Cartoon protests - yes, still spamming.

[icarus]

In a new turn, a prominent Iranian newspaper, Hamshahri, invited artists to enter a Holocaust cartoon competition, saying it wanted to see if freedom of expression — the banner under which many Western publications reprinted the prophet drawings — also applied to Holocaust images.

Good point. Suddenly the Islamic cartoon protests make sense to me (if not the violence).

Comments

[ursula]

There have been Islamic cultures where all representative art was frowned upon, on the grounds that it was an attempt to imitate God's creation. There is still a general sense that making any image of the Prophet, complimentary or not, is somewhere between arrogant and sacrilegious. A recent religious animated film about his life didn't show the Prophet at all (instead it showed events from his point of view), and even that made some people nervous.

Combine that with a general sense that American values are a front for American imperialism, and, uh, yeah.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I hadn't thought of it that way, but it starts to explain the intensity of reaction.

Icarus

[ursula]

In Europe I think this picks up on the same anger about the status of immigrants that fueled the riots in France a few months ago . . .