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January 13, 2006

Norwegian magazine prints Prophet caricatures

A Norwegian Christian magazine has published a set of controversial caricatures of the prophet Mohammed after months of uproar in the Muslim world over a Danish paper's decision to print the same cartoons. Repeating a move by conservative Danish paper Jyllands-Posten last September, Magazinet published the controversial drawings in the name of "freedom of expression" on Tuesday.

The same caricatures have been blasted by Muslims in Denmark and abroad, since images of the prophet are considered blasphemous under Islam. "Just like Jyllands-Posten, I have become sick of the ongoing hidden erosion of the freedom of expression," Magazinet editor Vebjoern Selbekk wrote.

The murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 revealed "that we are not facing empty threats. We know that the freedom of expression in our part of the world is being threatened by religion that is not afraid of using violence", he added.

Source: [Aljazeera]

Death threats

The editor said he was not afraid of the prospect of facing the same indignation and even death threats that faced the Danish paper after it published the cartoons.

Meanwhile, Denmark's prime minister on Tuesday accused a group of local Muslims of smearing the country's reputation in the Middle East as they sought support against a newspaper that published caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was "stunned" that leaders of the Islamic Faith Community had travelled to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon "to stir up attitudes against Denmark and Danes." The group's leader, Ahmed Abu Laban, a cleric, has defended the December trip, saying the Muslim community was feeling marginalised in Denmark in its protests against the paper.

Drawings condemned

Muslim leaders in Denmark and abroad have condemned the drawings, one of which shows Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet, even respectful ones, out of concern that such images could lead to idolatry.

Danish Muslims groups have called on authorities to prosecute Jyllands-Posten, but a regional prosecutor said last week he would not file charges. On Tuesday, the prime minister directed his criticism towards the Muslim group, saying "misinformation" about Denmark had appeared in the Arab media after their tour of the Middle East.

Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the Islamic Faith Community, denied the group had spread false information about Denmark. "The Islamic Faith Community has not said anything wrong," he said. "We did nothing wrong by seeking help abroad and making use of our freedom of speech."

Related stories:

For single page combination of all stories on the Danish cartoon row click here

Posted at 03:15 PM in Cartoon rows, Culture almighty, Media Watch, Religion | Permalink

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This row has been going on for some time now. It is generally agreed the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten was insensitive and stupid to publish a series of 12 caricatures which showed the Prophet Muhammad as a stereotypical Islamic terrorist. A No... [Read More]

Tracked on Jan 28, 2006 10:07:45 PM

Comments

I am a muslim lady from the United States, and I am just writing to tell the magazine that published those caricatures on our sacred prophet Mohamed PBUH the following words:
If youraim was to change the image of the greatest prophet in the eyes of Muslims, then you succeded, you made him even greater, more sacred and more adored. And something else, if a dog urinates in a great river it does not affect the taste of its water.I only have a question for you: What on earth were you thinking???!!!!!

Posted by: amina | Jan 27, 2006 4:16:16 PM

I am a muslim and honoured to be a muslim. Islam teaches us peace and to love eachother.Islam teaches us how to respect people. We never ever mock and make jokes about any prophet because we believe in all the prophets that God had sent.
I recently saw the caricatures that were published and it made me shed tears. Why would someone do this??

Posted by: Noor | Jan 28, 2006 12:38:54 AM

If the Muslim community in Denmark is feeling marginalized,perhaps they should move back to the various Islamic States from whence they came.Why would they want to live among a bunch of heathen infidels anyway?
Noor,try not to be offended by some stupid cartoon.If Allah is upset about it,let him seek revenge.And please attempt to understand how some Westerners view the "religion of peace." Think 9-11,Madrid,London,Bali,Sudan,etc. And don't say those atrocities were committed by radical Islamic terrorists who do not represent true Islam.On the contrary,they were pious fundamentalists,merely obeying the teachings of the
koran concerning jihad.

Posted by: Dan | Jan 28, 2006 2:25:33 AM

I have few friends from Danmark and sure they are as angry as we are. Sure the caricatures don't change anything, they are just someone stupid idea. He got what he is looking for, popularity, sure he don't deserve it. One more thing, something nonebelievers would never understand, the greatness of God and all prophets. In Denmark, you find a large number of nonebelievers and that what makes it intresting country but please Danes stay away from insulting others putting in mind over 1b muslim.

