging moderate
Muslims to speak out. The idea wasn't to provoke gratuitously
-- and we certainly didn't intend to trigger violent demonstrations
throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back
self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in
tighter.
At the end of September, a Danish standup comedian said in an
interview with Jyllands-Posten that he had no problem urinating
on the Bible in front of a camera, but he dared not do the same
thing with the Koran.
This was the culmination of a series of disturbing instances
of self-censorship. Last September, a Danish children's writer
had trouble finding an illustrator for a book about the life
of Muhammad. Three people turned down the job for fear of consequences.
The person who finally accepted insisted on anonymity, which
in my book is a form of self-censorship. European translators
of a critical book about Islam also did not want their names
to appear on the book cover beside the name of the author, a
Somalia-born Dutch politician who has herself been in hiding.
Around the same time, the Tate gallery in London withdrew an
installation by the avant-garde artist John Latham depicting
the Koran, Bible and Talmud torn to pieces. The museum explained
that it did not want to stir things up after the London bombings.
(A few months earlier, to avoid offending Muslims, a museum in
Goteborg, Sweden, had removed a painting with a sexual motif
and a quotation from the Koran.) Finally, at the end of September,
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen met with a group
of imams, one of whom called on the prime minister to interfere
with the press in order to get more positive coverage of Islam.
So, over two weeks we witnessed a half-dozen cases of self-censorship,
pitting freedom of speech against the fear of confronting issues
about Islam. This was a legitimate news story to cover, and Jyllands-Posten
decided to do it by adopting the well-known journalistic principle:
Show, don't tell. I wrote to members of the association of Danish
cartoonists asking them "to draw Muhammad as you see him."
We certainly did not ask them to make fun of the prophet. Twelve
out of 25 active members responded.
When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes.
I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or
other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever,
observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for
my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with
a secular democracy.
Nowhere do so many religions coexist peacefully as in a democracy
where freedom of expression is a fundamental right. In Saudi
Arabia, you can get arrested for wearing a cross or having a
Bible in your suitcase, while Muslims in secular Denmark can
have their own mosques, cemeteries, schools, TV and radio stations.
I acknowledge that some people have been offended by the publication
of the cartoons, and Jyllands-Posten has apologized for that.
But we cannot apologize for our right to publish material, even
offensive material. You cannot edit a newspaper if you are paralyzed
by worries about every possible insult.
I am offended by things in the paper every day: transcripts of
speeches by Osama bin Laden, photos from Abu Ghraib, people insisting
that Israel should be erased from the face of the Earth, people
saying the Holocaust never happened. But that does not mean that
I would refrain from printing them as long as they fell within
the limits of the law and of the newspaper's ethical code. That
other editors would make different choices is the essence of
pluralism.
As a former correspondent in the Soviet Union, I am sensitive
about calls for censorship on the grounds of insult. This is
a popular trick of totalitarian movements: Label any critique
or call for debate as an insult and punish the offenders. That
is what happened to human rights activists and writers such as
Andrei Sakharov, Vladimir Bukovsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Natan
Sharansky, Boris Pasternak. The regime accused them of anti-Soviet
propaganda, just as some Muslims are labeling 12 cartoons in
a Danish newspaper anti-Islamic.
The lesson from the Cold War is: If you give in to totalitarian
impulses once, new demands follow. The West prevailed in the
Cold War because we stood by our fundamental values and did not
appease totalitarian tyrants.
FEBRUARY 18, 2006
WORST CARTOON VIOLENCE YET - FIFTEEN
MORE DEAD - PREMPTIVE ARRESTS IN PAKISTAN
MSNBC.com reports:
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Nigerian Muslims
protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians
and burned churches on Saturday, killing at least 15 people in
the deadliest confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger
over the drawings. It was the first major protest to erupt over
the issue in Africa's most populous nation. An Associated Press
reporter saw mobs of Muslim protesters swarm through the city
center with machetes, sticks and iron rods. One group threw a
tire around a man, poured gas on him and setting him ablaze ...
Thousands of rioters burned 15 churches in Maiduguri in a three-hour
rampage before troops and police reinforcements restored order,
Nigerian police spokesman Haz Iwendi said. Security forces arrested
dozens of people, Iwendi said. Chima Ezeoke, a Christian Maiduguri
resident, said protesters attacked and looted shops owned by
minority Christians, most of them with origins in the country's
south. "Most of the dead were Christians beaten to death
on the streets by the rioters," Ezeoke said. Witnesses said
three children and a priest were among those killed.
In
another MSNBC.com report: Pakistani
forces arrested dozens of radical Islamic leaders putting some
of them under house arrest in an effort to stop planned street
protests about the Danish cartoons. A spokesman for the organizers
said that "hundreds" of Islamic leaders had been arrested.
A Pakistani cleric who announced a $1 million reward for the
murder of the Danish cartoonists was also put under house arrest.
Radical organizers said that they will go forward with the protests
despite the arrests. Today, 12,000 women joined a non-violent
rally against the cartoons in Karachi, Pakistan.
THE VILLAGE VOICE DUMPING POLITICAL
CARTOONS
A knowledgeable source tells me that the
Village Voice, the New York alternative tabloid with a
great tradition of editorial cartoonists going back for decades
- including Jules Feiffer and Ed Sorel - will stop running editorial
cartoons, and any future cartoons will be non-political. Here
is what I am told:
Last October The Village Voice, the
nations largest alternative weekly based in New York City, sold
out to The New Times. The New Times is the largest group of metropolitan
weeklies in the United States. The New Times and Village Voice
Media have married in a rather disturbing merger.
Recently, it is rumored that the Voice is switching gears and
steering away from politics. Even with the editors objection
to the corporate office decision, the Village Voice is slated
to erase cartoonists Ted Rall, Ruben Bolling and Matt Groening
from its pages. The editors cannot win. New York City doesn't
need another free listing manual. New York City needs the raw
political coverage, both national and local, that The Voice currently
provides. This is a sad time for cartooning and also a sad time
for alternative weeklies.
