Muhammad Comics

Michelle Malkin and other right-wingers are leading the charge in support of the Danish cartoonists. I wonder why they are the first to lose their minds over a Ted Rall or Tom Toles cartoon? Because they are also religious fundamentalists and do not believe in free speech any more than the muslims who would like to murder the Danish cartoonists.

Many leftist cartoonists and bloggers in public and private have taken a position of "Sure, I support the right to make bigoted cartoons, but I'm not going to get behind them when they set out to offend muslims."

I strongly disagree. First, what would be the reaction if the tables were turned? How would Michelle Malkin and liberals react to comics that were drawn deliberately to offend christians? I'm sure there have been plenty of offensive things done to Christ, but lets make it really nasty. Let's say comics depicting Jesus sodomizing his mother and having sex with another man and animals. Pat Robertson would immediately call for God to strike them down, Fred Phelps would go picket something, and Michelle Malkin would talk of the religious intolerance in this country.

But imagine it went further; buildings being burned down, death threats, cartoonists in hiding. All the left would be talking about was the christian fascists running this country and how these people are in-fucking-sane and need to learn to accept free speech even if it is offensive. They wouldn't care if the original intention was to piss off christians or not because the proper reaction is not to burn down buildings and threaten people's lives.

Secondly, I don't think many of the cartoons were that offensive or bigoted at all. The cartoon below, for example, seems like a simple reference to the challenge itself (given by a children's book author stating that no artist would illustrate a book on Muhammad unless it was anonymous.)

And this is a comment on the author's challenge itself, making fun of him for the publicity stunt.


The rest, to me, seem to criticize fundamentalist Islam. A new article in the London Times confirms they are not racist right wingers:

In an interview with a Swedish newspaper this week, some of the cartoonists expressed their doubts about the entire episode. “It felt a little like a lose-lose situation. If I said no, I was a coward who contributes to self-censorship. If I said yes, I became an irresponsible hate monger against Islam,” one of the cartoonists said.

Another said: “I was actually angry when I first received the letter [from Jyllands-Posten]. I thought it was a really bad idea. At first I didn’t want to participate, but then I talked it over with some friends from the Middle East, and they thought I should do it.”

The cartoonists come from a variety of different political backgrounds, which is reflected in their work. While some of the pictures satirise Muhammad, others attack populist right-wing politicians and even Jyllands-Posten itself, which is rightwing.

All the cartoonists are now in hiding, with 24 hour police protection. They were paid $128.67 for the comics.




How about just sending an angry letter to their Editor? Maybe a boycott if it's that important.



....or burning down their foreign embassy, I guess that works too. Maybe tie the cartoonists to a post inside. Roast 'em up nice.