Muslim Day of Anger to Respond to Cartoons

A powerful Muslim leader has declared today an International Day of Anger to express how hurt their prophets feelings are over some Dutch cartoons.

Photo: Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi: International day of anger A leading Islamic cleric called for an “international day of anger” today over publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, and a Danish activist predicted that deadly violence could break out in Europe “at any minute”.

As more European newspapers reprinted the cartoons, what started off as a row between Denmark’s press and its Muslim population grew into a full-blown “clash of civilisations”.

Anger boiled over in the Gaza Strip, where gunmen from Islamic Jihad occupied the office of the European Union. Europeans began to leave the Palestinian territories after threats from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Jihad al-Momani, the editor of the Jordanian newspaper al-Shihan, was sacked for trying to publish three of the 12 caricatures. He said that he was aiming “to show his readers “the extent of the Danish offence”.

A leading hard-line Muslim cleric, Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi, called for the day of anger to protest against the printing of the cartoons – first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September – in other European papers. “Let Friday be an international day of anger for God and his prophet,” said the sheikh, who is the head of the International Association of Muslim Scholars. He is one of the Arab world’s most popular television preachers and made a controversial visit to London in July 2004 as a guest of the mayor, Ken Livingstone.

Amazing.

Michelle Malkin has a collection of photos from around the globe showing Muslim anger in action. Indeed, they may as well declare an “international day of breathing.”

Here, in miniature, are the cartoons that have hurt Mohammad’s little feelings:

Photo: Danish Muslim cartoons published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten

Poor little Mohammad.

Richard Fernandez observes that,

[M]any Europeans — not most, but many — are suddenly aware they stand on the edge. If they let Islamic clerics determine what Europeans can and cannot print in their own press through a process of intimidation and force, the Old Continent will have surrendered a large part of its independence and sovereignty. The holy grail of every agitator is to find an issue on which both sides are unalterably opposed. Radical Islam has found it the blasphemy of Mohammed and ironically gave those who would rouse the West a mirror issue of their own: the blasphemy of censorship and the extinction of freedom of speech.

[…]

The fine, broad highway to Hell that is political correctness which has achieved the opposite of its intent: not the universal chorus of harmony but religious conflict at its most primitive level.

So it would seem.

Rusty Shackleford and his partner-in-agitation Vinnie have created yet more cartoons making fun of poor Mohammad. This one is particularly insulting, not only to Mohammad but to angry terrorists everywhere:

Photo: Muslim Cartoon Jawa Report Cuz UR No Smarter, Be A Martyr

We might be in for two days of anger if this keeps up.

Update: Ironically, the Islamic Society of Denmark wasn’t sure if Muhammad was sufficiently upset over the existing cartoons, so they created some fake cartoons just to get him really steamed.

Malkin notes that some American media outlets, who think nothing of showing a crucifix in a jar of urine and various other images offensive to Christians are refusing to show these cartoons out of sensitivity. Gateway Pundit has the details and reproductions of the cartoons.

For those who missed them, Wikipedia has the cartoons as they appeared in Jyllands-Posten.

Photo: Jyllands-Posten Muhammad drawings

Update 2: See all of the images in full size at my Danish Muslim Cartoons page.

Related stories below the fold.

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Elsewhere:

Previously:

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Alex Knapp says:

    Malkin notes that some American media outlets, who think nothing of showing a crucifix in a jar of urine and various other images offensive to Christians are refusing to show these cartoons out of sensitivity.

    I have to say this–Serrano’s “Piss Christ” was not meant to be “protest art” or anything of the sort. If you were to actually see the photographs, you wouldn’t know the crucifix was in a jar of urine (actually, blood and urine). It’s a close up, photographed shot that actually generates a beautiful effect.

  2. Bithead says:

    I have issued a call for all bloggers to run with the drawings posted.

    One of the reason bloggers exist at all is because we have more guts and integrity than they. Time to show it.

    My hat is off to you, James.

  3. Herb says:

    Now the Muslims have invented a reason justify their killing of innocent people thruout the world. Let everyone forget the fact that Muslims have, for the most part, not condemed or called for an “International Day of Anger” in protest to their own for teaching little kids to carry suicide bombs to kill anyone in sight, or to behead a tied up captive on TV. The Muslims have a choice to adhere to a sensible religon or to follow a religion of death founded by an individual that preached hate and death. The Muslims of the world would do well to understand that their religon of Hate and death will not fly in the world of today and they all need to simmer down and learn to lead their lives in peace with the rest of the world. Not to do so will lead to their complete distruction.

    The worlds Muslims have brought this situitation upon themselves and they had best accept the responsibility for it.

  4. Andy says:

    I have to say this: it’s ridiculous for those elements of the Muslim punditocracy that are having a field day with this to get their panties in such a wad. I suspect it’s just another excuse for the demagogues to get self-righteous, but that’s a different issue. The Muslim world should have thicker skin.

