Cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Images: Google Images
Danish Editor Reprints Prophet Mohammad Cartoons
THE TELEGRAPH: The Danish editor whose 2005 publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad sparked violent protests around the globe released a book on Wednesday that reprints the pictures.

Thursday marks the fifth anniversary of the publication of the 12 drawings in Jyllands-Posten which one year later became a major global controversy leading to dozens of deaths.

Flemming Rose's book The Tyranny of Silence has fed worries of renewed unrest, similar to when the cartoons were reprinted by many newspapers in 2008 after a death threat to cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen met 17 ambassadors from Muslim countries on Wednesday as part of efforts to prevent any new cartoon crisis.

"The violence was committed by people who made a decision to react to these cartoons in a specific way," said Mr Rose, who has lived for years under police protection because of threats against him and his paper Jyllands-Posten.

"To publish cartoons, religious satire, in a Danish newspaper is not incitation to violence," he said. >>> | Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Prophet Cartoon Paper Bomb Target
DAILY EXPRESS: A man hurt in an explosion at a Copenhagen hotel was preparing a letter bomb, police have said.

Officers in Denmark claimed that the bomb was likely to have been intended for a Danish newspaper which published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. >>> | Friday, September 17, 2010

Der Karikaturenstreit flammt im Internet wieder auf
WELT ONLINE: In Pakistan ist weder YouTube noch Facebook erreichbar, weil dort der Prophet Mohammed zu sehen ist. Der Streit spaltet das Land, die Bevölkerung ist zerissen. Die eine Seite möchte Teil der Moderne sein. Die andere hält an den strengen Traditionen fest. Die Regierung bleibt neutral und erntet deshalb den Zorn aller Bürger.

Tradition der Empörung: Konservative Muslime verbrennen in Lahore Flaggen aus Protest gegen Mohammed-Zeichnungen, diesmal die norwegische und die US-Flagge. Foto: Welt Online
„Diese Seite ist gesperrt.“ Die knappe Mitteilung in unaufdringlichen schwarzen Buchstaben erwartet seit ein paar Tagen jeden Internetnutzer in Pakistan, der Facebook, YouTube oder andere soziale Netzwerke im Internet öffnen will. Die pakistanische Telekommunikationsbehörde PTA hat nach einem Gerichtsbeschluss in Lahore den Zugriff unterbunden. Eine Reaktion „auf die zunehmend ablehnende Stimmung in der Bevölkerung auf die Seiten“, wie eine Sprecherin erklärt.

Ein anonymes Facebook-Mitglied hatte zu einem umstrittenen Zeichenwettbewerb aufgerufen: Beim „Jeder-malt-Mohammed-Tag“ sollten Bilder des islamischen Propheten eingestellt werden. Gedacht war das Projekt als Kampagne für die Meinungsfreiheit. Doch die bildliche Darstellung des Propheten Mohammed ist im Islam verboten.

Als Studenten in mehreren Städten dagegen protestierten, reagierten die Behörden mit der landesweiten Sperre für zuletzt 450 Seiten, darunter die englische Ausgabe der Online-Enzyklopädie Wikipedia und die Foto-Plattform Flickr. Etwa ein Viertel des gesamten pakistanischen Internetverkehrs war lahmgelegt, um „Anstößigkeiten“ und „unislamische Inhalte“, vor allem aber wohl Demonstrationen radikaler Muslime zu unterbinden. >>> Von Sophie Mühlmann | Freitag, 21. Mai 2010

Pakistan Blocks Facebook

Pakistan Bans YouTube, Facebook in Crackdown on 'Draw Muhammad Day'

Cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad courtesy of Google Images
Pakistan Blocks YouTube in ‘Sacrilege’ Row
TIMES ONLINE: Pakistan blocked access to YouTube today because of “growing sacrilegious content” on the video-sharing website. It is the latest twist in an escalating international row over Islam and freedom of speech online.

