Germans print Muhammad caricatures

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
BERLIN



Two German newspapers on Wednesday reproduced controversial drawings depicting the Prophet Muhammad, with one of them arguing that a "right to blasphemy" was anchored in democratic freedoms.

The drawings were among several published in a Danish paper in September that sparked outrage and boycotts in Islamic countries. The pictures were also shown in a Norwegian magazine last week.

Palestinians in Gaza burned Danish and Norwegian flags this week in protest of the caricatures.

The caricatures offended many Muslims both because of their critical content and because Islam forbids representations of Muhammad out of concern they could lead to idolatry. In some of the pictures, Muhammad was shown to be wearing women's attire.

But the German Welt daily put one of the drawings showing the prophet's turban transformed into a bomb on its front page on Wednesday. It said the picture was "harmless" and expressed regret that the Danish Jyllands-Posten daily had apologized for causing offense.

"Democracy is the institutionalized form of freedom of expression," the paper said in a front-page commentary. "There is no right to protection from satire in the West; there is a right to blasphemy."

The Berliner Zeitung daily also printed two of the caricatures as part of its coverage of the controversy.

In France, the France-Soir daily published the drawings on Wednesday, saying that religious dogma has no place in a secular society.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1138622526823&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

 

They need to get over it. Here in America, somebody can take a crucifix, drop it in a jar of urine, and then sell it as 'art' for thousands of dollars. Disturbing? Yes. Blasphemous? Most certainly. However, in America, you have a right to be stupid, and if I don't like what somebody says, I'll use the capitalistic, rather than fascist, approach to get them to stop.

Geez, Islam is basically that kid in elementary school who would go around and try to bloody up everybody any time somebody told him a 'yo mamma' joke.

 

With this and what I saw on a Frontline show last night, I'd say the light has come on in Europe. Good.

 

Euro MEDIA showing backbone? ..... :shocked:


Maybe they are starting to realize they don't need to put up with Islamic bullshit.

 

Anyone got a link to these pictures? I keep seeing the news stories about them, but not the pics themselves.

 

Word.

 

Goto the denmark thread. All the pictures are shown.

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2020790,00.html

Press digs in over Islam cartoons fury
By Charles Bremner, in Paris and Our Foreign Staff



NEWSPAPERS across Europe yesterday republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have inflamed the Muslim world since they first appeared in Denmark.
Daily newspapers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands featured the 12 cartoons, which have caused a firestorm in the Islamic world.



Editors expressed a wish to show solidarity with the Editor of the Jyllands-Posten in Denmark, whose cartoons triggered violent protests in Gaza, a boycott of Danish goods across the Arab world and death threats against the newspaper’s senior staff. The paper’s offices had to be evacuated last night after the second bomb threat in two days.

Showing any depiction of Muhammad is deemed blasphemous and these were seen as particularly offensive, with one portraying the Prophet wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb. Under the headline “Yes, we have the right to caricature God”, France Soir covered its front with Buddha, the Christian and Jewish deities and the Prophet all sitting on a cloud. The Christian God says: “Don’t complain Muhammad, all of us have been caricatured.”

Shortly after the paper appeared, however, its managing editor, Jacques Lefranc, was sacked. Raymond Lakah, the paper’s owner, issued a public apology: “We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication” of the cartoons, he said.

French officials privately shuddered over the likely damage to relations with Muslims at home and abroad but ministers defended France Soir’s freedom to publish what it wanted. After a Cabinet meeting with President Chirac, Jean-François Copé, a minister and government spokesman, said: “France is attached to the freedom of expression”, but adding that respect should always be shown for the beliefs of others.



The owner of the Soir is an Egpytian, that explains the dismissal. Muslim
scum.


And here is a link for a Danish blogger keeping track on the developing story.

http://dansk-svensk.blogspot.com/

 

Fell right into their hands, didn't they?

 

Unfortunately, one French paper, the one you site, has sacked the editor:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4670370.stm