Posted by: Moh'd Kuwait | Jan 28, 2006 7:50:11 AM

Dan..Thanks for your comment.I truly understand what you are trying to say, I just want to explain something we as muslims are against any killings that have occured in 9/11 etc.. Islam is a religeon of peace it does dont teach us to kill innocent people! All the ones who are talking in the name of Islam and go ahead kill innocent people do not belong in any society and we as muslims do not agree with that.
Some people around the world do not understand what Islam is. I wish someone truly reads about Islam and learn what our religeon teaches us.
Thank you

Posted by: Noor | Jan 28, 2006 11:07:27 AM

Hi all,

When Director Mostapha Al Akkad (God bless his soul) did a movie and called it "Mohammed" the posters got torn and stepped on in london. Which made him change the movie name to "The MESSAGE".

Result: Many people converted to islam and still do.

When Salman Rushdi did his ridiculous book "Satanic Versus" and made fun of the prophet, other prophets, and God himself - he convinced the west that this novel was a result of some deep thinking and therefore was praised by them.

Result: He got banned from the islamic world, and we got blessed by not having him polluting our thoughts..plus made us love islam more.

When Speilberg draws attention to the concentration camps during the Nazi era, people cry.

Result: More hate for the Nazi Era, but no support for the zionists (except from zionists themselves).

When the American Young lady Rachel decided to become an activist to support palestinian cause and got squashed under an American Bulldozer driven by an Israeli man, people cried.

Result: A call for boycott, media hurricane..but then all was quiet.

and finally, when a cartoon caricature on the prophet of God was drawn, muslim officials lose their mind and demand an apology.

Result: While Iraq, Jerusalem, and syria are being raped by western hegemony and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and rest are few months from bending backwards for israel and usa, muslim officials lose their mind and demand an apology...FOR.... "a caricature"!!!!!

People, stop waisting time and think of what matters. no one can do any harm to the prophets image nor to God and neither to the Qur'an, not even to islam.

Dont let these mediocre events of this little life we live unfocus your reason for existing. Praise God and Thnk him for you are a muslim and Pray God to bless our Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) who is MUCH greater and he himself wouldnt even care if this caricature was drawn in his lifetime.

" There was a time when the Jews would say to him " Al Samu Allaykom" - Poison on you..which sounds like " Al salam Allaykom" - Peace be upon you, and he knew that, but he never replied.

Prophet Mohammed knew whe was there for a greater cause. and God asked us to follow the Prophet's way. So dont let silly matters like this sahke u, make u cry, anger u or even get an emotion or a reaction. Let the infidels be infidels...

For muslims out there: Open your Qur'an and read Surat Alkafiroon. One verse alone will clarify ur mind about this and will be a 100 billion times more profound than what I tried to send to you.

God Bless
MO

Posted by: Mo | Jan 28, 2006 4:39:30 PM

Im christian orthodox, i think even if we do not believe in mohammad or the islam religion we should respect the others feelings and religion, because as we dont like the others to make fun of our religion also we should not make fun of the others religions, it is a very sensitive thing which may cause serious troubles between human beings.
and we should not use the democracy as an execuse to that thing.
the soul of the christianity religion is the love and the respect of others, because Jesus is love and he ordered us to love even the enemies and pray for them too.
I hope that these danish magazines will execuse for muslims and thats it.

Posted by: Rami Mazahreh | Jan 28, 2006 7:35:03 PM

Noor,I hear what you're saying,and I understand that the majority of Muslims today do not agree with killing innocent people.However,the history of Islam is one of violence,conquest and subjugation,from the Arabian peninsula to Iran,India and even parts of Europe,though there were peaceful periods in between.For some reason the peace and co-existence usually didn't last too long,possibly due to the lack of separation of church and state in Islam.
I have read the koran and biography of the prophet,and am wondering if you have read the bible with an open heart.You may have been taught that our scriptures have been changed or erroneously translated,and that Jesus never actually died on the cross,but ask God to show you the truth,ok?
Moh'd,how do you define "non-believer?" I happen to know the greatness of God and the prophets but am a follower of Jesus,not your prophet.Am I therefore a non-believer or just a slightly deluded "person of the Book?"
Mo,very good advice.Let the infidels be infidels,you have your religion,we have ours.Why can't we all just get along for now and let God sort it all out on Judgement Day?