ANOTHER EMBASSY BURNED, TEN MORE DEAD
FROM CARTOON T-SHIRT RIOT
In the bloodiest cartoon protest so far,
a mob set fire to the Italian consulate in Libya; the riot left
"ten or eleven" people dead. According to Forbes.com:
... police firing bullets and tear gas
tried to contain more than 1,000 demonstrators hurling rocks
and bottles. The casualties included police officers ... Rioters
charged the consular compound and set fire to the first floor
of the building, the Italian Foreign Ministry said. Domenico
Bellantone, an Italian diplomat, said 10 or 11 people - all Libyan
- had died. Antonio Simoes-Concalves, an Italian consular official
in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, said Libyan police
were not able to control the crowd. "They are still continually
firing," Simoes-Concalves said Friday night, speaking on
the telephone from inside the consulate where he was holed up
... The riot appeared to be a reaction to Italian Cabinet Minister
Roberto Calderoli, who said this week he would wear a T-shirt
printed with the cartoons, which have provoked protests across
the Muslim world. His remark was widely published in Libya.
Calderoli wore the T-shirt beneath a suit on Friday. Hours later,
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asked for his resignation.
The Italian consulate is the only Western diplomatic mission
in Benghazi.
Calderoli later reSigned. Libya "suspended" their Interior Minister
for using excessive force to quell today's riot. The AP reports
that at least 29 people have been killed in cartoon protests
so far.
In the eastern Pakistan city of Chaniot
today, police opened fire on cartoon-protesters who were trying
to burn down shops. More than 10,000 angry but peaceful cartoon-protesters
filled the streets of central London. Here's the AP report. Hundreds of Muslims gathered for another
cartoon protest yesterday in New York City. Thousands more marched and burned Danish
flags in Bangladesh. Another protest was reported in Austria.
Newsweek Magazine had a visitor slip a cell phone to Mohammed
al-Asaadi, the newspaper editor in Yemen who was jailed for reprinting
the Muhammad cartoons. Newsweek then called al-Asaadi and had
a very interesting interview over the cell phone. Read it here.
Greeting card cartoonist, Dan Reynolds,
who does occasional caption contests with us, got an earful from
readers for his last
caption contest winner. Here is Dan's open letter to people
who have been writing to him:
I appreciate your comments. I respect
your opinion. 99.9% of my work has nothing to do with politics.
I am not a political cartoonist BECAUSE the shelf life on a cartoon
is about a week at best. If you were familiar with my work you
would see this is the case. The cartoon you are commenting on
- the gag line is not even mine. Still, I did choose it because
it was someone's opinion. It may be different than yours or mine,
but it did work in the cartoon.
I hardly feel qualified to comment on
political cartoons because I am not a political cartoonist, but
I will say, if you live in this country and are an American you
understand this is a puralistic society, a melting pot of ideas,
religions, beliefs. In MY opinion, this cartoon or any other
cartoon about ANYTHING should come under the philosophy of "sticks
and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me..."
If someone drew a cartoon about me or my religion and I didn't
like it (and trust me they have), I would (and have) not let
it upset me BECAUSE I know it's their opinion. However,
it is the people who can't separate imagined truth via a
cartoon, as repugnant as it may be, who then attack some other
person physically BECAUSE of said cartoon who are the real purveyors
of violence. I can shrug someone off who calls me a name or says
my belief is wrong, but I (or anyone else) cannot nor should
I (they) have to be subject to physical violence as a result
of someone calling them a name of making fun of their belief.
There's an old saying that goes something like this..."You
have a right to swing your fist anywhere you want, but that right
must stop at the tip of my nose." "Swinging your fist"
could be analogous to voicing ones opinion and speaking one's
mind - or, drawing an offensive cartoon. The "tip of my
nose" could be analogous to physically harming someone.
A person who is confident in their beliefs should be self-assured
enough to know that no matter what someone says about them or
their beliefs that that does not alter their belief(s). I can
sum it all up in one word...Ghandi.
Nothing against you as I don't know
you, but getting all worked about about some ink on a paper to
the extent that a person wants to spill blood is nothing more,
in my humble opinion, than someone who is LOOKING FOR AN EXCUSE
to hurt someone else BECAUSE the foundation of their core
belief system is built on sand.
Dan
Reynolds
FEBRUARY 17, 2006
TIMID EDITORS
Cartoonists are abuzz about the new hypersensitivity
of timid editors who are killing any cartoon that might be the
least bit controversial, in the wake of the Danish Muhammad cartoons
turmoil. Our own Brian Fairrington sent me an example today from
the liberal opinion magazine, The New Republic. See
Brian's cartoons, e-mail
Brian.
 I
was contacted by The New Republic magazine on Monday about doing
a full color cover for their next issue. They told me they were
reporting on the Danish cartoon controversy and wanted me to
do an illustration that reflected the clash of cultures for the
cover. It was a rush job and they needed it by Wednesday. They
also informed me that they had formulated an idea already and
they described it as the "classic cartoon fight scene"
showing a cloud with lots of fists, heads and feet coming out
of it. I went through a few drafts and planned to ink it Tuesday
evening and have it for them first thing Wednesday morning.
I drew Uncle Sam jumping into the fight
while all sorts of things flew from the heart of the battle that
included a Bible and a copy of the Quran. They told me to replace
Uncle Sam with a blue collar looking westerner so I did. Also
at their suggestion, I included an Arab looking guy in a turban
yielding a sword. The editors liked the final sketch and late
Tuesday evening they told me to go ahead and go with it. After
staying up all night I finally went to bed at 4:30 am. Just before
doing so I sent them what I had done up to that point so they
could block the cover the first thing the next morning. I got
up early the next morning and finalized the drawing and e-mailed
it to them so they could get it before noon Boston time.
