Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. - The First Ammendment to the U.S. Constitution
Controversial cartoons spark international outrage
By Jerry Pohl
humor editor
IhP 153 (.0 psu
Newspapers don't tell people why things hap
pen; they only say what happened over and over
again. To demonstrate this point, I present the
explanation to my news article.
It all started in the Danish broadsheet newspa
per, Politiken, on Sept. 17, 2005. The publica
tion ran an article with the headline "Deep fear
of criticism of Islam. - This article came about
when Kane Bluitgen. Danish author and journal
ist, wrote "'The Qur'an and the life of the
Prophet Muhammad. - Bluitgen was having dif
ficulty finding an illustrator for the book.
Eventually an artist agreed to pen the illustra
tions anonymously. Prior to this, three artists had
declined to participate.
One of the refusing artists cited a case of
assault in Oct. 2004, when five assailants
attacked a lecturer for his reading of the Qur'an
to non-Muslims at the Carsten Niebuhr Institute
at the University of Copenhagen. Another of the
three artists referenced in his reasoning the case
of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch actor, TV producer
and film director.
In 2004, van Gogh released a film titled
"Submission," which was based on a script by
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Danish politician who was
born in Somolia and spent part of her life in Saudi Arabia.
Van Gogh's ten-minute film's title was a translation of the
word 'lslam' and is critical of the treatment of women in
Muslim families, including beatings and rape. In the film,
passages from the Qur'an that supposedly validate theses
abuses are painted on the bodies of kneeling women wear
ing transparent veils.
The film aired on Vnizinrug Protestantse Radio Omroep,
the Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcasting Company, on
Aug. 29, 2004. On Nov. 2, van Gogh was murdered by
Mohammed Bouyeri, a member of suspected Dutch terror
ist cell the Hofstad Network. Bouyeri shot him eight times,
slit his throat and left two knives in his torso. He is current
ly serving a life sentence for his crime. Ali, the writer of the
film, must now live under constant guard.
These violent acts played a part in the artist's decision to
not illustrate Bluitgen's book, and the illustrator who did
eventually do the work would only do so anonymously.
Flemming Rose, cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, anoth
er boradsheet newspaper, read the article in Politiken and
saw this as a case of self-censorship that would have to be
addressed.
Rose invited forty artists to draw Muhammad, twelve of
them responded by sending in a cartoon. The cartoons were
published in Jyllands-Posten on, Sept. 30, 2005. After the
controversy erupted. Rose was asked if he regretted his
actions Rose said, think asking me that question is like
asking a rape victim if she regrets wearing a short skirt
Friday night at the discotheque."
The Islamic Society of Denmark demanded an apology
on Oct. 9 in response to the cartoons. There was a, 3,500
person demonstration Oct. 14 in Copenhagen outside the
Jyllands-Posten office. By this time two of the cartoonists
had received death threats. The Danish government was
involved as of Oct. 19. When eleven ambassadors request
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Show Period.
Winter Olympics next week
Steelers win one for the thumb
Culture Week
Jerry Pohl
ed to meet with Anders Fogh Rasmussen. the Prime
Minister of Denmark, regarding the issue. Rasmussen
refused the request due to the fact that he could not inter
fere with freedom of the press. Since then, a myriad of
organizations have criticized this decision. The notion that
the government's hands are tied in this matter has also been
disagreed with separately from Rasmussen's decision.
On Oct. 27 several Muslim organizations complained to
Danish police that Jylkulds-Posten violated section 140 of
the Danish Criminal Code. This. and section 266 h. basical
ly prohibit mocking religions or people who practice them.
As of Jan. 6, the Regional Public Prosecutor of Viborg has
discontinued this investigation saying. "the right to free
dom of speech must be exercised.-
Over the next two months, several Inuits, or leaders, of
the Islamic Society in Denmark went to Islamic countries
to rally support against the cartoons. In addition to the
twelve cartoons were three images that were not involved
in the debacle until then. These included one claiming
Muhammad to be a pedophile, one involving an indecent
act with a dog and another was an altered photo of a beard
ed man wearing a pig nose and ears. The photo was actu
ally of a contestant in a Pig-Squealing contest in France.
Jacques Barron. The spokesman of the tour. Akhmad
Akkari, claimes that these false pictures were included to
"give an insight into how hateful the atmosphere in
Denmark is towards Muslims." On Dec. 7. labor strikes
began in Pakistan in response to the cartoons.
On Jan. 24, 2006 Saudi Arabia's 150-member Shoura
Council made a statement saying, 'Those who publish
such cartoons do not know the consequences; they will
spread hatred and division and create animosity between
communities and religions." On Jan. 26, the people of
Saudi Arabia began a boycott of Danish products and
recalled their Danish ambassador. On Jan. 27, Jyllands-
- People who smoke between the doors
of the Reed Building
- Smelly roommates
- Self closing wood doors in Kochel
- Not wiping pee off the seat
- Disney's Doug Funnie
- Sled "Ridding" Posters
Posten's website was attacked. This would be followed by
attacks on other Danish sites. On Jan. 29, Libya closed its
embassy in Denmark, the Danish flag was burned in cities
in the West Bank, and threats were issued giving Swedes.
