How Much Damage Can A Cartoon Do?

[Lee]

The furor in the Muslim world over the Muhammad cartoons published in European news media escalated Saturday with attacks on the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Syria and Iran's president calling for a review of trade ties with relevant European countries.

Demonstrators in the Syrian capital Damascus attacked and set fire to the Norwegian and Danish embassies in protest over the cartoons depicting the prophet, which were offensive to Muslims.

Syrian police using water cannon and tear gas fought pitched battles with stone-throwing protestors into Saturday evening.

Witnesses said that groups of protestors broke into the Danish embassy and used furniture from the offices to start fires which spread to the entire three-storey building. The building also houses the Swedish and Chilean embassies.

The embassies were closed at the time of the attacks and there were no reports of casualties at either building.

The Gaza Strip was also the scene of angry attacks on European diplomatic missions on Saturday. Around a dozen men, many of them masked, threw missiles at the German consulate office - which was closed at the time - while protestors also managed to hoist a Palestinian flag above the European Union's offices next door.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday instructed the commerce ministry in Tehran to review trade ties with all European countries involved in the cartoons affair.

The Iranian leader told the ministry to proceed immediately with "revision or even annulment of economic contracts with involved states," starting with Denmark.

His instructions followed a call by four leading Iranian ayatollahs Friday for Muslims to "confront" European countries over the matter.

Also in the Middle East, the editor of a Jordanian weekly was detained for 14 days on Saturday for questioning, days after being being sacked for reprinting the Danish cartoons.

Jihad Momani, of Shihan weekly, was detained under a clause in the penal code dealing with "tarnishing religions" - an offence which carries a penalty of between three months and three years in prison.

The authorities were also contemplating legal action against the editor of another weekly al-Mehwar, which published the cartoons.

Meanwhile, in Cairo, a meeting of information ministers of Arab states announced a media campaign to "dispel the bad image of Islam."

The ministers, who met at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo said they were prepared to spend 22.5 million dollars on the Islam awareness campaign.

They also said they would be seeking a United Nations resolution forbidding "offensive attacks on religious convictions."

The cartoons, first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten daily and then reprinted elsewhere in Europe, have touched a raw nerve in the Arab world, partly because Islamic law forbids any representation of the prophet and also because one of the cartoons showed him wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a burning fuse.

The Danish government and Jyllands-Posten have both expressed regret for the offence caused to Muslims by the images.

In Copenhagen, results of a poll commissioned by DR television network showed 47 per cent of Danes felt, in light of the reaction of Muslims, Jyllands-Posten should not have published the 12 caricatures. Some 46 per cent remained in favour, while a further 6 per cent were undecided.

Calls for a mass boycott of Danish products in Arab states continued Saturday, but a glimmer of optimism that the protest was abating was reported in Denmark.

DI industry association saying some companies had noticed the "first gaps" in the boycott.

Food company Arla has been particularly affected. Falling revenues have prompted it to close a dairy employing 800 people in Saudi Arabia and to lay off some 100 staff in Denmark.

Elsewhere in Europe, leaders commenting Saturday on the debacle included German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the annual Munich Security Conference, who said she understood Muslim anger over the cartoons but not the violent reaction that has ensued.

"It is unacceptable to see this as a legitimization for violence," she said.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg however condemned the publication in his own country's Magazinet Catholic magazine of the cartoons.

In London, hundreds of Muslims gathered to protest outside the Danish embassy in the centre of the city.

The protests, said to have been peaceful, were organized by the radical Islamic Hizb ut-Tharir organization that Prime Minister Tony Blair wants to outlaw.

Other related stories from around the world:

-- SOUTH AFRICA: The Johannesburg High Court granted an injunction against two of the country's largest newspaper groups preventing them from publishing the cartoons following an application by a prominent Muslim cleric.

Media houses and editors have described the court order that would effectively gag all local publications as "alarming."

-- INDONESIA: The leader of the world's most populous Muslim country, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, condemned the cartoons as "clearly insensitive."

-- NEW ZEALAND: Ethnic Affairs Minister Chris Carter attacked two newspapers that published the cartoons.

