When Cartoons Kill

By Paul Accomando

The twelve cartoons that originally showed up in Danish Daily National Newspaper “Jyllands-Posten” this past September have sparked a wave of violent protest the world over. One such cartoon- the most controversial- as seen above, is a caricature of the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist with a bomb in his turban. Riots are breaking out everywhere from London to Afghanistan to New Zealand and though some of the Islamic Clergymen are trying to settle the insanity, there are still some that are encouraging it, evoking the name of Bin Laden and others that will neither applaud nor condemn this violent activity. Syrian protestors torched Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus. In Beirut, Lebanon, protesters have set fire to the Danish Embassy. Palestinian protestors have smashed the windows of the German Cultural Center. Iranian protestors firebombed the Austrian embassy in Tehran; and on a less violent though equally unnecessary note: a major Iranian newspaper, “Hamashahri” has launched a Holocaust cartoon contest. This is most likely an attempt to show the vast number of Danish Jews how it feels to be made fun of by an obscure cartoonist in a newspaper they can’t even read. Death tolls are quoting 14 people killed in these demonstrations so far: that’s two more people dead than there were cartoons in the first place.

Two questions remain: How much longer will these riots last? And, how many more people will have to die until somebody realizes it was just a cartoon? According to Islamic Religious Law, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous; and they have a right to be mad, and protest; however, this reaction of chaos and violence supersedes anything that could be considered a rational response. A majority of Middle Eastern Muslims are demanding an apology from the European Union for the publishing of the cartoons. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen acknowledges the offensive nature of the caricatures and any attacks on religion, but he said that he could not apologize on behalf of Denmark’s free press, and rightfully so. If Western European Nations begin to apologize on behalf of free press newspapers operating in their countries, they are undermining many of their founding values of democracy and free expression. These extremist protesters will essentially be controlling the world’s free press through fear and violence. What is the difference between an invading force suppressing the freedom of speech and political correctness gone wild suppressing freedom of speech? The answer is: logistics.

Similar things have occurred with another major world religion- one that is generally the bane of the secular community: the Catholic/Christian community, but the responses have never, in any way shape or form, exploded to this degree. The DaVinci Code, though considered blasphemous by many religious Catholics has not sparked any acts of violence, only protest. Similarly, there was no violent reaction from the Catholic community to “Piss Christ”, by Andres Serrano, featuring a crucifix submersed in a jar of the artist’s urine. “The Holy Virgin Mary”, by English artist Chris Ofili, originally displayed in the Brooklyn Museum of Art was partially created from dung and pornographic images of buttocks. The closest thing to violent activity that broke out during this affront to the Catholic community was a lone man- a self-proclaimed artist- throwing handfuls of horse feces at the museum, claiming to be “expressing himself creatively.” For those who did not know, one cannot effectively break things with poop.