Danes and Norwegians certain amounts of time to leave
the Gaza Strip. On Jan. 30, a boycott of Danish products
was encouraged by the Egyptian Parliament. The
European Union said that retaliatory boycotts violate world
trade rules. The Mujahideen called for Danish and
Norwegian targets to be hit by terrorism. Members of Al-
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades brought guns into Gaza's EU office
and demanded an official apology from the EU for the car
toons, threatening to kidnap employees if these demands
were not net.
Jyllands-Posten published this official apology: "In our
opinion, the 12 drawings were sober. They were not intend
ed to he offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish
law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims
for which we apologize." On Jan. 31 Hemming Rose apol
ogized "for any offense caused" on an Al-Jazeera inter
view. This apology was not translated into Arabic. The
Danish Muslim Association accepted Jyllands-Posten's
apology and promised to help improve the situation, stating
also that they regreted that things have gone so far. This is
the same day that Jyllands-Posten received the first of sev
eral bomb threats.
Starting Feb. 1 the cartoons were published in newspa
pers around the world in connection with stones related to
the drama. The cartoons were first published in the United
States on Feb. 2 in the New York Sun, which ran two of the
cartoons. Ansar al-Islam leader Mullah Krekar called the
cartoons a "declaration of war. - Sonie of the cartoons were
broadcast that night on PBS's The News Hour with Jim
Lehrer. By the end of the business day Arla Foods had
reported millions of dollars lost due to boycotts. The bum-
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The Behrend Beacon
Published v,"„kly by the students()lPcnn State [Fie
THL BLHKEND
Beacone
Assistant Managing Editor Calendar Page Editor
Patrick Webster Siobhan Conway
First Floor, The J. Elmer Reed Union Building
ing of embassies began.
For days. protests had mostly been
peaceful. though more and more included
threats iind arson. The first officially death relat
ed was in Trabzon. Turkey, where Italian
Catholic priest Andrea Santoro was murdered
by a sixteen year old student who told police he
was "influenced by cartoons lampooning the
Prophet Muhammad" as was reported in The
Mercury. an independent online newspaper. It
would he the first of several deaths, most of
them related to riots, over the next few days.
On Feb. 4. Jylands-Posten was hon
ored with the "Victory prize. - an annual award
given by Ekstra Bladet, another newspaper.
They received the award for defending freedom
of the press. It was soon revealed that reports of
Qur'ans being burned have been exaggerated
itnd iue, in most cases, false.
On Feb. 6, Hamshahri, a newspaper in
Iran. began a contest involving the submitting of
Holocaust cartoons. Two days earlier Politiken
broke the story that, in April 2(X)3, Christoffer
Zieler submitted three cartoons lampooning
Christ to Jyllands-Posten. Sunday editor Jens
Kaiser rejected the cartoons, stating in an email
to Le ler. "I don't think Jyllands-Posten's traders
will enjoy the drawings. As a matter of fact, I
think that they will provoke an outcry.
Therefore. I will not use them. - Kaiser stated
recently that Zieler's cwitxmis were not used because they
were unsolicited. while the Muhammad cartons were com-
missioned
In the Qur'an there are condemnations of idolatry.
Specific prohibitions of visual art air found in recorded
Islamic oral traditions, called hadith, but not in the Qur'an.
There are sonic differences within Islam. with Sunni being
less tolerant of at depicting humans than Shia. A good
resource of pictures of Muhammad is http://wwwzombi
etime.com/mohammed_image_xchive/ and includes
examples from the Muslim world.
Newspapers would he better if this editorial and my
news article could he run as one long article that actually
educated people as to why things are the way they are,
without, of course, the opinions I inserted here and at the
beginning to make this an editorial: without which this
would Just he a lengthy factual news article. I conclude with
an zuialoa from Dr. Joshua Shaw:
"It reminds me a little of what it can he like when you
hear couples argue with each other. They will be arguing
over something small. over not doing the dishes or musical
tastes or a pair of shoes. hut with an intensity that there is
more going on. I get the sense when I hear couples fight in
this way that they're focusing on little issues precisely
because they're too scared to honestly discuss the bigger
ones. Someone is terrified that, say, the person he loves
doesn't love him hack, but instead of admitting this fear he
gets upset because she has shown up fifteen minutes late.
They argue about whether she is always late, when really
they are simultaneously arguing and not arguing about
something much deeper...l have a similar feeling about
this controversy over the cartoons: that they're being used,
by both sides, to justify a lot rage that has little to do with
the cartoons themselves. It's this self-deception that scares
me most.-
Annie Sevin, Editor in Chief
Rob Frank, Managing Editor
Courtney Koplin, Advertising Manager
Randy Martell, Public Relations Manager
Kim Young, Adviser
News Editor
Jennifer Haight
Sports Editor
Chris LaFuria
Opinion Editor
Daniel Mitchell
Humor Editor
Jerry Pohl
Penn State Erie,
The Behrend College
Station Road, Erie, PA 16563
Contact the Beacon at
Telephone: (814) 898-6488
Fax: (814) 898-6019
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Michelle Vera Suroviec