The move came a day after the Pakistani Government responded to a court order by temporarily blocking Facebook over a page advertising a contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Everyone Draw Muhammad Day page and several spin-offs invite users to send in caricatures of the Prophet today – infuriating many Muslims who regard any image of him as blasphemous.

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority did not say specifically which material on YouTube was deemed sacrilegious, but there are several clips relating to Everyone Draw Muhammad Day. >>> Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent | Thursday, May 20, 2010

Prophet Cartoonist Defiant After Attack
THE TIMES OF INDIA: STOCKHOLM: A Swedish artist whose drawing of the Prophet Muhammad offended Muslims said today he hopes to get another chance to deliver a lecture on free-speech that was interrupted by violent protests.

But officials at Uppsala University said they doubted they would invite Lars Vilks again after police used pepper spray and batons to help him escape a furious crowd Tuesday.

"It's nothing that we're discussing right now, but it's not very likely given how it turned out here," university spokeswoman Anneli Vaara said.

While Vilks escaped the incident with broken glasses and a degree of shock, he said it raised concerns about the freedom of expression at Sweden's oldest and most prestigious institute of higher learning.

"What you get is a mob deciding what can be discussed at the university," Vilks told The Associated Press, adding he was ready to repeat the lecture if re-invited. >>> AP | Thursday, May 13, 2010

UK Courts May Hear Mohammed Case
THE COPENHAGEN POST ONLINE: Justice minister calls it unacceptable that proposed lawsuit against Danish newspapers could be heard in British court system

Because EU member states generally recognise the authority of each other's legal systems, Denmark may be forced to pay damages through the British courts if plaintiffs win their lawsuit over the printing of the Mohammed cartoons.

Saudi lawyer Faisal Yamani has taken the case to court in London – claiming to have done so on behalf of some 95,000 descendants of the prophet Mohammed – saying the drawings amount to defamation against them and the Islamic faith.

In August last year, Yamani requested that 11 Danish newspapers remove all the relevant images from their websites and issue apologies along with promises that the images would never be printed again.

Politiken was the only newspaper to agree to the demand, having acquiesced last month.

But justice minister Lars Barfoed has now asked the European Commission to step in to stop the case from being heard in the UK. Barfoed said that while he respected the legal cooperation among EU member states, the proposed lawsuit amounts to a restriction on the freedom of expression.

‘It’s fundamentally reasonable that judgments in the EU can often be exercised across borders,’ Barfoed told Berlingske Tidende newspaper. ‘But it would be taking it to the extreme if a UK court could rule against the Danish media and then require compensation and court costs to be paid.’ >>> RC News | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Related:

THE TELEGRAPH: Defamation Case Over Prophet Mohammed Cartoons 'To Be Held' in Britain >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Defamation Case Over Prophet Mohammed Cartoons 'To Be Held' in Britain
THE TELEGRAPH: A Saudi Arabian lawyer has threatened to use British courts to overturn a Danish free speech ruling by bringing a defamation case over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that depicted Islam's founder as a terrorist.

Faisal Yamani, a Jeddah based lawyer, is planning to take a case to London's libel courts on behalf of over 90,000 descendants of Mohammed who have claimed that the drawings have defamed them and the Islamic faith.

Cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed were published in Danish newspapers in 2006 triggering violent protests across the Muslim world and riots which claimed the lives of over 50 people.

According to Danish press reports, the case can be heard in the [sic] Britain because the images, including a caricature of Mohammed with a bomb shaped turban, have been freely accessible via the internet.

Danish politicians and publishers are furious that European Union rules reward "libel tourism" by enforcing British defamation rulings across Europe.

Ebbe Dal, managing director of Danske Dagblades Forening, the Danish national newspaper association, is concerned that Britain's tough libel laws could be used to restrict free speech in liberal countries such as Denmark.

"The Danish courts have decided that the case is not actionable and that we are allowed to print the drawings in Danish newspapers and websites," he said.