Later that afternoon after just getting
off the phone with the AP Paris Bureau chief who had called to
get my input on the Danish cartoon controversy and to ask if
I thought it would have any kind of adverse effect on how editors
would treat "hotbed" cartoons, the phone rang again.
It was The New Republic calling to tell me that the publisher
had killed the cover because they felt it might generate a reaction.
Can you say IRONY? Oh well, better luck next time. --BRIAN
FAIRRINGTON
 MURDER THE CARTOONISTS AND WIN A BRAND NEW CAR
MSNBC.com reports this morning that:
Maulana Yousef Qureshi, a cleric in
the northwestern city of Peshawar, said during Friday prayers
that he personally had offered to pay a bounty of 500,000 rupees
($8,400), while a jewelers association was putting up $1 million,
and others were offering $17,000 plus a car. Qureshi repeated
the offer at rally later in the city to protest against the cartoons.
"If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden ... we
can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this
sacrilege of the holy prophet," Qureshi told Reuters, referring
to the $25 million U.S. bounty on the al-Qaida leader's head.
He apparently did not realize that 12 cartoonists, not one, drew
the drawings that have led to protests across the Muslim world.
Earlier this month a Taliban commander in Afghanistan was reported
as offering a bounty of 220 pounds of gold to anyone who killed
a cartoonist who drew the pictures. The commander, Mullah Dadullah,
also offered 12 pounds of gold to anyone who killed a Danish,
Norwegian or German soldier.
The cartoonists are living in hiding under
24 hour police guard. MSNBC.com also reports on various protests
in Pakistan after Friday prayers, along with protests in Hong
Kong and Bangladesh.
The cartoon at the above right shows the
"Perfect Cartoon" (no cartoon at all) by Deng Coy Miel of the Straits Times in Singapore.
ALGERIAN CARTOONIST JAILED
Reporters Without Borders reports that an appeals court has sentenced Algerian
cartoonist Ali Dilem to one year in prison for drawing cartoons
critical of Algeria's president Bouteflika. Thanks to The Comics Reporter for this link.
VIEW FROM JORDAN
Our Jordanian cartoonist, Emad Hajjaj, wrote to me with his views
of the cartoon furor and included a cartoon that his newspaper
refused to print. Click here to see Emad's cartoons archive.
Click here to e-mail
Emad.
Daryl,
Recently, I followed your Blog on the daily coverage of the controversial
Mohammad cartoon crisis. I appreciate the great effort that you
do in giving different perspectives about this important issue.
I would like to share my thoughts on this.
Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. However, there
can be consequences for expressing those rights. For example,
no one can make fun of the race of blacks or Jews and not expect
some backlash. The difference from doing this in the West is
that you are not forbidden from doing it but you may experience
some retaliation and negative feedback. The idea of forbidding
the drawing of Muhammad is just a historical dogma. The Koran
and Hadeeth never mention in any clear text that the depiction
of Muhammad is forbidden. But, there is a difference between
Islam and Muslims who are unfortunately, a third world people
with many distorted beliefs and thoughts about their religion,
history and the world itself. I think that a billion and a half
Muslims deserve to be understood rather than be provoked or hit
on their nerve under the pretext of freedom of expression that
serves no purpose. Muhammad has been portrayed in cartoons and
comics for decades in the West, and in a very miserable way long
before the Danish newspaper published them. The difference this
time was that Jyllands-Posten was putting it in his bold way;
Hey Muslims, you forbid it, but we'll publish it anyway. They
went ahead and published twelve cartoons that depicted a negative
image of Muhammad. Our dictatorships found something to play
with, who is Denmark to them anyway? It is not the United States.
So, they urged our controlled media to exaggerate the issue and
encourage protests and boycotts. In doing this, they indirectly
encouraged our religious cleric extremists to get even more crazy.
The timing could not have been worse.
 The
United States and Europe are living in the age of Islamo-phobia.
The Muslims think they became the only target of the whole West
and these cartoons are just making it worse. Muslims are human
beings after all and what they deserve from the West is more
understanding and more support for the few positive things they
have. Give them democracy but not like the one in Iraq. Stop
your government and big companies from playing dangerous games
in our region. Use the money you spend on weapons and spend it
on education and fighting poverty, illiteracy and unemployment
in Islamic countries. Then, I'm sure there will be no terrorists
or religious freaks anymore. When you keep practicing your freedom
of expression in this manner you will only get more hate and
more extremism. The clash of civilizations is the last thing
our troubled planet needs. We should not encourage it because
nobody will win after it happens. Arabic cartooning has a lot
of negative things like anti-Semitism, racism and many awful
things. However, it is changing just like many things here and
what the Danish newspaper did, did not help in that change.
Attached is a recent cartoon of mine, (above right) which urges
all Muslims to be civilized in their protest and stop the looting
and burning. Unfortunately, the two Arabic newspapers I work
for refuse to publish it.
Emad Hajjaj
FEBRUARY 16, 2006
MORE VIOLENCE, THE POPE AND PASTRY
Click here and
you can hear me talking about the cartoon controversy on the
"Two Johns No Waiting Show" (really, that's the name
of the radio show) from KMOX in St. Louis.
The Pope reportedly supports peaceful protests
against the Muhammad cartoons. The Vatican had previously denounced
the cartoons. About 40,000 demonstrators took to the streets
of Karachi today as huge street protests in Pakistan entered
their fourth straight day. 5,000 police and paramilitary forces
were deployed to keep order. Protesters burned Danish flags and
effigies of the Danish Prime Minister as crowds chanted, "God's
curse be on those who insulted the prophet." The head of
a Sunni Muslim group that organized the protest is quoted as
saying, "(The) movement to protect the prophet's sanctity
will continue until the pens of the blasphemous people are broken
and their tongues get quiet."
Remember "Freedom Fries"? AlJazeera
reports that Danish bakeries throughout Iran have stricken
the "Danish" moniker to protest the Danish Muhammad
cartoons. Now Danish pastries are called, "Roses of the
Prophet Muhammad," by order of the Iranian confectioners
union.
