[Arab News] An Amman court of first instance on Sunday resumed the trial in absentia of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and 19 other Danish editors and journalists on charges of publishing cartoons of Islam's Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!) six years ago which were deemed blasphemous.The defendants did not show up or ask lawyers to represent them in the lawsuit which was filed by the "God's Prophet Unites Us Campaign," a coalition of Jordanian academics, politicians, unionists, journalists, lawyers and politicians.
I fail to see how a court in Jordan has jurisdiction over someone doing something perfectly legal in Denmark.
However,
The essential
However...
Sunday's session was attended by a Danish journalist Uffe Taudal, Middle East Bureau Chief of the daily Berlingske Tidende, who came to Amman to cover the trial's proceedings.
Did he bring a kangaroo with him?
Westergaard published 12 satirical cartoons of the prophet in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on Sept. 30, 2005, stirring an outrage in the Arab and Mohammedan worlds that prompted a boycott of Danish products.
"No Tuborg for you!"
During Sunday's session, head of the campaign Zakariya Al-Sheikh told the court that the cartoons sought to depict Islam as a religion that preaches terrorism.
"The pictures insult the feelings of all Mohammedans because it depicts them as terrorists, besides running counter to the freedom of expression," he said.
Yasss... His expressing himself freely runs counter to the freedom of expression. No doubt that statement makes a lot more sense in Arabic than it does in English...
Also testifying before the court was the campaign's official front man Marwan Shehadeh, who contended that the cartoons had sought to "to sow hatred among religions and between West and East as well as fanning up the conflict among civilizations and trying to attribute terrorism to Islam. "
The list of charges, which has already been approved by the Jordanian public prosecutor, includes "blasphemy against prophet and humiliation of Islam and Mohammedans".
My not believing in the Mohammedan god doesn't constitute blasphemy to me. And I can't think of any civilized countries that actually have laws against blasphemy, not for the past four or five hundred years anyway.
"Such offences are punishable under the Jordanian penal code," the campaign's lawyer Tareq Hawamdeh said. The court adjourned until Thursday to hear more witnesses.