"It would be very odd if a civilised country like Britain could go against that. If this succeeded we would have to pay a lot of money to Saudi Arabians misusing the British courts to make it difficult for freedom of speech." >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Seven Arrested in Plot to Kill Swedish Cartoonist

Dhimmitude! Danish Newspaper Provokes Uproar with Apology Over Muhammad Cartoon
There’s a fool born every minute! Shame on you, Mr Seidenfaden! Shame on your newspaper, too! It is to be hoped that the Danes will, from now on, boycott your newspaper. – Mark
TIMES ONLINE: A leading Danish newspaper was today accused of betraying the freedom of the press after breaking ranks with its rivals to offer an apology to Muslims for publishing a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban.

Politiken issued the apology after settling with a Saudi lawyer representing eight Muslim groups that complained after the cartoon was reprinted by 11 Danish papers in solidarity with the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who received death threats last year.

Outrage at the move was led by Denmark’s Prime Minister and by Mr Westergaard, 74, who survived an alleged assassination attempt by an Islamic axeman at his home last month.

Politiken responded that it was apologising for the offence caused, not the decision to publish, in an attempt to reduce tensions with the Muslim world.

Lars Loekke Rasmussen, the Prime Minister, expressed surprise at Politiken's move, saying he was worried that the Danish media were no longer “standing shoulder to shoulder” on the issue.

Mr Westergaard, who has round-the-clock security, added: “I fear this is a setback for the freedom of speech.” >>> David Charter, Europe Correspondent | Friday, February 26, 2010

THE GUARDIAN: Danish newspaper apologises in Muhammad cartoons row: Politiken widely condemned for agreeing to publish apology in return for Muslim organisations dropping legal action

A Danish newspaper apologised today to eight Muslim organisations for the offence it caused by reprinting controversial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, in exchange for their dropping legal action against the newspaper. >>> Lars Eriksen in Copenhagen | Friday, February 26, 2010

Westergaard Wants to Meet His Would-be Killer
BBC: Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard says he wants to meet the man accused of trying to kill him.

Mr Westergaard has been the target of at least three murder plots after drawing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. He was attacked in his home on New Year's Day.

After spending two weeks in a safe house, he has now returned home.

Malcolm Brabant reports. Watch BBC video >>> | Tuesday, January 19, 2010

BBC: What the Muhammad cartoons portray: Twelve caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in 2005 had a huge impact around the world, with riots in many Muslim countries the following year causing deaths and destruction - so what do the drawings actually say? >>> | Saturday, January 02, 2010

Norwegian Newspaper Reprints Prophet Mohammed Cartoons
THE TELEGRAPH: The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has reproduced the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

They were used to illustrate an article about Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist whose home was broken into by an Islamist armed with an axe a week ago.

It printed six out of the 12 drawings that infuriated Muslims around the world when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten first published them in 2005.

Several of the drawings were seen as linking Islam and its revered prophet to terrorism and suicide bombings, with Westergaard's cartoon showing him wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb. >>> | Friday, January 08, 2010

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad Cartoons

Sudan Incites Against New Danish Movie
ARUTZ SHEVA: (IsraelNN.com) A new Danish film portraying the Arab Muslim genocide against Black Africans in Darfur is being compared by the Sudanese government to the anti-Islamist film Fitna and to cartoons of Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper in 2005. The publication of those cartoons of the founder of Islam led to worldwide rioting and ongoing violence, including an attempt this week to kill one of the cartoonists.

A spokesman for Sudan's foreign ministry called the movie, Hævnen ("The Revenge"; also titled Civilization in English) by Susanne Bier, "racist". The film "should be seen as a new extension of the notorious Fitna movie and the cartoons which insult the prophet Muhammad," according to Sudanese officials. >>> Nissan Ratzlav-Katz | Thursday, January 07, 2010

Henryk M. Broder – After Attack on Danish Cartoonist: The West Is Choked by Fear
A Somalian man broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard on Friday armed with an ax and a knife. He is accused of the attempted murder of the Danish cartoonist. Photograph: Spiegel Online International
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL – Editorial: The attack on illustrator Kurt Westergaard wasn't the first attempt to carry out a deadly fatwa. When Muslims tried to murder Salman Rushdie 20 years ago, the protests among intellectuals were loud. Today, though, Western writers and thinkers would rather take cover than defend basic rights.