CARTOONISTS' COMMENTS ON THOSE MUHAMMAD CARTOONS
Since the worldwide furor began over
the Danish caricatures of Muhammad, the talk among political
cartoonists has been about new and unwelcome attention that the
fuss has brought to their profession. Editors now view editorial
cartoonists as potential problems and gossip is circulating among
American cartoonists about their cartoons that are being killed
by timid editors and publishers who would have printed the same
cartoons a couple of months ago.
I asked a number of the world's top,
syndicated political cartoonists what they think about the 'toon
turmoil and how they see it affecting political cartoonists.
--Daryl Cagle
Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant, Connecticut:
"European newspaper cartoonists have always enjoyed more
freedom of expression than we cartoonists in America. All you
have to do is check them out on the Internet, and that's the
real chill, the fatal chill. The newspaper business in America
is caught in a downward spiral of declining circulation. The
cartoon controversy shows why. Most all American papers declined
to run the Danish cartoons, thus again proving that newspapers
are becoming irrelevant to the news/information process. You,
the curious informed public, need to have a computer and Internet
service to learn what all the fuss is about. Editors have decided
for you that you can't handle it. Young people see right through
this. They'll look at the cartoons on the Internet (as I had
to do) and make up their own minds, without the help of newspapers."
Sandy Huffaker, Nationally Syndicated:
"When a chain buys a newspaper, that paper loses courage.
The money guys take over for the journalists, leading to the
firing of reporters, investigative reporters and cartoonists
- those people who might upset advertisers. It seems like one
letter-to-the-editor can cow an editor already afraid for his
job. No better example of this is the Muhammad cartoons. Only
a handful of our papers had the guts to run them, so no one had
any idea how offensive they were or weren't (they were quite
tame). I never thought I'd see the day that France, who had a
number of papers run the cartoons, had more courage than we did.
It is a sad day for democracy."
Mike Lester, The Rome News-Tribune, Georgia:
"Methinks the temptation for timidity in the opinions of
editors and cartoonists has never seen greater justification.
For cartoonists, the previous desire to appear in major papers
and newsstand glossies seems to have been replaced with the desire
to maintain their current height. I'm not sure who the last brave
editor will be, but he/she's out there. I once drew a cartoon
of Jesus turning regular into decaf and was deluged with mail
from Christians requesting t-shirt reprints. It would appear
that, even though the West has been watching 'Skating with Celebrities'
and smoking Sudafed we've somehow developed a sense of irony
leaving the Dark Aged Islamo-fascists still working on indoor
plumbing and a sense of humor."
Rainer Hachfeld, Neues Deutschland, Germany:
"Editors are and were always timid, particularly in the
USA. Nothing will change in the behavior of editors. On the other
hand, I hate the ridiculous self-pity of cartoonists which is
shown in many cartoons about the so-called Muhammad cartoon controversy."
Monte Wolverton,
Nationally Syndicated:
"It's understandable that editors wish to avoid offending
readers and advertisers. At a time when economic safety nets
are unraveling, what editor -- or cartoonist in their right mind
-- wants to endanger their career, mortgage, retirement, savings
and health insurance, much less provoke riots and evoke death-fatwas?
The recent unrest will only reinforce that cautious mindset.
But public discourse is not for the cautious, faint-hearted or
easily offended. It is best served when issues are confronted
boldly and head-on. Cartoonists facilitate that process by offering
provocative metaphors to prime the pump of productive argument.
Reasonable people understand how this works, but extremists and
religious fundamentalists don't."
Yaakov Kirschen, The Jerusalem Post, Israel:
"Timid editors do indeed avoid 'hard-hitting' cartoons.
Timid editors are also partially responsible for falling newspaper
sales, because when newspapers choose to be 'safe' rather than
exciting, provocative and thought-provoking they lose their appeal.
And nothing is more exciting, provocative, and thought-provoking
than a good political cartoon."
Pat Bagley, The Salt
Lake Tribune, Utah:
"The Muhammad brouhaha has probably strengthened my hand
when it comes to arguing for printing a cartoon that the editors
might find a little too edgy, especially those dealing with religion.
The episode has opened the door on why religion is somehow exempt
from criticism. Wasn't that the whole point of The Enlightenment;
that folks could speak back to religious authority?"
Mike Lane, Baltimore, Nationally Syndicated:
"Newspaper people I've known, editors included, were generally
divided unevenly into two groups: pro and anti-cartoon. So why
should we expect editors to even consider (printing) foreign
cartoons of an inflammatory nature when many could not care less
about comparatively benign, domestic cartoons, is a mystery to
me. And if the Muslims are going to get worked up over cartoons
of a guy who's been dead for 1500 years when we've been drawing
images of Jesus who preceded Muhammad by 600 or so years, I say,
OK, it's your way, not mine. So let's have a separation of church/temple/mosque
and the Fourth Estate. If we're going to get exercised about
what pictures our free press doesn't print, I say it be over
the photos of our dead and maimed young people returning from
Iraq."
Petar Pismetrovic,
Kleine Zeitung, Austria:
"I have no idea why anyone needed such cartoons. I think
the goal of cartoons is not to insult but to criticize, ape or
comment on politics, society, etc. As if there weren't enough
sinners walking the earth (politicians, military leaders, etc.)
that saints and religious idols needed to be attacked in cartoons.
My only wish is that cartoons stop being misused by extremist
organizations and elements, and that they are appreciated for
what they should be: critical comment and a good joke."
Olle Johansson, Norra Vasterbotten, Sweden:
"The upside to the incident with the Danish Muhammad cartoons
is that I believe many editors will open their eyes to the immense
power that is within the political cartoon. The downside is that
at the same time many of them may unfortunately choose a more
careful approach especially when it comes to international cartoons
concerning people and/or cultures they don't fully understand.
