QOTD: cartoons

question of the day: what is your opinion of the controversial editorial cartoons from denmark and the reaction towards them? Should they have been published? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4692318.stm

I have noticed that tv channels and daily prints often run mocking and hateful illustrations of other religions, especially Jews, and Muslims around the world stay quiet. Um....why the hypocrisy. And bigger issue over here is them getting all uppity about a few cartoons, but there are oppressive governments that are allowing certain western countries to occupy their land. Where is their outrage?


With all the jokes about sheep going around these days people just need to suck it up and get over it. It’s a joke!!! You don’t see me getting all bent ot of shape, do ya? How many times is that Italian, American, Irish, German, Polish, etc person going to walk into that same bar and not expect to get made fun of?!?! It’s a joke people….relax or I’ll start swinging with my shepherd hook.

i love cheeze danish

i have not seen the cartoons, so i don't have an opinion. although, free speech is free speech - can't have a double standard.

They're F*!#ing cartoons! Who cares? Everyone's gotta chill out

i can't really tell if these are actually offensive or not, but in either case, violence isn't the answer

Get a life. Not you. them

i think they are making WAY too much of a deal about it...and yes, they should have been posted

Wait, those are the ones that make fun of their God, right? Isn't that the guy who's always trying to get the cereal, but the kids won't let him? Oh no, that's the Trix Rabbit. Sorry, I get them confused because they're both made up.

i firmly believe in the freedom of speech - but the cartoons were blatently racist. in the US - no one would dare draw cartoons that made fun of hasidic jews or the recently deceased pope and if they did [just for arguments sake] - the moment people took offense to it...they would stop printing them. however, in the case of denmark - when muslims voiced their objections...they claimed freedom of speech and in support other european countries printed the cartoons. who does that??? but then the whole situation got wayyyy out of hand - burning buildings and embassies - what the hell? the reaction is soooooooo extreme - that i just think its all just STUPID.

I think Terrorists are inciting the violence and this is just one more excuse to use religion as a weapon. Their stance is hypocritical since they have cartoons in Muslim newspapers mocking the Jews and defacing the Jewish religion. It's an outrage that they want sympathy from the US, we should sit back and let them fight amongst themselves until they are extinct.

the guy must have known what an uproar something like that would have caused, so this is on the same level as yelling fire in a crowded building. printing something shocking in a newspaper just for the reaction is not news.

Yes, they should have been published.
Islam prohibits visual representation of Prophet (or almost anything for that matter). That’s for practitioners of that faith/religion. Non-Practitioners do not have to follow anything about the religion. Islam is a practiced world-wide, its not some private little rule book, its public domain. One should be able to discuss anything publicly and debate publicly.
I see the violence as defense mechanism on the part of the people who are not comfortable criticism or (mis) representation of their religion in any other media/form.
If someone makes a mockery of my religion, I will ask him what he is trying to say or do, reason it out as how bad it is and then may be ask the editor to publish my disagreement. Anything that is as archaic as the Koran/Quran is bound to have holes after couple of centuries, its called inability to predict future in its full detail and publish guidelines for living.
I understand that people who are resorting to violence are just venting their disbelief, engaging in a violent reaction that questions your faith in a non-violent manner.
Where are these people when people of their faith kill hundreds of people just to prove a point? Where was their sense of disbelief on 9/11, where was their disbelief when they bombed Bali. It is boiling down to a matter of choices – when I feel like it I will be in disbelief and not do anything about it. They did not say anything when Gulbuddin Hekmatiyar ordered demolition ancient Buddhist sites in Afghanistan as Taliban was chasing him (1998 ish time frame).
These were cartoons; the thing about cartoons is that they exaggerate. Welcome to the new age where newer (visual) metaphors have taken ground. If your book did not teach you how to make bombs, you went ahead and learnt it from somewhere else; do the same things to bring your self up-to speed with civilization learn and adapt then interpret.