Outrageous Cartoon Whining Alert. Publishing twelve cartoons of Muhammad in the newspaper is equivalent to murdering 3,000 unsuspecting office workers as they went about their business on a sunny September morning. From zaman.com, with thanks to Romy:
The publication of cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Mohammed has had the effect of the September 11 attacks on the Islamic world, argued Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Conference.
Muslims are offended by the cartoons, Mr. Ihsanoglu told High Representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) Javier Solana; currently on tour in the Middle East.
They are? Really??? I hadn’t noticed. Actually, sarcasm aside, they aren’t. If they really were, they would have been protesting just as violently in Egypt when the cartoons were printed there in October as they have been elsewhere more recently. If they really were, they would be calling for the executions of the Danish Muslims who added into a dossier circulated in the Muslim world three cartoons much more inflammatory than the 12 that were actually printed in the Danish newspaper. No, cartoon rage isn’t really about offensive cartoons at all. It is an attempt to cow Western nations into adopting Islamic blasphemy laws, forbidding non-Muslims to insult the Prophet — and making them take the first large step toward accepting other Sharia provisions, just as the jihadists are also fighting in their way to compel them to do.
“It is unfortunate that the Islamic world took the satirical drawings as a different version of the September 11 attacks against them,” said Mr. Ihsanoglu. “I hope,” he added, “the EU will adopt a new ruling to fight against Islamophobia.”
In a sane world, Ihsanoglu would have said, “It is unfortunate that the Islamic world took the satirical drawings as a different version of the September 11 attacks against them. I hope the Islamic world will take a calmer, more rational, and less violent and manipulative path in the future.” Instead, he just uses this irrational rage as a springboard to bring Islamic blasphemy laws West under the guise of “Islamophobia.”
Solana, on the issue, assured Ihsanoglu of his determination to prevent the situation from escalating.
Why is this always the West’s responsibility?
Solana said he asked senior EU officials to show respect to Muslims today, the same as they had done in the past.
“We never had the intention of harming. Please feel assured that we will do our best to preclude the cartoon crisis from re-occurring, because we need each other,” said Solana, who will first meet King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in the capital Riyadh, and later visit Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel as part of his Middle East tour.
We promise we’ll never do it again. We’re so so sorry we offended you. Just please, please don’t hurt us.