2.15.2008

Danish newspapers reprint Mohammad cartoons

There are people who learn and then there are those who do not. Freedom of expression does not entail slandering and provocation. I grew up with a simple saying. 'Your freedom ends where my nose begins'. Must the Danish poke their fingers in other people's noses.
http://mobashirahmed.blogspot.com/2008/02/danish-cartoons-re-appear.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/world/europe/14briefs-cartoon.html?ref=world

Mr. Westergaard, the 'artist' who drew the cartoon currently being reprinted in over a dozen newspapers in Denmark said “Naturally I never imagined these kinds of reactions.” I fail to see how much imagination he needs to understand the reaction his creation. Is it not plain common sense that religion is a sensitive issue world over. And how much imagination does one need to figure out that people think emotionally and not rationally about religion. Then why must their emotions be violated and why must the things they hold most sacred be desecrated.

It makes me think about the hypocrisy of nations who put a ban on holocaust imagery yet fail to see how offensive caricatures of a religious figure held sacred by millions of people will lead to no good.

3 comments:

Awais Aftab said...

I don't know... its always difficult to draw the line. Satire is after all a part of art and literature. Though what can be satire for one person might be an insult and blasphemy for another.

Pakistani Citizen said...

Let us not instigate unrest in the name of art and literature, and freedom of expression. Such cartoonists should draw the cartoons of their own near and dear ones, and not try to seek cheap popularity (only if it is not a well thought out move to create unrest in the Muslim World) at the cost of others.

Anonymous said...

Dear mr. Mobashir.
That is exactly what the danish cartoonist do. It is a national charakteristica, that everything that is "holy" or powerful, including church, royal house, government, police, you name it, always is in the first line for cartoonists and actors. The church and the royal house respond with a smile... Every year the actor group "Line 3" makes an evil satire of the royal family. Guess who always is visiting the first show - Her majesty the Queen. -And she gets a good laugh.
That is how we are and always have been. And we had no quarrel until we opened our borders and invited islamic refugees as guests in our country. Now our gests are telling their hosts how to behave in their own home! I say: If they do not like the smell in the bakershop - bye the bread elsewhere....
We danes are a proud people. We dont take orders from foreigners in our own country. We are one of the nations in the world,that spend most per capita in fighting poverty globalwide. Including in the muslim world. Will you boycott our support - then you just let us know...