But I choose to believe that this will strengthen the cartoon
as journalistic instrument. And it has certainly brought back
the nerve to this form of art."
Riber Hansson, Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden:
"In Swedish children's books you can find 'the world's strongest
girl,' Pippi Longstocking. She used to say: 'If you are
very, very strong you have to be very, very kind.' A political
cartoonist, supported by (a free press), will be very, very strong.
You can immediately see the dilemma for an artist trying to follow
Pippi's advice; the political satirist's basic tool is not exactly
kindness My personal policy as an editorial cartoonist is to
(strike only at) power. Belief belongs to the private sphere,
and I try to avoid religious subjects for that reason. I can't
guess what my reaction would have been if my courage as a cartoonist
had been challenged, as it was with the Danish cartoonists by
editors asking (them to) dare draw the Prophet Mohammad. Self-censorship
is an emotive and provoking term for a political cartoonist,
maybe for all artists. I hope I would have had the courage to
say "no." The political cartoon needs to be free, without
any editorial finger over the cartoonists shoulder, pointing
out the subject (matter)."
Patrick Chappatte, The International Herald-Tribune, Geneva:
"I'm bothered by the fact that in the Danish approach, Muhammad
was not merely a cartoon character, but he was the very purpose
of the cartoons. The idea was to represent him because
he's a forbidden figure. On the other side, those images have
been misused by extremists to stir up anger and misunderstanding
(by) the same extremists who take delight in anti-Semitic caricatures.
The aim of political cartooning is not - should not be - in itself
to hurt; it is to make a point. It can be a political, or a moral
point. It can be funny or serious. In the process, it can hurt
your feelings, your political beliefs or your religious principles
- but this is a collateral damage. Muhammad is not a subject.
Violent radical Islamists are a subject. Humiliation of the Palestinian
people is a subject".
Stephane Peray, The Nation, Thailand:
"I see several reactions in the newspapers that I regularly
work with. Emotions are running high and you have the feeling
that the readers are not even taking time to understand the cartoon
that they have already burst into some kind of irrational anger
( or is it fear? ) So in this kind of atmosphere, I can understand
editors not taking risks the biggest hypocrisy is to keep defending
'Freedom of Press' like it was the latest highest value the West
has invented when in reality the Power of Money is higher
than the 'Freedom of the Press,' so how can we really defend
it as 'value?'"
Vince O'Farrell,
The Illawarra Mercury, Australia:
" to deliberately antagonize the Muslim community especially
in the context of broader world events was an irresponsible exercise
in abuse of freedom of the press. The response from the rampaging
fanatical zealots was just as stupid and pathetic. Who'd want
to be the head of the Islamic Public Relations Bureau? Now there's
a 24/7 job. In almost 30 years of newspaper cartooning
I could probably count the number of times I've had a definite
'NO' from an editor to a cartoon on one hand. As newspaper publishing
the world over is increasingly driven by the bottom line, cartoonists
in general will have to expect that those 'hard-hitting' cartoons,
especially the ones that go after the corporate juggernauts etc.
will more and more be asSigned to the waste paper or 'too hard
basket.'"
Manny Aenlle Francisco,
The Daily Tribune, Phillippines
The violent protests and diplomatic rifts that have been spurred
in reaction to the Danish Muhammad cartoons create an opportunity
for all sides concerned (publishers, editors, cartoonist and
religious leaders) to ponder and learn from this eventful situation.
While the 'right to freedom of expression' may be raised in defense
of (printing) the Muhammad cartoons, it is (also a wise point)
to raise that in all aspects of freedom, responsibility should
also be (exercised). Publishers, editors and cartoonist must
now more than ever be strict in upholding the journalist's Code
of Ethics. Adherence to (a code of ethics) is not a curtailment
of freedom but a practice that, in essence, protects the rights
of others. And in this respect, (it would protect) religious
sensibilities. Also in hindsight, the "offensive cartoons"
do not give the affected groups concerned (a reason to) become
overly violent. It is here that it is Muslim leaders' responsibility
to advise protesting Muslims to calm down and refrain from extremist
acts that only defeat the real purpose of their protests in the
first place. They claim Islam as "a religion of Peace and
Tolerance"? So where is that 'peace and tolerance' now?
How ironic.
FEBRUARY 15, 2006
EVEN WORSE MUHAMMAD CARTOON VIOLENCE
Click
here to listen to an MP3 file of an interview I gave to Canadian
CBC radio about the Danish Muhammad cartoons.
MSNBC.com and AP
reports that more than 70,000 people filled the streets of
the northwestern city of Peshawar today in Pakistan. The huge
crowd went on a rampage, torching "Western" businesses
including: another KFC restaurant, a bus terminal operated by
South Koreans, three movie theatres and Pakistan's main mobile
phone company. Three people were killed and 45 were being treated
for injuries at local hospitals.
Demonstrations in other Muslim countries
have subsided in recent days as cartoon related unrest in Pakistan
grows. Rioting also was reported in the northwestern Pakistan
city of of Tank, near the South Waziristan region where al-Qaida
fighters are supposedly hiding. Protesters set fire to 30 shops
that sell CDs, DVDs and videos. In the Eastern Pakistan city
of Lahore street fighting continued for a second day; a man was
shot and killed by police as 1,500 students staged a rally.
In Malaysia the Guang Ming Chinese
language newspaper was ordered not to publish their evening edition
for two weeks as punishment for printing a photograph that showed
an image of a newspaper where the Danish cartoons "were
visable."
Police fired teargas to chase away 200 protesters who broke into
a heavily guarded diplomatic enclave in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The group was part of about 4,000 demonstrators in a march that
was organized by Pakistani lawmakers. US Embassy staff was confined
to the building until police fended off the crowd.
