No Wait, cartoonist season! Now you can get assassinated for your comics!

This is messed up. I may have to even go on a brief Rantecdote here rather than just lure you into reading the news with Lizicisms per usual. This cartoonist Westergaard, in Denmark, cartoonist for the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jullands-Postensaid, started a cartoon in 2005 that portrayed the Prophet Mohammed. Now, per some interpretations of Islam, which certainly deserves respect as much as any other world religion (up to you on that one, I was a religion major so I have my own opinions, probably biased but equally biased in favor of all of them), doing that at all is blasphemous. Sort of like the no idols thing in the Bible.

Allow me to digress for a moment about Mohammed...what you don't find in the news...when Mohammed came out of the cave with the Koran things were extremely screwed up in his zone. A lot of what he was trying to do with Islam, including having women wear veils, was to bring control over a people that had gone out of control. Women were being raped in the streets left and right, no one was safe, he said, here's an idea that might cut down on that, wear veils. Not entirely that simple but was part of the point.

Just like part of the point of Jesus was to reform out of control Judaism, (as he saw it), that had gotten so wrapped up in the particulars of law that they'd missed the main point. Neither are looked at as such today, they've morphed into different things for different times and people too. But that's another rantecdote.

However, will add that the first person Mohammed told about the Koran, (very, very big deal here folks), was his wife. So shed a few veils of illusion and look up a little about women and Islam in more detail than the daily news gives you. NOT that there are not some seriously screwed up things going on. NOT saying that. Just saying, there is always more than one side to a story.

Back to the matter at hand. Westergaard apparantly went over the line when he depicted Mohammed with a bomb with a lit fuse instead of a turban on top of his head. Ok, I can see how that would offend some Islamic people, can see how depicting Mohammed in a cartoon would, but dude is in Denmark, for one thing. He said that he wanted his cartoon to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terror. However, many in the Muslim world interpreted the drawing as depicting their prophet as a terrorist.

Ok, well many in the US interpret Bush as a terrorist - how far are we from not being able to draw cartoons about that I wonder? I return you to Pravda. But that's another story too.

So... "Danish authorities said Tuesday they have arrested three people who allegedly were plotting a "terror-related assassination" of a cartoonist whose drawing of the Prophet Mohammed sparked rage in the Muslim world two years ago." (CNN)

Ok, well, glad they've done that and the guy isn't going to be assassinated over a cartoon.

"CNN's Paula Newton said the arrests reinforced growing fears in Europe that radical Islam was trying to suppress free speech.

"More and more Europeans feel that Islam is a threat to their way of life," Newton said. A recent Gallup poll for the World Economic Forum showed a majority of Europeans believed relations between the West and the Muslim world were worsening. According to the poll this sentiment was strongest held among Danish.

Westergaard remains under police protection and does not know whether it will continue.

"I could not possibly know for how long I have to live under police protection; I think, however, that the impact of the insane response to my cartoon will last for the rest of my life," he said. "It is sad indeed, but it has become a fact of my life."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/02/12/denmark.cartoon/?iref=hpmostpop

Watch out cartoonists. Worlds' taking the comedy out of comic and free out of speech. This is messed up man. Europe fears radical Islam threatening free speech -- what? Ok, SOME Islamic people feel it is EXTREMELY not cool to depict Mohammed, certainly to make a cartoon of him and yes, it is INSANE to attempt to assassinate someone over a cartoon. But please - that is threatening free speech in Europe on a grand scale in what way? How about here in the U.S.? I've had papers not run a story because it was too much information. I've had them edit the hell out of things too. Is that because of Islamic extremists? There isn't any free speech really, not here when you get right down to it. Don't know about Europe first hand but please, Islamic extremists take over the press world-wide...right...

Islam is NOT a threat to anyones way of life except those who live under the rule of extremists like the Taliban or those in other places who are truly threatened by extreme Islamic terrorists - and that happens, it happens here and it is a very bad thing. There are terrorist groups that aren't Islamic. Terrorism is horrific period. But WAKE UP WORLD or everyone "wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world and speak out, or sing out, or whatever it is you do. And for God's sake vote. For the worlds' sake vote. Wherever in the world you may be. If you can, that is.