Posted by: Dan | Jan 28, 2006 7:51:22 PM

This is a simple answer of what can we say at least to danish people:
First, I know that we cannot generalise of all danish people... but let me say that your gouvernment dosn’t respect itself...and doesn’t respect the muslim’s pophet: Mohammed , peace be upon him (PBUH)...which is the messenger of ALLAH not just to arabic people but to all this humanity...
It comes as totally strange that the your government, while claiming respect for human rights and freedoms, does permit the publication of such lies and caricatures about Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).
The insistence of your government to violate the rights of all Moslems will prompt us to boycott all Danish products in our countries and we will call every Moslem to take similar action
All in all, samihni ya habibi yarassoulaLLAH in konto 9ad 9assarna fi ha99ik


Posted by: Soufiane El Adraoui | Jan 29, 2006 11:47:41 AM

My general reply:
Hey, psst, the article that went with the pictures dealt with a surge of death threaths by muslims against publishers, filmmakers, translators, journalists and so on. In short it dealt with the intimidation of public discourse by radical islamists. The pictures were meant as a "screw you" to that lot, as in "this is what your death threats will get you".

Noor:
All the ones who are talking in the name of Islam and go ahead kill innocent people do not belong in any society and we as muslims do not agree with that.

My response:
Those were the ones the article dealt with, and those were the ones the pictures were intended for.

Noor:
I recently saw the caricatures that were published and it made me shed tears. Why would someone do this??

My response:
Because when your civil liberties are being attaced by a bunch of thugs issuing death threaths it can be pretty damn tempting to proove their efforts counterproductive, know what I mean?

Posted by: some norwegian | Jan 29, 2006 2:46:57 PM

what a shame????????????
God destroys our enemies and ruines them
hassbona alah w nim al wakeel
thanks

Posted by: saja | Jan 29, 2006 6:58:58 PM

Well!

Its shame first of all to do any such stupid act!
Whether you like it or not you have to live in peace with all religions!

At the same time I wonder what would be the world’s reaction if something similar was done to any other religion.
It has happened on many occasions which was not taken that seriously

May be this also should be treated the same and carry on with life!

Posted by: Raghu | Jan 30, 2006 1:59:39 AM

I am a Muslim from Egypt who has been truly hurt because of your insult to our Prophet Mohamed, you can never imagine how all of us here in Egypt are disappointed from your situation, We want an apologies from you otherwise Denmark will be on our Black list; the least which we can do is to make sure that no product from Denmark is sold all around Egypt.
If you consider yourselves civilized, then apologies for what your press has done towards our Prophet who is much more precious than our souls.

Posted by: khaled | Jan 30, 2006 3:45:39 AM

Shame on you and shame all of Denmark for not protesting against your deep insult to our precious Prophet Mohamed.
There is a rage of anger all over Egypt because of your un acceptable behaviour.

Posted by: Shereen | Jan 30, 2006 3:53:27 AM

Dear All

People have the freedom to act and think but not to harm Others physical. Mohammed has made so many crimes in the world, though he is dead now. During his establishment of the Ismalimic Religion he was sued by the Mecca people. He took refugee in Medina and from there he gathered some powerful men and nourished them with his philosophy of Jihad(Terrorisim). And then controlled Mecca using power. But Jesus (The great educater of peace) never used power. The Ismalic Relgion has spread to the world through a serious of conquests. Making people to believe by the power of sowrd. And any one who quit the relgion was to be killed. This is clearly stated in the Koran or Haddis. So Dear all what do you think of if some one tells that Mohammed is a terrorist in A Caricature way. Well, I will say he is a blessed Person.

Posted by: Eritrean Christain | Jan 30, 2006 4:43:21 AM

to all muslim brothers and sisters..go ahead for the boycott BUT this is NOT all we have to do..before addressing others we have to realise how much we all participated and are still participating in damaging the picture of islam..not by being extremists as we all know that islam is not what a few people are presenting..we have to start being positive to this world..to represent ourselves as leaders not followers to other nations..we have to work hard to fight poverty, ignorance, suppression, superficialism,..etc that are going among us and to start working as one nation..the true muslim nation that Allah ordered us to be..working as one person leading the world and humanity to prosperity, peace, creativity, well-being, team work, self denial and all our values that had been long forgotten or ignored to consume our time and effort in silly small battles that are leading us nowhere..
PLEASE WAKE UP AND START WORKING HARD..THIS IS WHAT WILL PLEASE ALLAH AND OUR PROPHET

Posted by: ahmad | Jan 30, 2006 4:52:16 AM

ahamad,

that is the best comment I've read so far. Thank you.

