Cartoonesque 16 – Freedom: Drawing Muhammad and Banning the Burqa
Last week it was Everybody Draw Muhammad Day meant as a protest against attempts to limit freedom. At the same time the burqa ban is on its way Europe. As is the case in many of the cartoon-like controversies of recent, the complexity of political and religious issues pertaining to depictions of the sacred key symbols and freedom of speech, was reduced to a polarization of two antagonistic and mutually intolerant activisms: islamist groups vs. free freedom. Althought both the ban and the cartoon day may be aimed at radical it in fact targets Muslim as a whole. Both the Everybody Draw Muhammad Day and the burqa bans have in common that they are attempts to express and affirm a moral superiority over Muslims that need to be freed from their patriarchic religion that limits people’s freedom.