At least one Muslim shopowner reportedly refused to sell the Wellington daily Dominion Post which, along with The Press in Churchtown, reprinted the 12 cartoons. Some were also shown on New Zealand television on Friday night.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_...s.php?id=77623

Crazy stuff for sure, thats 5 embassys that have been set alight because of a stupid cartoon :eek:

I have a feeling this will get a lot worse before it gets any better

Regards,

Lee

[desslock]

Yes, well it is a revealing demonstration of how the radical Muslim world completely opposes Western life.

I do think the war in Iraq is very much about the power of ideas, as demonstrated when they urge the violent end of "heretical views", much like the violent, stabbing to death ends of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, or of gay conservative leader Pim Fortuyn on the streets of Amsterdam, for their heretical views.

Steve

[Squirt]

Oh the "peaceful" Muslim people. Any excuse to strap a bomb to themselves and blow something up, slit someones throat, hang someone, torture, riot, and destroy, all in the name of their God.

It's sad all these people on our planet with their Gods killing one another in a desperate attempt to show whos side God is on. You'd think after all these thousands of years they'd get it by now :wacko:

[desslock]

Well my heart goes out to Denmark.... and the European papers who printed them. The EU has essentially let Denmark hang out to dry. Interesting, as the EU seems very quick to call a big meeting whenever their brie farmers or feta cheese farmers need help from the mean outside world..... But when one of their smallest members is pilloried for the crime of simply being a European country, it's a different matter.

Steve

[Lee]

Well my heart goes out to Denmark.... and the European papers who printed them. The EU has essentially let Denmark hang out to dry. Interesting, as the EU seems very quick to call a big meeting whenever their brie farmers or feta cheese farmers need help from the mean outside world..... But when one of their smallest members is pilloried for the crime of simply being a European country, it's a different matter.

Steve

Steve,

You seem to be under the impression this is some kind of government controlled issue, it isnt, a private business printed the cartoons, the newspapers that printed them are the ones at fault here, not the EU or Denmark.

Think of it like this, if an American adult company published and, distributed illegal adult content (CP, beasty etc), would you be saying that the private company was at fault or the 'industry' as whole?

Its no different to what has happened here, a private company made a bad decision which has had far reaching consequences.

It has nothing at all to do with the EU letting Denmark hang out to dry as you suggest or, would you prefer to see the government interjecting on free speech issues at a whim just because a group of extremists decide to go around and burn buildings down? Much like how the Christian-Right want to get rid of online pornography coincidently.

Regards,

Lee

[Lee]

Oh the "peaceful" Muslim people. Any excuse to strap a bomb to themselves and blow something up, slit someones throat, hang someone, torture, riot, and destroy, all in the name of their God.

Replace 'Muslim' with 'Christian'.

If a private company in the U.S printed pictures of Jesus in a less than flattering light, do you not think the Christian groups would all be up in arms about it?

Regards,

Lee

[tombarr]

Replace 'Muslim' with 'Christian'.

If a private company in the U.S printed pictures of Jesus in a less than flattering light, do you not think the Christian groups would all be up in arms about it?

Regards,

Lee

"up in arms" perhaps, but not taking up arms! I don't quite think even the religious zealots in the USA would start burning embassies over a cartoon. Boycotts, protests, name calling, perhaps a little rioting, but surely not burning embassies, and calling for death to the artists.

[rhys]

Replace 'Muslim' with 'Christian'.

If a private company in the U.S printed pictures of Jesus in a less than flattering light, do you not think the Christian groups would all be up in arms about it?

Regards,

Lee

ha!... it happens all the time! just look at the exhibit of the virgin mary made out of piss and elephant shit!

to name just one example!

did the museum get burned down? was the curator threatened with beheading?

nah! people wrote letters! letters to the editor... to their congressman!

and that was end of the matter.

but not for muslims.... oh no... they like to dish it out but they certainly can't take it!:nowords:

[Lee]

"up in arms" perhaps, but not taking up arms! I don't quite think even the religious zealots in the USA would start burning embassies over a cartoon.

Even if that is what their religious leader told them to do?

You might want to do some reading up on American history, specifically, the bible wars from the 19th century.

Granted it wasnt over a cartoon, more some text which was found in the bible.

Also, as little as 20 years ago, there was a HUGE movement in the US by the religious right where they actually did start burning down schools and colleges because they found some books to be ireligious, indecent and immoral.

