Violence over cartoons escalates (update)

Danish embassies are being burned across the Arab world and the Middle East. The latest is in Lebanon.

The violence that has ensued cannot be surprising. When protests spread last Friday, February 3, here is some of what was already being said among largely peaceful demonstrations:

We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible,” one preacher at the al-Omari mosque here told worshippers during Friday prayers, according to wire service reports. Other demonstrators called for severing the hands of the cartoonists who drew the pictures, unflattering to Muhammad and to Islam.

Some of the reactions to the Danish cartoons ridiculing Mohammed are being struck against Israel, Bush, Christians, and the Red Cross, none of whom were involved with the cartoons. It’s clear that this has everything to do with a broader issue of culture and identity.

The Islamic Army in Iraq, a Sunni Arab insurgent group, issued an Internet statement calling for attacks on Danish companies and nationals. The group urged followers to “catch some Danish people and cut them into pieces.” There are about 500 Danish soldiers in Iraq….

“What are you going to do?” asked a leaflet circulated in Beirut that called for Sunday’s protest. “Bush and his group have invaded and are fighting war by all means available,” it added. “The goal: destroying the Islamic nation ideologically, economically and existentially, and stealing and looting its resources.”

I will reserve my thoughts on the incompatibility of the Christian faith and political leadership for another time. Let’s just say Jimmy Carter is my favorite president, and he couldn’t get re-elected.

The article also quotes Christian minority youth in Lebanon ready to defend their communities with force, and expressing the kind of frustration common among repressed minorities, making my point further.

Text messages circulated on cell phones throughout the day. “Brothers, 200 years of killing of innocent Christians by Muslims and irresponsible Christian leaders,” one read. “We say no more!!!! Launch the ‘Christian Nation of Lebanon.’ It is NEVER going to end unless you prepare your weapons, organize, and claim your Christian independent territory, by force. Or die.”

A shrine in Qum, Iran, where women burned an Israeli flag.

February 4, 2006

There’s really no excuse for the violence that has ensued, but I have to say that I find it incredibly unwise and offensive that European papers were reprinting these cartoons–hello, what is difficult to understand about 1/4 of the world taking images of Mohammed to be blasphemy and a personal insult? For once, America got it right; all of our papers defended freedom of the press but none of them reprinted the cartoons–the reprint adds nothing to the story.

February 3, 2006

There is something very ironic about this picture of Palestinians burning a Danish flag in response. Found at the Morocco Times:

Palestinians burn a Danish flag bearing a footprint during a protest outside the European Union representation in Gaza City. Ph. AFP

While a major French paper fired the managing editor who reprinted the cartoons along with several other European papers, the Spanish press has been printing articles about how Muslims in Spain need to learn what satire is and that it is a normal part of the public dialogue. It certainly is in America; the Supreme Court has ruled that satire is an important form of criticism, and thus exempt from defamation laws.

That’s a tall order for a religion under which any illustrations of Mohammed are considered blasphemy. Some Muslims say that non-Muslims should be exempt from these strictures.

How will it end?

February 2, 2006

Nothing like forcing people to be sorry at gunpoint….

Firestorm Over Cartoon Gains Momentum (NY Times), also here.

Mohammed Salem/Reuters

A gunman stood on the roof of the European Union office in the Gaza Strip today.

My thoughts remain the same.