    (Not to say that it doesn’t, by and large. If each and every Muslim really was incensed by these ads, trust me, we’d know. It’s always the loudest dozen that make the news.)

    That said, it’s really embarrassing and childish that people on this site are encouraging others to reprint and publicize the cartoons for no other purpose than offending others. Funny, I haven’t heard anyone say, “You really have to read this, it makes such a great point.”

    Did all of you get giddy about forwarding around the cartoon that the Joint Chiefs got upset about recently? No? So it isn’t really about freedom of speech, is it. The gall to stand on principle and then not have any principles is distinctly conservative.

  5. ICallMasICM says:

    ‘A powerful Muslim leader has declared today an International Day of Anger’

    How would that be different from any other day?

  6. McGehee says:

    Andy, the gall to use “principle” as an excuse to troll on blogs is distinctly pathetic.

  7. Jack Ehrlich says:

    So what we have is violent muslims angry and violent over depictions of their leader being angry and violent. My question is how long are we going to tolerate such behavior. Threatening behavior in London, and elsewhere. I suggest we meet threat with action. If my life is threatened, I am legally allowed to use deadly force to answer the threat. I think we need to remind these people that we can wipe them off the map in a matter of minutes. We can live in peace with you, or send you all to hell. Your choice.

  8. ICallMasICM says:

    ‘The gall to stand on principle and then not have any principles is distinctly conservative.’

    Actually it’s universal.

  9. NoZe says:

    I’ve never actually seen the “Piss Christ” that the media has apparently been showing incessantly for the last 15 years or so…that’s odd, isn’t it?

    I do recall, however, that the Religious Right in this country has recently called for all sorts of boycotts and economic reprisals against a television network that aired a program in which Jesus Christ appeared as a character. Two or three local stations were cowed into not airing the program.

    The Europeans are right to refuse to back down to these Muslim demands at censorship. But lets not be too quick to pat ourselves on the back…it can and does happen here!

  10. James Joyner says:

    NoZe:

    No doubt. I call BS on Christians doing these things, too. Of course, it’s one thing to call for a boycott and another to threaten to kill people. And ceasing publication for fear of violence from a minority is different from making a commercial decision not to offend a majority.

  11. Jack Ehrlich says:

    Thank you James, for pointing out what NoZe can not see. Some are quick to compare the acts of Moslims to that of Christians. The acts do not compare. Whether it was or not, Christianity was not meant to be spread by the sword. islam was.

  12. ken says:

    Poor little Mohammad.

    James, it was not the prophet Mohammad whose feelings were supposedly offended by the cartoons. It was believers in the faith he founded.

    You missed the target and in doing so callously demeaned the name of a good man.

    It would be like making fun of Christ because some of his followers were upset about an art object that insults him.

    It is the followers who should be the target of your scorn, not the founder of the relegion.

  13. NoZe says:

    The fact that the Moslems are rioting and the Christians are boycotting makes no difference, at least in terms of the principle at issue, and James is right to call BS on both of them. In both instances, religious groups are attempting to silence speech that they find offensive or counter to their beliefs.

    As James noted, the proper response to such offensive speech is to ignore it, write a letter to counter it, change it…but not to attempt to have it censored.

  14. floyd says:

    noze; tell me you don’t want to silence the public voice of christianity.

  15. Mr. Snitch! says:

    Did the Joint Chiefs call for worldwide violence on account of that Toles cartoon, Andy? Did they say we’ll shut down the papers because of this, Andy? Did they threaten the life of the cartoonist, Andy?

    Oh. Well, that’s the difference between the two instances. Now that it’s been explained to you, feel free to ignore it.

  16. max says:

    I’m glad of this. Now the whole world knows Islam for what it is. Insane lunatics who bomb people, hate pigs hate toy pigs and wish to repress and kill all non believers.
    ..
    Now that we know what they are, lets nuke them all before they nuke us. They are willing and eager to nuke us. It isn’t like the old days where the USSR didn’t want a nuclear war. These people want it. Wipe them all out now while we have the chance.

  17. Conservativewithabrain says:

    NoZe,
    A number of years ago the government sposored some clown who claimed to be an artist – with his tax funded dollars he put a crucifix in urine and put it on display in a gallery. As a Christian I thought it was vindictive and really offensive – not that some clown would do this (there will always be clowns) but that the government actually paid someone for this ‘work of art’. I resent my tax dollars going for this crap, and as a citizen, I am entitled to protest, or write letters or whatever. Think about it, the clown could have put a crucifix in yellow water and gotten the ‘color effect’ he was supposedly looking for, but he didn’t, he chose urine. A pig; but in a free country it’s as much his choice to do it, as is mine to protest it.