Sunday, January 29, 2006
FrontPage magazine.com :: Thou Shalt Not Draw by Robert Spencer
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is under tremendous pressure after posting some cartoon drawings of Muhammad. In the primitive Islamic world (the number of books translated into Spanish each year is one thousand times the number translated into Arabic), Muslims are angry as their religion does not allow for artistic representations of the human form. The brave cartoonists that made the drawings of Muhammad for Jyllands-Posten have gone into hiding, and Islamic organizations have put a price on their heads.
There is discussion whether the cartoons in Jyllands-Posten can be defended under the freedom of speech principle. Even some Western observers are of the opinion that the cartoons were made to provoke rather than to communicate any political message.
However, they are missing the point. The issue is that Western cartoonists and journalists are too afraid to draw and write what they would really like to, as they know that their lives will be put in danger. This is the problem, and it should be taken seriously. Personally, I would not mind posting the Muhammad drawings, but I do not dare to. However, I admire the editor of Jyllands-Posten who chose to publish the cartoons. More power to him and to the people of Denmark, who are now facing boycotts by several oil rich stone-age dictatorships in the Middle-East.
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is under tremendous pressure after posting some cartoon drawings of Muhammad. In the primitive Islamic world (the number of books translated into Spanish each year is one thousand times the number translated into Arabic), Muslims are angry as their religion does not allow for artistic representations of the human form. The brave cartoonists that made the drawings of Muhammad for Jyllands-Posten have gone into hiding, and Islamic organizations have put a price on their heads.
There is discussion whether the cartoons in Jyllands-Posten can be defended under the freedom of speech principle. Even some Western observers are of the opinion that the cartoons were made to provoke rather than to communicate any political message.
However, they are missing the point. The issue is that Western cartoonists and journalists are too afraid to draw and write what they would really like to, as they know that their lives will be put in danger. This is the problem, and it should be taken seriously. Personally, I would not mind posting the Muhammad drawings, but I do not dare to. However, I admire the editor of Jyllands-Posten who chose to publish the cartoons. More power to him and to the people of Denmark, who are now facing boycotts by several oil rich stone-age dictatorships in the Middle-East.
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