In 1988, Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" was published in its English-language original edition. Its publication led the Iranian state and its revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to issue a "fatwa" against Rushdie and offer a hefty bounty for his murder. This triggered several attacks on the novel's translators and publishers, including the murder of Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi. Millions of Muslims around the world who had never read a single line of the book, and who had never even heard the name Salman Rushdie before, wanted to see the death sentence against the author carried out -- and the sooner the better, so that the stained honor of the prophet could be washed clean again with Rushdie's blood.

In that atmosphere, no German publisher had the courage to publish Rushdie's book. This led a handful of famous German authors, led by Günter Grass, to take the initiative to ensure that Rushdie's novel could appear in Germany by founding a publishing house exclusively for that purpose. It was called Artikel 19, named after the paragraph in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights that guarantees the freedom of opinion. Dozens of publishing houses, organizations, journalists, politicians and other prominent members of German society were involved in the joint venture, which was the broadest coalition that had ever been formed in postwar German history.

Sympathy for the Hurt Feelings of Muslims

Seventeen years later, after the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published a dozen Muhammad cartoons on a single page, there were similar reactions in the Islamic world to those that had followed the publication of "The Satanic Verses." Millions of Muslims from London to Jakarta who had never seen the caricatures or even heard the name of the newspaper, took to the streets in protests against an insult to the prophet and demanded the appropriate punishment for the offenders: death. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden even went so far as to demand the cartoonists' extradition so that they could be condemned by an Islamic court.

This time, however, in contrast to the Rushdie case, hardly anyone has showed any solidarity with the threatened Danish cartoonists -- to the contrary. Grass, who had initiated the Artikel 19 campaign, expressed his understanding for the hurt feelings of the Muslims and the violent reactions that resulted. Grass described them as a "fundamentalist response to a fundamentalist act," in the process drawing a moral equivalence between the 12 cartoons and the death threats against the cartoonists. Grass also stated that: "We have lost the right to seek protection under the umbrella of freedom of expression." >>> Henryk M. Broder | Monday, January 04, 2010

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: ’Islam Needs a Sexual Revolution’ >>>

Québec: Be Aware of Islam

International Blasphemy Day: From Danish Cartoons to Jerry Springer - The Opera
THE TELEGRAPH: It's International Blasphemy Day. We take a look at some of the key moments in the history of the profane.

International Blasphemy Day, 30 September, is intended “to remind the world that religion should never again be beyond open and honest discussion”.

It marks the anniversary of the 2005 publication of the 12 Danish cartoons that depicted Mohammed and led to worldwide riots. Its founders want to “dismantle the wall which exists between religion and criticism”.

It has, of course, met with criticism – prominent US Catholic Bill Donohue accuses the movement of picking on Christianity: "The stated purpose of Blasphemy Day has nothing to do with any religion but Islam. So who have they chosen to mock? You guessed it - Christians."

However, not all religious people take offence. “The Lord Jesus Christ was and is despised and rejected of men,” says Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are not commanded to defend his honor, but to be willing to share in the scorn directed to him.”

Here is a brief look at some of the recent history of blasphemy. >>> Tom Chivers | Wedmesday, September 30, 2009

Committed to Free Expression? What Nonsense
TIMES ONLINE: Yale has acted cravenly over images of Muhammad

A Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in September 2005. This seemingly innocuous decision preceded worldwide protests, death threats, trade boycotts and attacks on Danish embassies.

An outstanding scholarly account of these events is published this week, entitled The Cartoons that Shook the World by Jytte Klausen, a Danish academic in the US. Klausen dissects the motives of the main actors and illuminates debates over free speech and the place of religion in Western societies. It’s a murky business, by which, she says, “protests developed from small-scale local demonstrations to global uproar only to subside without a proper conclusion”.

