Worldwide Cartoon Frenzy
Debates over the Mohammed cartoons--should they have been published, should other news outlets republish them as a pro-free speech gesture, and so on--are rapidly being overtaken by events. For whatever reasons, Muslim leaders around the world have seized on the mostly-innocuous cartoons to advance the view that, in such matters at least, non-Muslims are bound to the standards imposed by Islamic theology.
One very fundamental point that seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle is that Mohammed was an important historical figure. We're not talking here about creating images of a supernatural God; we're talking about a human being who was important largely as a military leader. If Muslims don't want to create drawings, statues, etc., of Mohammed, fine. But to say that no one else can do so is like trying to prohibit depictions of, say, George Washington. Ridiculous, in other words.
Here is a brief recap of demonstrations that took place yesterday and today. Indonesia, where the signs say: "The caricature of the Prophet Muhammad is an enemy of Islam."
Iran:
Pakistan:
Germany:
Turkey:
Malaysia:
In London, "moderate" Muslims demonstrated at Trafalgar Square, ostensibly against both the cartoons and against violence. The demonstration was backed by London's Mayor, Ken Livingstone, who called the cartoons:
...a calculated and gratuitous insult to the Muslim community, a deliberate provocation designed to destroy trust and understanding. Had such images, bordering on racist, been used to portray other groups they would rightly have been condemned as racist or anti-Semitic.
The photographers seem to have missed the anti-violence placards:
In Kashmir, a radical Islamic group vowed to suppress Valentine's Day:
(HT: Michelle Malkin.)
In Iran, demonstrators took time out from bashing Denmark to indulge one of their favorite obsessions:
One interesting feature of the demonstrations is how often the U.S., which had little or nothing to do with the cartoon "issue," is attacked. Israel, too. I'm afraid that those who think we can sit this one out are missing the point.
UPDATE: Here is one from Kenya, via The Volokh Conspiracy:
It's a little hard to wrap your mind about that one: Freedom of speech is a form of terrorism. This is a point of view that makes compromise difficult.