The Norwegian parliament passed a law that:
"criminalizes blasphemy and clearly prohibits despising
others or lampooning religions in any form of expression, including
the use of photographs." According to Norway's deputy Archbishop,
"Under the new law, the crime of blasphemy will be punished
either by a fine or imprisonment." The law was passed after
the Danish Muhammad cartoons were reprinted in Norway and the
Norweigan embassy was burned down in Damascus.
 Some of you have asked
what happened to the Dan Reynolds caption contest from last December
. That's the cartoon at the right --I just heard from Dan. The
winning caption that Dan picked is, " And you didn't
think Muslims could get in!" Submitted by Timothy Marron.
Congratulations to Timothy. Judging from our mail, I'm sure many
of you will appreciate that choice and some of you will see it
as a reason to go on jihad -you can complain or compliment Dan
at cartoonist89@hotmail.com.
FEBRUARY 14, 2006
See
our Valentines Day cartoons!
MUHAMMAD CARTOONS ROUND-UP: THE WORST VIOLENCE YET
MSNBC.com
reports the worst violence yet
as thousands of cartoon protesters rampaged through two cities
in Pakistan today, torching Western businesses and a provincial
assembly. A Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant was burned, along
with buildings housing a hotel, two banks and the office of a
Norweigen telephone company. Some in the crowds chanted, "Death
to America." Rioters also damaged more than 200 cars, dozens
of shops and broke the windows of a Holiday Inn, a Pizza Hut
and a McDonalds. Another protest in Islamabad drew 4,000 protesters.
At
least two people are reported dead and eleven others injured.
Police
shot at protesters in Nairobi, Kenya, where cartoon demonstrators
were marching on the Danish embassy, shouting anti-Denmark slogans
and burning Danish flags. One person was reported wounded.
It's not just Muhammad cartoons making the Middle East angry
- the Iranian embassy in Berlin demanded an apology for a cartoon
in a German newspaper that insulted the Iranian football (soccer)
team. To quote from iransportsnews.com:
In a statement addressed to chief editor
of the daily Der Tagesspiegel, the embassy demanded a "written
apology and measures aimed at rectifying this immoral act".
The communiqué added the offensive caricature had caused
"outrage among the Iranian people".
The Wall Street Journal sees the Muhammad cartoons as driving Israel closer
to joining NATO. Al
Jazeera reports that a Muslim group in Canada is suing a
Canadian newspaper that reprinted the Muhammad cartoons for hate
crimes; a spokesman for the group admitted that he had not seen
the publication but was trying to have Calgary police investigate.
No major Canadian newspaper has reprinted the cartoons.
 The
Israel News Agency announced that it would post the Iranian
anti-Semitic cartoons that are part of a much ballyhooed contest
deSigned to counter the Danish Muhammad cartoons by putting out
more of the same rot we're used to seeing in Iranian cartoons.
The Israel News Agency also announced an effort to make the Iranian
contest show up badly on search engines.
On The Daily Show, John Stewart noted that during the
opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympic Games, the Danish team
entered the stadium to the 1980's song, "Don't Let Me
Be Misunderstood."
The
Palestinian envoy to Washington announced on CNN's Late Edition
with Wolf Blitzer that Israel's Likud party was behind circulating
the Muhammad cartoons. (I also watched this show and noted that
the Egyptian ambassador, in response to a question from Blitzer,
denied that any Egyptian newspaper had reprinted the cartoons
--scans of an Egyptian newspaper that reprinted the cartoons
have been widely posted on the web, see here and here).
The Washington Post reports
that Pakistani police fired teargas on thousands of student protestors.
Thousands of students protested Monday in Egypt at universities
in Cairo and the southern city of Assiut, the students warned
that those who published the cartoons, "have opened the
gates of hell on themselves." Another protest Monday had
hundreds of Palestinian schoolchildren, some as young as 4, stomping
on Danish flags and shouting anti-Danish slogans; the protest
was organized by Hamas in the West Bank.
The Post also reports on a group of Danish Muslims who went to
the Middle east drumming up opposition to the Muhammad cartoons.
The group " ... claiming to represent 27 Muslim organizations,
said they sought support in countries including Egypt, Syria
and Lebanon because they felt their voices were not being heard
in Denmark. The group carried a dossier with purported examples
of images offensive to Islam, including photocopies of the 12
Muhammad cartoons and three additional images, two offensive
drawings of the prophet and a copy of an AP photograph that had
nothing to do with the controversy. That photograph, showing
a bearded man wearing fake pig ears and a pig nose, was from
a pig-squealing contest in France in August and had no connection
with Islam or the Prophet Muhammad caricatures. Group leaders
have said they received copies of the three images in threatening
letters and rejected that their group was responsible for fueling
anti-Western anger in the Middle East."
FEBRUARY 13, 2006
Cartoon by Daryl Cagle
We've expanded our
"Cartoons about the Muhammad cartoons" collection again,
come take another look!
Two Kinds of Offensive Cartoonists
By Daryl Cagle
Crowds fill the streets in the Middle East,
demanding the execution of the Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures
of the Prophet Muhammad. Bounties for the murder of the cartoonists
have been offered by Muslim extremists and have been trumpeted
in the press as the poor cartoonists live in hiding, under 24-hour
police protection.
Why did the Danish cartoonists draw the
cartoons? To test the limits of press freedom? To show disrespect
for Islam? Because a Danish author couldn't find an illustrator
for his book about Muhammad? No, the Danish cartoonists drew
"caricatures" of Muhammad because a Danish newspaper,
the Jyllands-Posten, hired them and paid them $73 each, along
with the promise that the cartoonists would get their names and
photos in the local newspaper.
The cartoonists knew they were being hired
to draw provocative cartoons accompanying an article about the
limits on press freedom, but they had no idea that they would
be the tiny spark that lit a huge bomb in the Muslim world. (If
they had known, they certainly wouldn't have done the drawings
in exchange for getting their photos in the newspaper.)
Some of the cartoonists even made fun of
the assignment they were given; one of the offending cartoons
shows a man looking at a police line-up who asks, "How can
I identify Muhammad if I don't know what he looks like?"