Yet while there has been no conclusion, there has been change and decay. The controversy spurred an argument that would defend the principle of free speech while deploring the failure to exercise it sensitively. “We believe freedom of the press entails responsibility and discretion, and should respect the beliefs and tenets of all religions,” declared the United Nations after Danish diplomatic missions were torched.

That principle is moderate, balanced and pernicious. The idea that people’s beliefs, merely by being deeply held, merit respect is grotesque. A constitutional society upholds freedom of speech and thought: it has no interest in its citizens’ feelings. If it sought to protect sensibilities, there would be no limit to the abridgements of freedom that the principle would justify. >>> Oliver Kamm | Monday, September 28, 2009

Yale University Press Accused of Cowardice over Muhammad Cartoons
Cartoons of prophet Muhammad: Google Images
Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me the pleasure of bringing to you the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, cartoons which the ***** at Yale University Press were too cowardly to bring you. Enjoy! – ©Mark

TIMES ONLINE: Yale University Press was accused of cowardice and censorship yesterday after deciding not to reproduce cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in an academic book for fear of violent reprisals.

This year Yale will publish a scholarly work about reactions to the cartoons printed in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which sparked protests around the world.

But readers will not see the 12 cartoons that are the subject of the book, including one showing Muhammad with a turban like a bomb. In fact, they will not get to see any images of the prophet at all, not even a 19th-century sketch by Gustave Doré.

Yale has decided to publish The Cartoons that Shook the World, by Jytte Klausen, without any likenesses of the Prophet but the howls of protest are all the louder for the fact that there have not been any threats of violence related to the book.

"‘We do not negotiate with terrorists. We just accede to their anticipated demands’. That is effectively the new policy position at Yale University Press,” Cary Nelson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, wrote in an open letter.

Yale took its decision to self-censor after consulting two dozen experts, including counter-terrorism specialists and the highest-ranking Muslim official at the UN.

Yale says that the experts concluded that the book should omit the 12 Danish cartoons but also all illustrations of the Prophet. [sic] including an Ottoman print, a children’s book illustration and the Dore sketch, which portrays Muhammad being tormented in hell in a scene from Dante’s Inferno that has also inspired Botticelli, Blake, Rodin and Dali. >>> James Bone in New York | Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Understatement of the Century: 'Islam Sometimes Has Problems in Understanding Free Speech'
The cartoon of the prophet Muhammad that caused all the hullabaloo. Image courtesy of Google Images
MIDDLE EAST TIMES: Two years ago Denmark's daily newspaper Jylland-Posten published cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, depicting the most holy figure in Islam with a ticking bomb in his turban. The newspaper's decision to run the caricatures caused millions of offended Muslims to protest against Western values in front of Danish embassies around the world. The outrage mainly stemmed from a growing sentiment that the West opted for indifference when it came to empathizing with the Muslim plight in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

In late February, encore appearances of the cartoons in four other Danish papers to show solidarity to cartoonist Kurt Westergaard who received death threats, deepened the crisis further. While most Muslim leaders called to" forgive, but not forget" despite the continuing anger, the West questioned its own values of liberal democracy and how to accommodate others.

On the eve of the Eid, the Muslim holiday celebrating the end of the month-long dawn-to-dusk fasting of Ramadan, Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen defended the publication of the cartoons and repeated that Islam had difficulty accepting core values of freedom and democracy.

Nevertheless, Rasmussen also sent a message of peace and positive dialogue to the Muslim world.

Photo of Anders Fogh Rasmussen courtesy of Google Images
The following interview was conducted last week at Columbia University in New York City, after the Danish prime minister addressed the university community in the World Leaders Forum. 'Islam Sometimes Has Problems in Understanding Free Speech' >>> By Afsin Yardakul | September 30, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Denmark) >>>