Conflict Over Anti-Islamic Cartoons: Newspapers Are Fueling the Fire

A major culture clash is taking place between Europe and the Islamic world.

It stems from European newspapers depicting caricatures of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, which are viewed as highly insulting to the Muslim world. A newspaper in Denmark ran the cartoons first, and other European newspapers in Germany, France and Norway ran them as well.

A rage far worse than what was seen during the Abu Gharib prison photo scandal has enveloped much of the Muslim world; militants are threatening to kill Westerners in reprisal in Palestine and other countries.

The outrage stems from Islamic law that strictly prohibits Mohammed from being portrayed visually.

The original idea was to see if cartoonists drawing the original cartoons would change their work in the face of "offending Muslim sensibilities" or if they would go all-out and do what they wanted. Most went all-out; the cartoons were printed and protests around the world began.

Then more newspapers printed the cartoons.

Consider: after the severe political backlash against Denmark, why did other newpapers in other nations run the cartoons as well, knowing that it would enrage the Muslim world even more and reinforce a Muslim-held belief that Europe was Islam-hostile? And that it would give Muslim extremists another excuse to kill Westerners?

The real problem is that the cartoons don't just insult Islamic extremists; it offends every Muslim, including moderate and neutral Muslims. The ban on Mohammed drawings and pictures is observed by the Shiite and Sunni sects of Islam.

I am sensitive to free-speech issues, but when free speech causes innocent people to die, then there's a problem, and the less said the better. For that reason, I will not post the photos here and contribute to an innocent person or persons being beheaded by sword-waving extremist idiots.

This should never have made it into print in the first place. The more the photos are reproduced, the worse this will get, and the deeper the divisions between Islam and the West will become.