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'My Corduroyed Life' - Mark A's Journal
I know I said I wouldn’t, but I’m still angry…
As you will know, I am uncharacteristically into current affair at the moment because religious extremist are threatening my freedom of speech.
This is an abridged timeline of the cartoon controversy that I’ve compiled from various online sources which include the BBC, the Guardian, and the Independent.
Sept 2005: First publication of the cartoons in a Danish magazine.
Nov 4: Muslims protests in Denmark over the cartoons. The newspaper receives death threats and two of its cartoonists are forced into hiding.
Jan 10: Reprints of the cartoons begin in various EU countries.
Jan 31: Threats to Scandinavians begin in the Palestinian territories and a boycott of all Danish goods (which even goes as far as boycotting Lego).
The offices of Jyllands-Posten have to be evacuated after a bomb threat is received.
Feb 1: French newspaper France Soir reprints the 12 Danish cartoons sparking more outrage in the Muslim world.
Muslim leaders threaten British newspapers and broadcasters not to follow their European counterparts by publishing 'sacrilegious' cartoons depicting Mohammed. They comply.
Feb 2: Palestinian gunmen surround European Union offices in the Gaza Strip in protest at the caricatures. They threaten violence and demand an apology for the cartoons.
France Soir's managing editor is sacked for reprinting the Danish cartoons.
Feb 4: Demonstrators in Syria storm the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and set them alight.
1,000 British Muslims demonstrate outside the Danish embassy in London - one dressed as a suicide bomber, and many inciting murder with their placards.
Feb 6: Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical Muslim cleric, says the cartoonist behind caricatures should be tried and executed under Islamic law.
Feb 7: Nigerian MPs cheered as Norwegian flags were burned in their parliamentary building
Feb 10: Jyllands-Posten's editor is 'sent on leave'.
The Swedish government intervene closing areas of a political party's website about the cartoons.
This is just a selection of occurrences: there have been deaths of protesters, beatings of innocent Norwegians, Norwegian embassies torched, flag burnings, and other atrocities committed in the name of Islam by extremists.
The internet has, predictably and quite rightly, gone into uproar about this threat to freedom of speech. Obviously, one of the most important things about the internet that is valued by its users is that we have our freedom of speech, so internet users/ bloggers/ flash artists/ &c are standing up for our rights. I have been following it all quite religiously (pun intended), and below is a selection of the more interesting stuff that I have found.
The Mohammed Image Archive presents many images of Mohammed. This includes the cartoons from Jyllands-Posten, Islamic images of Mohammed by Muslims, modern images of Mohammed that weren't protested about (including an episode of South Park), and other galleries of Mohammed:
http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/
'Support Denmark' is a very positive website designed to help the Danes in their struggle for freedom of speech:
http://supportdenmark.com/
'Buy Danish' is a campaign to counter the cruel boycott of all Danish products in some Muslim countries:
http://buydanish.home.comcast.net/
This is an online petition for those who wish to register their support Denmark:
http://www.petitiononline.com/danmark/petition.html
Hampster Dance was satirised with Jesus Dance a while back. Now Mohammed Dance has surfaced in reaction to the Islamic overreaction:
http://www.mohammeddance.com/
This is a protest video about the way the whole controversy has been created and exploited by fundamentalist Muslims. It is unashamedly controversial, biased, and accusatory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW8TxL5vYhQ
I've tried to be as moderate as I can about this, but reading back, it's pretty obvious that I have a rather strong opinion of the current situation. I'd apologise for this, but I wouldn't mean it.
M
Current mood:
angry.