Thursday, February 02, 2006
i've been pretty obsessed with the danish muhammad cartoons controversy these past few days. maybe unhealthily obsessed.
for anyone who hasn't been keeping up with it, back in september, a danish author was complaining that he couldn't find anyone willing to illustrate a biography he wrote on muhammed. a daily newspaper caught the story, and asked its stable of 40 editorial cartoonists to contribute cartoons of muhammed. as an exercise on censorship and self-censorship, apparently.
twelve cartoonists responded. their cartoons ranged from reverent to gentle teasing to outright insulting. denmark's muslim population was shocked. not only is it offensive according to most islamic tradition to depict the prophet at all, but relations between most of denmark and its muslim population were already strained.
islamic groups demanded apologies from the cartoonists, the paper, the danish government. as the debate escalated, other papers printed the cartoons. arab countries recalled their european envoys, some of the cartoonists received death threats and went into hiding, gunmen surrounded the EU offices in gaza. saudi arabia is staging a successful boycott of danish products, muslim protesters are burning european flags, and the editor of france-soir just got sacked for printing the cartoons in his paper.
i'm conflicted about the whole thing. on the one hand, the original solicitation and printing of the cartoons seems like it was meant to intentionally incite denmark's already disadvantaged muslim population. throwing gas on the flames of an already tense situation seems irresponsible and insensitive.
on the other hand, some of us westerners hold the right to free speech and press pretty sacred too. the european papers aren't bound to observe muslim laws, should they have to apologize for violating them? should their governments? isn't this about freedom of the press, and an open debate of relevant issues? as a comics artist, i get a little jittery when i hear about comics censorship, much less cartoonists getting death threats.
i really don't know how i feel at all, except that i'm amazed at how much furore has been caused by a dozen cartoons. certainly much worse has been said recently in opinion letters, editorials, tv and radio interviews. but it took twelve little ink drawings to set all of western europe and the middle east on fire.
for anyone who hasn't been keeping up with it, back in september, a danish author was complaining that he couldn't find anyone willing to illustrate a biography he wrote on muhammed. a daily newspaper caught the story, and asked its stable of 40 editorial cartoonists to contribute cartoons of muhammed. as an exercise on censorship and self-censorship, apparently.
twelve cartoonists responded. their cartoons ranged from reverent to gentle teasing to outright insulting. denmark's muslim population was shocked. not only is it offensive according to most islamic tradition to depict the prophet at all, but relations between most of denmark and its muslim population were already strained.
islamic groups demanded apologies from the cartoonists, the paper, the danish government. as the debate escalated, other papers printed the cartoons. arab countries recalled their european envoys, some of the cartoonists received death threats and went into hiding, gunmen surrounded the EU offices in gaza. saudi arabia is staging a successful boycott of danish products, muslim protesters are burning european flags, and the editor of france-soir just got sacked for printing the cartoons in his paper.
i'm conflicted about the whole thing. on the one hand, the original solicitation and printing of the cartoons seems like it was meant to intentionally incite denmark's already disadvantaged muslim population. throwing gas on the flames of an already tense situation seems irresponsible and insensitive.
on the other hand, some of us westerners hold the right to free speech and press pretty sacred too. the european papers aren't bound to observe muslim laws, should they have to apologize for violating them? should their governments? isn't this about freedom of the press, and an open debate of relevant issues? as a comics artist, i get a little jittery when i hear about comics censorship, much less cartoonists getting death threats.
i really don't know how i feel at all, except that i'm amazed at how much furore has been caused by a dozen cartoons. certainly much worse has been said recently in opinion letters, editorials, tv and radio interviews. but it took twelve little ink drawings to set all of western europe and the middle east on fire.
Comments:
Post a Comment
