[For "insensitive" cartoon]
Thanks for posting the cartoon on post #8, PL....
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Posted on 12/26/2002 7:31:21 AM PST by 1bigdictator
MWL seeks apology By a Staff Writer
MAKKAH, 26 December 2002 — The Muslim World League yesterday condemned a media campaign in the United States against Islam, particularly against the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and expressed the strong displeasure of the entire Muslim community at such vilification and insinuations.
League Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Turki was reacting to the publication of a caricature by Doug Marlette in the Tallahassee Democrat, showing an Arab driving a lorry resembling the truck used by the Oklahoma bomber Thomas McVeigh in his attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building. The cartoon showed the truck carrying a nuclear warhead under the title: "What would Mohammed drive?"
Commenting on the extremely objectionable cartoon, Turki said: "Some enemies of Islam have been trying to tarnish the image of Muhammad (pbuh) just as they publish misleading information about and wrong interpretation of the Holy Qur’an."
Turki demanded that the Tallahassee Democrat apologize to the 1.5 billion Muslims and give an undertaking that it will not publish such disparaging material again.
Thomas?
The Tallahassee Democrat has become the center of a national controversy again and this time it doesn't involve football. Instead it is our cartoonist Doug Marlette who is drawing fire.
Doug did a cartoon depicting a man driving a rental truck loaded with explosives under the caption: "What would Mohammed Drive?" The Democrat has not printed the cartoon and won't in the future. But it was automatically posted to our Web site briefly until I ordered it removed.
First let me explain our relationship with Doug. He works for us and his cartoons carry the Tallahassee Democrat name. He is also a syndicated cartoonist and has a daily cartoon strip, Kudzu. We do not control or have rights to his outside work. He sends us his cartoons and we decide whether to print them or not. Other news organizations make their own independent decisions, too.
So we edit only the material we run. Unbeknownst to me, we had an automatic system that placed all of Doug's political cartoons on our Web site. When that happened with the bomb cartoon, we were flooded with thousands of e-mails and phone calls demanding an apology.
That's not going to happen. We did not publish the cartoon and we won't because I don't think it is particularly funny. And I frankly am uneasy about making fun of religious icons in the Democrat. We have run cartoons making funs of priests because of their actions in the abuse scandal - but not because of their religion. There were some cartoons that we did not run because we thought they crossed the line of good taste. Different editors draw that line in different places.
However, I defend Doug's right to ridicule anyone. This is an honored American tradition. Granted, good comedy like his often depends on exaggerations. But he does have some fair basis for satire in this case.
While the vast majority of Muslims are a peaceful people and preach a peaceful religion, there are some who have subverted the message of the prophet Mohammed for their own violent purposes.
There are Muslim clerics who encourage suicide bombers with promises of martyrdom for the slaughter of innocents. Other Muslim leaders believe they have the right to order a Fatwa, the sanctioned murder of someone like Salmon Rushdie, just because of his ideas. Lampooning fanatics who believe they have a religious basis for murder is fair game.
This is not to say that only Muslims have violent or intolerant adherents. Christians, Hindus, Jews - you name the religion - we all have stains like the Inquisition or brutal persecutions upon us. So to anyone who was offended by Doug's cartoon, I'm sorry. But I do not apologize for his right to make a point, even if it makes some people mad.
Actually, a young girl would be much more appropriate...
Yeah, so, Doug Marlette was making fun of radical Islamists because of their actions in murdering people worldwide, not because of their religion.
Well yeah but, that IS their religion.
I can see algore reading this in the morning paper: "See ... I told you that the internal combustion engine was dangerous!"
Thanks for posting the cartoon on post #8, PL....
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No one likes it when his or her belief system is disparaged. I don't like it when Hollywood depicts Christ as lusting after Mary Magdalene, or of Christ as a homosexual. I know, however, that those slurs are false--and remain slurs.
The problem with Islam is that by its own teachings--it is violent. By the own history of what Muhammad did--he was a murderer, child rapist, and pedophile.
Every headline I read is about Islam spreading murder and mayhem today. When was the last time we read a headline about Islam feeding the hungry of another faith? How many Islamic countries are democracies? How many Islamic countries permit religious freedom?
Yep. And the lack of outrage by the Islamic leaders regarding Terrorist action is deafening.
Stated superbly by another FReeper, weegee:
The war on terrorism means a war on Radical Islam but that should be of no concern to peaceful muslims and they should fully support such action. After all, we hear that Radical Islam is not true Islam but a false perversion of this peaceful religion. If that is true, then there should be no arguments about halting those who use terror and force to enslave people to a false religion.
He's already at peace, he's dead.
Maybe they are upset becuase their god would not be driving. Driving being beneath him, he would have someone driving for him.
That's right. But Doug Marlette is not one of those people. Those people are called "terrorists."
Save your breath until you acknowledge who the real enemy is.
"Peace be upon him." What about the rest of us?
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