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| Muhammad row cartoonist 'in hiding on FBI advice' |
| 2010-09-17 |
| A US artist whose satirical cartoon inspired an internet campaign inviting people to draw images of the Prophet Muhammad has disappeared into hiding, her newspaper has said. Molly Norris, who disavowed the movement that provoked outrage in the Islamic world, has moved and changed her name, the Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) are forbidden in Islam. The Seattle Weekly wrote that Ms Norris was "moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity". "She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection programme," it said, but without government aid. "She likens the situation to cancer," the paper wrote. "It might basically be nothing, it might be urgent and serious, it might go away and never return, or it might pop up again when she least expects it." Told by agents to keep an eye out when in public, the paper said Ms Norris responded: "Well, at least it'll keep me from being so self-involved." In her cartoon, Ms Norris satirically proposed 20 May as an "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day". The idea inspired a separate Everybody Draw Muhammad Day group on Facebook which rapidly grew in popularity. The page contained drawings and cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) and characters from other religions, including Hinduism and Christianity. It sparked outraged protests in Pakistan, where a court ordered Facebook to be blocked |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #7 "She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection programme," it said, but without government aid. This is the best the FBI can do? Pathetic. To quote that sage observer of the human condition, Homer Simpson: "That's not America. That's not even Mexico." |
| Posted by: regular joe 2010-09-17 16:52 |
| #6 You can kill the 1st amendment in one of two ways. First to flat outlaw it. Not gonna happen. Second is to make the people so afraid of free speech they remain silent. For example, speak up and the dems dig into your past and slander you, or send the IRS after you, or get your boss to fire you, or just get threatened with violence. This is whats happening across the board. Not just with Islam. Burn the Koran and get fired, ask The POS prez a question like Joe the plumber did and get attacked from all sides. Speak out like Palen did and get hit with hundreds of frivolous law suits, and on and on. Our constitution is under attack, people must remain vigilant, or they will remain silent by force. |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2010-09-17 16:03 |
| #5 Big institutions in the US, institutions whose core activity is free expression no longer believe that the US Constitution is the real law of the land anymore. This includes Yale, nearly all mainstream news TV, mainstream newspapers, educators like Yale, entertainment like Comedy Central, even the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. I don't think their reason for not violating Sharia is some multicultural piety. I believe their reason is a very realistic fear of punishment. The question now is whether the political class is willing to change course. Whether they're willing to tell certain countries and certain peoples that constitutional freedoms are not negotiable that there's no room for compromise, even in the face of Armageddon. Western style freedom in Western countries had never been an issue. A few decades ago that point was made very clear to an adversary controlling a huge conventional and nuclear military force. This isn't about a presumably leftist Seattle artist, or about an embarrassing, uncouth, evangelical bitter clinger in Florida, or a danish cartoonist etc. It is about all of us, our freedoms our western way of life. |
| Posted by: Omaing White7048 2010-09-17 15:35 |
| #4 For crying-out-loud is this still America? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-09-17 14:15 |
| #3 Sigh. Even the 'burg is censoring now! My cartoon looked ok in preview, but was truncated when I posted! |
| Posted by: Iblis 2010-09-17 13:31 |
| #2 Here is my picture of Muhammad: @ 0 /| / The @ is supposed to be a turban... |
| Posted by: Iblis 2010-09-17 13:29 |
| #1 The Wikipedia site on "Everybody Draw Mohammud" reports that the establishment in the cartoonist biz basically threw Molly under the bus, "...Several editorial cartoonists quoted by The Washington Post blogger Michael Cavna were critical of the Draw Mohammed Day idea or declined to participate, although all supported the right of cartoonists to depict Mohammed if they chose to The president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists opposed involvement because "something like that can be too easily co-opted by interest groups who, I suspect, have an agenda that goes beyond a simple defense of free expression."[142] Other cartoonists quoted in the article called the event "childish and needlessly provocative" or demurred because they dislike "choreographed punditry".[142].[142] |
| Posted by: lord garth 2010-09-17 07:41 |