Another offending cartoon shows a turban-wearing cartoonist holding
his drawing of a stick-figure Muhammad while an orange, labeled
"PR Stunt," drops into his turban. (Dropping an orange
refers to a Danish idiom and expresses the cartoonist's disdain
for his assignment.)
As condemnation rains down on the Danish
cartoonists an important distinction is lost - the difference
between cartoonists who are illustrators and political cartoonists.
I'm a political cartoonist; I draw cartoons
that convey my opinions. Anyone who sees my cartoons will know
what I think on a wide range of issues. Political cartoonists
are journalists, just like columnists we decide for ourselves
what we want to say, and we are responsible for what we say.
Editors don't tell political cartoonists what to say (although
editors sometimes stop us from saying things that are offensive).
The Danish cartoonists are illustrators;
they are given assignments by clients who pay them for their
work. Illustrators draw what they are hired to draw. No one can
look at the work of an illustrator and discern what the illustrator's
opinions are. Illustrators usually draw pictures that go with
an author's words; they might be creative and inject their own
ideas, but still they are working at the direction of a client.
The Muhammad cartoons are not political cartoons, they are illustrations
drawn to accompany a newspaper article about press limits, an
issue that arose because an author couldn't find an illustrator
for his book about Muhammad.
The Danish Muhammad cartoons are broadly
- and wrongly - described as political cartoons by pundits and
politicians who don't understand the difference between one kind
of cartoonist and another. The "political cartoon"
label unfairly condemns the Danish cartoonists, none of whom
would have chosen, on their own, to express any opinion about
Islam, press freedom or the Prophet Muhammad.
The perception of the Danish Muhammad cartoons
as "political cartoons" is chilling to real political
cartoonists who are suddenly perceived as ticking time-bombs
that can explode at any time. Editors, who were already uncomfortable
reining-in their unwieldy, bomb-throwing cartoonists, are now
more timid than ever.
Everyone asks me why I don't draw Muhammad
in a political cartoon - am I afraid to give offense or am I
afraid for my own safety? I'll draw whatever I want; I'll be
offensive if I want to be, but I want my cartoons to effectively
convey my opinion, and my opinion about the Danish Muhammad cartoons
issue is that the violent response to the cartoons is wrong and
is far out of proportion to the provocation. If I were to draw
a cartoon depicting Muhammad now, the only message the cartoon
would convey is: "Hey, look at me, I can offend you too."
That is not what I choose to say.
Daryl Cagle is the political cartoonist for MSNBC.com. He is
a past president of the National Cartoonists Society and his
cartoons are syndicated to over eight hundred newspapers, including
the paper you are reading. His book, "The Best Political
Cartoons of the Year, 2006 Edition" and "The Big Book
of Bush Cartoons" is available in bookstores and Amazon.com
now.
Read my column with background on the Muhammad
cartoon controversy here.
Read
my column encouraging editors to reprint the Danish Muhammad
cartoons here.
See the offending cartoons here.
Walid Phares is a Middle East expert and MSNBC analyst. He wrote
this interesting column about the Danish Muhammad cartoons for
my syndicate and I thought I would share it here.
THE CARTOON OFFENSIVE...
By Walid Phares
"In my religion" said Imam abu
Laban, leading Muslim cleric of Denmark, "drawing images
of Prophet Muhammad is forbidden." In my country, said the
editor in chief of Copenhagen's Jyllands Posten newspaper, "there
is a freedom of press." The BBC TV forum was attempting
to educate its vast public worldwide about the cartoon drama.
Unfortunately, the debate left viewers
in greater disarray. The anchor seemed to ignore why theological
cartoons are offensive to Muslims to start with, but also missed
why secular democracies are clashing with their antithesis.
 World media and their respective governments have
been reacting to television images rather than to direct knowledge.
The crisis of the "offensive cartoons" has in fact
become a "cartoons offensive." Here is why:
The Danish cartoons were published in September
2005. Why did it take five months for what Western media dubbed
"instant reactions to the insult" to materialize? One
hundred and fifty days and nights are too long for a mass reaction
to be described as "instant."
Leaders of the Muslim community in Denmark
said they attempted to resolve the matter locally by asking the
newspaper or the government to apologize for it. We all know
what the Danish position was: a matter of principle.
It was also known that a delegation from
Denmark was touring to trigger a campaign of "support"
for the protest. Imam Ahmed Abdelrahman abu Laban said on BBC
TV that "many spiritual leaders in the region, including
in Lebanon, were horrified by the caricatures." Some see
a greater agenda: taking advantage of the harm made by the pictures
to impose a new political order in Denmark and beyond.
Reaction time between the publishing and
the outrage was too long, but it was a political time par excellence.
For while the Danish Muslim delegation met with many leaders,
including Hezbollah's Nasrallah in Lebanon and leaders from Hamas
and Gamaa Islamiya (in addition to more mainstream leaders),
the cartoons were indeed circulating.
Why didn't the protest explode until only
few weeks ago? Because decisions were made, measurements were
deSigned, and plans were laid out by the "Jihadi elites."
The masses had to wait until the establishment decided to unleash
the emotions. Every single regime and organization had to refine
the expectations and project the dividends.
Would a generalized inflaming of the masses
on the "cartoon matter" be better before or after the
Palestinian elections, by Hamas standards? Before or after the
Egyptian elections, by Muslim Brotherhood plans? Before or after
the Iranian decision to rush to the nuclear race, by Ahmedinijad's
planning?
A major coincidence was the fact that Denmark
was to head the U.N. Security Council, just as its members were
to take Tehran to task for its refusal to be forthright regarding
Iran's nuclear program.
At first glance, there is no link between
the spontaneous but violent demonstrations on the one hand and
the complex calculations of the web of regimes and organizations.
I argue otherwise.
Why would the Danish Muslims go beyond
diplomatic circles as Danish citizens and seek assistance from
religious authorities and militant forces in the Middle East?
