C L O S E R – Cartoonesque Backgrounds and Viewpoints

Muhammad at the Ka’ba. Siyer-i Nebi: The Life of the Prophet. Istanbul, 1595. Hazine 1222

Trying to untangle the cartoon row? The BBC has a nice overview of the different viewpoints:

“The cartoons are humiliating and racist. Muslims love the Prophet more than their families”
Dr Yunes Teinaz, London Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre

“We were not treating the Prophet any differently from anyone else in Denmark”
Flemming Rose, culture editor of Jyllands-Posten

“When you satirise something you should give it the credit of understanding it”
Stewart Lee, creator of Jerry Springer – The Opera

“Many Muslims want the same freedoms as everyone else to debate and criticise”
Munira Mizra, British journalist reporting on Islamophobia

“The illustrator may have been testing the waters but that was irresponsible”
Sayeed Nadeem Kazmi, Al-Khoei Foundation, an Islamic charitable group in London

“We are seeing a clash of two different notions of what is sacred”
Karen Armstrong, religious affairs commentator

“We think we are living in a secular society where even religion can be satirised”
Roger Koppel, editor of the German newspaper Die Welt

“In the Third World they hardly separate between the journalist’s and the government’s views”
Dr Lam Akol, Sudanese foreign minister

The Belgium newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws (Dutch) searches for theological explanations of the uproar as many others do. Islam would forbid people depicting images of the prophet Muhammad. That might be right but it does not explain the uproar taking place now. It also does not explain why the pictures I use here, were made by Muslims themselves.

More informative is then the article from AFP in Middle Eastern Times: Jihad call spreads on Internet amid Prophet cartoon row.

Muslim extremists are using the furor over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons published in European newspapers to rally the faithful to a jihad (holy war), in several Internet postings.

“Brothers, it’s war against Islam …, grab your swords,” says hardline Saudi cleric Sheikh Badr Bin Nader Al Mashari in a voice recording posted on an Islamist Website.

He said that the cartoons – first published by a Danish newspaper in September with several other European papers following suit over the past week – are “part of the war waged by the decadent West against the triumphant Islam”.

“To the billion Muslims: where are your arms? Your enemies have trampled on the Prophet. Rise up,” screamed the sheikh, who is the imam of a mosque in Riyadh, amid the cries of the faithful listening to his speech.

Muslim bloggers even launched a Website, www.no4denmark.com, exhorting the faithful to boycott Danish products.

Danish dairy products have already been banned from supermarkets in most Arab countries in the wake of the crisis.

But many bloggers said that trade sanctions will lead nowhere, calling for a more militant response.

“Boycotts and messages of indignation instead of bombs and explosives,” lamented female blogger Ashiqat Al Jihad (lover of the holy war) in one posting.

Another blogger singled out France, where the left-leaning paper Liberation reprinted two of the controversial cartoons.

The influential Le Monde also splashed a cartoon of the Prophet on its front page on Thursday, a day after France Soir reproduced all of the original cartoons that appeared in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten citing its right to free expression.

“Our Prophet was insulted again by France. The boycott will accomplish nothing. We need bombs and explosives,” said another blogger under the pseudonym Abu Badr.

A blogger using the name Ubda called on Islamic militants in Iraq, Palestine and Chechnya not to spare any Danes and Norwegians that they come across.

“Slit their throats in the style of [Abu Mussab] Al Zarqawi,” he said referring to Iraq’s most-wanted militant and leader of Al Qaeda in the war-torn country.

London-based Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi published on Thursday a statement attributed to an Al Qaeda linked group, the Brigades of Abu Hafs Al Masri, warning Denmark and all those who insult the Prophet with a “bloody war”.

“The infidels must know that the coming days will see a bloody war and a series of blessed conquests,” said the statement.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Friday after meeting with foreign diplomats including the ambassadors of 11 Muslim countries that his government could not apologize for the cartoons on behalf of a newspaper given Copenhagen’s strong tradition of free speech.

“A Danish government can never apologize on behalf of a free and independent newspaper,” he said.

Many influential clerics and government officials across the Arab world have demanded a clear and unequivocal apology from the Copenhagen government as well as Danish newspaper.

In an interview broadcast on Saudi-owned satellite television Al Arabiya on Thursday, Rasmussen said that he was “deeply distressed” over the row caused by the cartoons and called for calm when asked whether he was concerned about terrorist attacks against Denmark.

“I have a strong appeal to all groups that we do our utmost to cool down tempers and feelings,” he said.

The appeal of Rasmussen is one of the first I’ve heard. Very good and about time. Dutch daily the Volkskrant has received a threat by email yesterday. The bomb threat was made by the Khalid-Ibn-Walid Brigade. Under that same name an email was send to Hirsi Ali after the murder on Van Gogh, but I really don’t know if these two issues are related. The threat turned out to be hoax.