Most of us have heard about the Danish cartoon issue, but for those who have not, a Danish newspaper printed some cartoons considered offensive to Islam, including a caricature of the prophet Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.
In response, Muslim protests have been launched in the European countries that printed the cartoons. Also, Muslim countries have launched a fairly successful boycott of Danish goods and at least two countries have had their embassies burned down by protestors.
This widespread protest is hypocritical. The German paper ?die Welt? used the example of a primetime special aired by Syria depicting Jewish rabbis as cannibals to show this. The point is that the mainstream media in many (not all) Islamic countries often depicts hateful images of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism.
So assaulting the religion or culture of others is apparently fine, as long as it?s not Islamic. If Americans, Jews or Christians protested every time their sensibilities or values were offended by the media in Islamic countries, they?d have a full-time job on their hands, and few embassies would remain standing.
Now, the people angered by these cartoons have every right to peaceably protest against the printing of them, but the violent and destructive actions that this controversy has sparked are unjustifiable.
Even more disgusting is that some of the leaders of Islamic countries probably thanked Denmark for the scandal, because there was now something to divert attention and criticism away from their incompetent and repressive regimes, such as the way that Iran focuses anger away from the regime and to the outside world by exploiting the nuclear weapons scandal.
Moreover, the Muslims within Denmark, France, etc., seem to forget where they are. I?m not saying that these countries should not be inviting to immigrants, or that the initial publishing of the cartoons in the Danish paper was not in poor taste, but in no way can one expect these countries to accommodate entirely to a certain population of immigrants.
These secular societies should not have to change because of large groups of highly conservative and religious immigrants. It is silly to expect them to do so. What is very ironic is that in these countries, where it is fine to boycott goods and burn flags and effigies of Denmark and other Western countries, these very same protestors expect the government of Denmark to reign in the rights of free press.
One can only be glad that other newspapers have stuck up for Denmark by printing the cartoons (however abhorrent) along with editorials defending the independent media in these secular societies.
