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Danish cartoon row gets worse
[..] Two of the cartoonists, fearing for their lives, went into hiding. The Pakistani Jamaaat-e-Islami party offered five thousand kroner to anyone who killed one of the cartoonists. [..] the most respected authority in the Sunni Muslim world, Mohammad Sayed Tantawi, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, declared that the cartoons had âtrespassed all limits of objective criticism into insults and contempt of the religious beliefs of more than one billion Muslims around the world, including thousands in Denmark. Al-Azhar intends to protest these anti-Prophet cartoons with the UNâs concerned committees and human rights groups around the world.â The UN was happy to take the case. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, wrote to the OIC: âI understand your attitude to the images that appeared in the newspaper. I find alarming any behaviors that disregard the beliefs of others. This kind of thing is unacceptable.â She announced that investigations for racism and âIslamophobiaâ would commence forthwith. While solicitous of Muslim belief, Arbour did not seem concerned about the beliefs of the Danes. Yet Jyllands-Posten had well articulated its position as founded upon core principles of the Western world: âWe must quietly point out here that the drawings illustrated an article on the self-censorship which rules large parts of the Western world. Our right to say, write, photograph and draw what we want to within the framework of the law exists and must endure â unconditionally!â Juste added: âIf we apologize, we go against the freedom of speech that generations before us have struggled to win.â Posted by: 3dc 2005-12-21 |
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