Saturday, October 29, 2005

Chill out!

Amazingly this telling story has received close to no attention in the mainstream media:
Islam is no laughing matter. The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is being protected by security guards and several cartoonists have gone into hiding after the newspaper published a series of twelve cartoons (view them here) about the prophet Muhammad. According to the Islam it is blasphemous to make images of the prophet. Muslim fundamentalists have threatened to bomb the paper’s offices and kill the cartoonists.
Not only that, but it has turned into a major diplomatic incident:
The case of the Muhammad cartoons, published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten two weeks ago, is escalating into a major conflict between Denmark and the Muslim world. Eleven Muslim ambassadors to Copenhagen, who had protested to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen demanding apologies from the newspaper, decided to take the matter to international Muslim organisations, such as the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
It seems the Danish government intends to stand its ground, and that is a comfort. I can't help but wonder what would happen if significant segments of all ethnic and religious groups were as easily offended and reacted by planting bombs and beheading people...

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