S.

Posted by: Stefan | Jan 30, 2006 5:15:37 AM

iam an egyptian christian who wants to sat few things: christianity is a religion of love and faith and respect for other profits. i read the Koran and though i am a very faithfullchristian i did not find that much of a difference between it and the bible actually love, faith, and respect. prophet mohamed sayings and the koran include dozens of messages of respect and appreciation for jesus, mary and christianity so I can nly say i am sorry for what the Dan newspaper did and for all the Muslim community act now act in acivilized way in which the west will understand and respect act in the way that islam as my humble understanding of it requires for you
send petitions to the neswspaper including any historical facts about islam and prophet mohamed that may change their idea, same to danish embassies all over the world
contact human rights organization and send them petitrions about the situation'
if u have money go and su them they deserve it
no faith christian, muslim, hindu should be attcked we are all god's made
bless u all

Posted by: Michelle | Jan 30, 2006 8:55:03 AM

Well, having read all comments so far I still fail to see the deep insults some of you claim. I have seen the caricatures and while partial offensive, they are not really anything to use violence for (as is already happening). This really puts a negative feeling on my view on Islam and its followers.

Expressing your opionion by not buying Danish goods for while is one way to raise your voice but I am not sure you gain much respect doing that (maybe with other muslims). You should have acted civilised (not buying is ok ;-) ) and used the same media to raise your voice. The newspaper JyllandPosten would have printed your side of the story and using such a discussion, everyone would have been wiser.

Also, the muslims that went from Denmark to "inform" about the case used falsified information as the original information wasn't sufficient to make a case out of. Why is it that this mis-information is being believed? If you (muslim) make a choice not to buy Danish goods, make sure you have your information straight and act of your own will and not because of mass-hysteria.

Anyway, I am not a believer in any religion but I will respect any person wanting to believe in any god they want. But if you live in Denmark, expect freedom of speech to offend you (as long as it isn't criminal).

By the way, its nice not to belief in an god/prohpet/whatever... You rarely get offended :-)

Remember: This is my personal view and I hope yours are/will be as well.

Posted by: some Dane | Jan 30, 2006 9:29:13 AM

lahi nazal 3la boukoum ana3la ya wlad lhlalef atfou.

Posted by: amine | Jan 30, 2006 10:39:34 AM

I shit and piss on the Quran, the Bible, Jesus, Mohamamed, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and any/all organized religions that oppose my freedom of speech.

Posted by: CopyKat | Jan 30, 2006 12:32:28 PM

Miss amine not MISS AMINA (I THIMK YOUR COMMENTS ARE GRACIOUS!) or whatever your name is
i think you are disgusting and deserve prison for what you have just said
i understand this is what u belive but it does not mean u hurt other peoples feeling who belive in the religons u "shit and piss on"
u are a horrible person!!!!!

Posted by: george | Jan 30, 2006 4:34:12 PM

peace on you ( salam Alykum )

we are very sorry about what happened, but we muslims respect all relegiones and we never harm any other religones, therefor, all other religiones logically shoud do the same, but from what we can see now days that there is no place for peace of respect and always the stronger over ride the weak with no sympathy. mohamad SAAW is out prophet and we will sacrify our lif for him and for our religion

Thanks

Posted by: AHmed | Jan 30, 2006 4:36:40 PM

IT IS THE MOST STUPID AND POORLY PERSON HOW DO IT THIS... SOON YOU WILL PAYED SO SO SO EXPENSIV MORE THEN YOU THINKS... BOMBARDED YOUR DIRTY CONTRY... IT IS THE PRICE OF YOUR STUPIDITY. TFOUUH ALIKOM YA KANAZIR EL FISK... YA ZIBALA.
HANNABAL...

Posted by: Hannibal | Jan 30, 2006 5:08:53 PM

Well...for all the freedom believers out there ...who said u can do any thing in the the name of freedom...in USA a person is sued for a defamtion of a character ...but I guess prophet mohammmad is an exception in your so called freedom of speech...well I invite u all to palestine to go check the zionist way of freedom to live let alone freedom to talk...

Posted by: sam | Jan 30, 2006 7:26:09 PM

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