Im not defending what these people are doing by any means but, at the same time, im also not defending the decision by the newspapers to run those cartoons, it was a bad judgement call and unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20.

Regards,

Lee

[dannyz]

"up in arms" perhaps, but not taking up arms! I don't quite think even the religious zealots in the USA would start burning embassies over a cartoon. Boycotts, protests, name calling, perhaps a little rioting, but surely not burning embassies, and calling for death to the artists.

Tom,

They might not be up in arms now, but if we look to our history books their has certainly been plenty of blood spilled in the name of Christianity. And let us not forget that a Christian in charge of our country took the US to war in Iraq for false reasons, which has taken over 20,000 Iraqi lives (and 2,249 American lives to date).

Cheers,
D.

[Lee]

Tom,

They might not be up in arms now, but if we look to our history books their has certainly been plenty of blood spilled in the name of Christianity. And let us not forget that a Christian in charge of our country took the US to war in Iraq for false reasons, which has taken over 20,000 Iraqi lives (and 2,249 American lives to date).

Cheers,
D.

Lets also not forget the stuff that has been happening in Northern Ireland since the 70's protestants and catholics bombing and shooting each other.

That wasnt even over a cartoon, it was juts because 'they could' LOL

We so often point fingers at the Muslim and Arab world when it comes to terrorism but, in doing so, we often forget that there are other types of terrosist / religious and hate crimes going on everyday over much less than cartoons.

Regards,

Lee

[Squirt]

Replace 'Muslim' with 'Christian'.

If a private company in the U.S printed pictures of Jesus in a less than flattering light, do you not think the Christian groups would all be up in arms about it?

Christians are no better, they just have a different way of getting what they want and voicing their opinion since they are currently "in power".

When I said "It's sad all these people on our planet with their Gods killing one another in a desperate attempt to show whos side God is on." I was referencing all religions, although I haven't heard of death in the name of Budah, but I could be wrong :high:

Since the recorded death of a man they called Jesus, the Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and Christian religious leaders have killed millions in his name.

[dannyz]

Yeah, Buddhism is really the only religion I have any faith in. Visiting Buddhist temples and seeing how peaceful their culture is is truly the most beautiful thing about living in Asia (well, other then the men LOL)

Christians are no better, they just have a different way of getting what they want and voicing their opinion since they are currently "in power".

When I said "It's sad all these people on our planet with their Gods killing one another in a desperate attempt to show whos side God is on." I was referencing all religions, although I haven't heard of death in the name of Budah, but I could be wrong

Since the recorded death of a man they called Jesus, the Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and Christian religious leaders have killed millions in his name

.

[Squirt]

but not for muslims.... oh no... they like to dish it out but they certainly can't take it!:nowords:

I totally agree with you on this point.

Have muslims been suing the school districts in America so they women can wear their head scarf on religious grounds? They're doing it here in Australia and in Europe.

If you were a woman and went to a school in a muslim country, then sued the school for your right to NOT wear a head scarf on religious grounds, what do you think would happen? NOTHING, you wouldn't get that far, you'd be stoned the minute you were seen in public without a head scarf and/or physically removed from the streets until you submitted :groovy:

Muslim men, born and raised in Australia, have gone on televisions saying they will never live the way Austrlians do and called Australian men weak and Australian women sluts. Then there's rioting against Muslims and they act like they've done nothing wrong and are victims of racism.

I think the religious powers that be are preparing for World War III , a war based on religious ideals, their own self fulfilling Armageddon. When religions are using cartoons as an excuse for destruction you know things are way out of control.

[Squirt]

Yeah, Buddhism is really the only religion I have any faith in. Visiting Buddhist temples and seeing how peaceful their culture is is truly the most beautiful thing about living in Asia (well, other then the men LOL)

.

I agree the buddhist culture and spirituality is a great thing. Amazing how a belief system truly designed for peace and growth is the one that doesn't get much attention.

Remember before 911, in March 2001 when the Taliban blew up those 2,000-year-old Buddhist statues in the cliffs above Bamian? That's when I realized something was really wrong. Anyone blowing up Buddhist statues, of all things, has a seious axe to grind and is going for total domination.

I'm still in shock... rioting over a few cartoons :wacko: