Cartoon publisher speaks out

My girlfriend just pointed me to an article in the Washington post, which I think properly puts the 12 drawings of Muhammad in context. There seems to be many misconceptions about the intent by the newspaper. Many seem to think they just did it to insult.

It was also interesting for me to read another take on the now infamous drawing of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. In the publishers own words:

One cartoon -- depicting the prophet with a bomb in his turban -- has drawn the harshest criticism. Angry voices claim the cartoon is saying that the prophet is a terrorist or that every Muslim is a terrorist. I read it differently: Some individuals have taken the religion of Islam hostage by committing terrorist acts in the name of the prophet. They are the ones who have given the religion a bad name. The cartoon also plays into the fairy tale about Aladdin and the orange that fell into his turban and made his fortune. This suggests that the bomb comes from the outside world and is not an inherent characteristic of the prophet.

One thing that seemed to support the belief that the news paper published the cartoons just to provoke was the fact that some cartoons of Jesus had been rejected earlier. The publisher also comments on this:

On occasion, Jyllands-Posten has refused to print satirical cartoons of Jesus, but not because it applies a double standard. In fact, the same cartoonist who drew the image of Muhammed with a bomb in his turban drew a cartoon with Jesus on the cross having dollar notes in his eyes and another with the star of David attached to a bomb fuse. There were, however, no embassy burnings or death threats when we published those.

I highly recommend reading the article. I thing it was very good and insightful.