Because a decision to ignite an intifada had already been made
by the architects of the overseas journey.
It was beyond the Danish cartoons. It was
about a broader issue, something a representative of an American
Islamist group called on CNN "a strategic change in world
relationship after 9/11." Hence, the procedure - not the
substance of the protest - had to be thought, devised and prepared.
Many voices are asserting that the Jyllands
Posten and its journalistic sisters wanted to make a point -
to affirm that freedom of speech is not selective. But many others
are discovering that the group the journalists confronted was
not the Muslim public, but political activists - the Islamists
- who claim to represent about a fifth of humanity.
Islamists want to draw the limits of world
freedoms, and Western liberals reject that limitation. Islamists
refer to articles of Muslim faith forbidding any drawing of Allah
and Prophet Muhammad, let alone satirical ones. Western liberals
say they aren't bound by any religious law, let alone by fundamentalist
interpretations.
In normal circumstances, the Danish cartoons
would hurt the feelings of average Muslims. But the circumstances
aren't normal; they have been modified by the Jihadi international
machine and transformed into battlefields from Indonesia to Beirut,
from Paris to Copenhagen.
Without the Jihadi-organized, anti-European
intifada worldwide, the crisis would have resembled similar ones.
When Jesus was depicted in degrading images or other deities
insulted across the globe - including the bombing of the Buddha
statues by the Taliban - the reactions were relatively peaceful.
But the cartoon crisis has generated another
type of reaction - a war against the West led by the Jihadists,
claiming that a war against Islam has warranted their Jihad.
*****
Dr. Walid Phares is a
senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
in Washington and the author of Future Jihad. He is on
a European tour at the invitation of legislators and think tanks.
Cartoon above by Matt Bors.
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY JUST SHOT
SOMEBODY!
Justin Bilicki wins as the first cartoonist to draw a Cheney
shooting cartoon (below). I was second with this one.
SUNDAY MUHAMMAD CARTOONS UPDATE
 The
managing editors of two Algerian newspapers who reprinted
the Danish Muhammad cartoons have been jailed and face trial.
Berkane Bouderbala of the weekly Essafi and Kamel
Boussad of the Panorama weekly are being held in prison
in Algiers. They face up to five years in prison and their newspapers
have been closed. Here's
another link.
The
editors of three newspapers in Yemen have been jailed for
printing the cartoons and their newspapers have been closed by
the government. One of the newspapers, the Yemen Observer,
has stopped publishing on paper but the order to close apparently
didn't apply to their web site, which
is still up --but may not be for long. Here is a quote from
the Yemen Observer newspaper
web site:
Mohammed al-Asadi, the Yemen Observer's
chief editor has been taken into state custody by the office
of the print and media prosecutor in Sana'a. Mr. al-Asadi has
been formally charged with printing materials offensive to the
Prophet. The chief prosecutor told Mr. al-Asadi's lawyer
that his client was being detained for his own protection. Bail
was denied.
This most recent development comes after Mr. al-Asadi reprinted
a version of the Danish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
The Yemen Observer published the cartoons under a thick
black banner that was meant to obscure the offending image, but
the banner, in the print run of the newspaper, was insufficiently
black, and some details of the drawings could be distinguished
under the dark ink. The cartoons appeared in the newspaper in
order to illustrate a story about Yemeni protests over the cartoon
incident. In addition to the news article about the protests
and the cartoons, the Observer published a page of capsule quotes,
mostly from Western historians and philosophers, which situated
the doings of the Prophet in historical context.
The prosecution also issued a decree revoking the license of
the Yemen Observer. Internet publication has not been explicitly
forbidden and the Observer will therefore continue to carry out
its mission on the web.
About one thousand Muslims
protested the publication of the cartoons in Switzerland. Five
thousand Muslims protested in the streets of Macedonia. Political
leaders in Pakistan asked the government to expel the ambassadors
of European countries "who have printed the cartoons."
Cartoon above by Mehdi Sadeghi
of Iran.
FEBRUARY 11, 2006
SATURDAY MUHAMMAD CARTOONS UPDATE
 There is an interesting piece in the Los Angeles
Times today by Tim Rutten, who argues that the decisions
by newspapers not to reprint the Muhammad cartoons are hypocritical
and often made out of fear. Muslim critics of the West often
complain that Western newspapers will print the Muhammad cartoons
and won't print "equally offensive" anti-Semitic cartoons
or artwork bashing Christianity. Rutten writes:
Nothing ... quite tops the absurdity
of two pieces on the situation done this week by the New York
Times and CNN. In the former instance, a thoughtful essay by
the paper's art critic was illustrated with a 7-year-old reproduction
of Chris Ofili's notorious painting of the Virgin Mary smeared
with elephant dung. (Apparently, her fans aren't as touchy as
Muhammad's.) Thursday, CNN broadcast a story on how common anti-Semitic
caricatures are in the Arab press and illustrated it with -you
guessed it - one virulently anti-Semitic cartoon after another.
As the segment concluded, Wolf Blitzer looked into the camera
and piously explained that while CNN had decided as a matter
of policy not to broadcast any image of Muhammad, telling the
story of anti-Semitism in the Arab press required showing those
caricatures.
He didn't even blush.
The idea that anti-semitic/Holocaust-denial
images are banned in the West seems to be a popular idea in the
Mideast. In a speech yesterday, Iran's president Ahmadinejad
explained it this way:
I ask everybody in the world not to
let a group of Zionists who failed in Palestine (referring to
the recent Hamas victory in Palestinian elections) to insult
the prophet.
Now in the West insulting the prophet is allowed, but questioning
the Holocaust is considered a crime," he said. "We
ask, why do you insult the prophet? The response is that it is
a matter of freedom, while in fact they (who insult the founder
of Islam) are hostages of the Zionists. And the people of the
US and Europe should pay a heavy price for becoming hostages
to Zionists."
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