While I am writing this, the Middle East is ablaze with burning offices of European Institutions, flags and Christian churches.
Except for the BBC (screenshot from 10:30h German time this morning):
But... oh wait! isn't there a small link? Oh yes there is! Q&A: The Muhammad cartoons row!
A real gem, which, being generous, I'd like to share with you in extracts:
"Many Muslims say that the cartoons - one of which shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped - are extremely and deliberately offensive, expressing a growing European hostility towards and fear of Muslims. The portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad and Muslims in general as terrorists is seen as particularly offensive."
Yes, who would have thought so? I am, once again, reminded of The Onion's stroke of genius, the prophetic satire about the "Crazed Palestinian Gunman Angered by Stereotypes" (from 1997, mind you!):
HEBRON, WEST BANK — In an emotionally charged press conference Monday, crazed Palestinian gunman Faisal al Hamad expressed frustration over the stereotyping of his people.
"As a crazed Palestinian gunman, I feel hurt by the negative portrayal of my people in the media," said al Hamad, 31, a Hebron-area terrorist maniac. "None of us should have to live with stereotyping and ignorance."
He then began screaming and firing into a busload of Israeli schoolchildren.
"It hurts that in this supposedly enlightened day and age, people still make assumptions about other people," al Hamad said. "We should not rely on simple generalizations. Each crazed Palestinian gunman is an individual."
To avoid any confusion, this is the end of satire. Back to real life and the Beeb's cute little Chamberlainisms: Some Muslims see the cartoons as an attack on their faith and culture designed to sow hatred.
Do they? Who would have thought so?
Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits images of Allah, Muhammad and all the major figures of the Christian and Jewish traditions.
No it doesn’t. That is just another Chamberlainism from and a cooly calculated lie from the other side to incite a showdown with the West.
Has Muslim reaction to the cartoons been uniform?
Not at all - some Muslims have accused protesters of overreacting.
A weekly newspaper in Jordan reprinted some of the cartoons and urged Muslims to "be reasonable".
Yes. One single, lonely newspaper in a sea of hatred. Kudos to the editor! And by the way, he lost his job (and probably not JUST his job) for that.
Has anything like this happened before?
Culture clashes of this kind are not new.
Yes right. Burning European flags, embassies and Christian churches in the Middle East are an everyday sight for decades now. Everything (but EVERYthing!) not to upset the readers, right? Otherwise, they might get a hint of what is really going on.
A specifically vile bit of cultural relativism is reported by Melanie Phillipps. In the BBC2 TV programme The Dream of Rome, Boris Johnson, notabene the Tories' higher education spokesman, compared the Christians, who martyred themselves for their faith under the Romans, with contemporary Islamist suicide bombers.
And as if the Beeb itself weren't bad enough by itself, in the Al Guardian, a hack named John Plunkett is making an idiot of himself by explaining why the Beeb is apologising for cartoons it didn’t even publish:
"BBC News executives have apologised for any offence they caused by showing the controversial Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad - but said the corporation had stopped short of using "excessively offensive" images.
UK national newspapers decided not to publish the cartoons, which were originally printed in a Danish newspaper and sparked angry protests by Muslims in London, the Middle East and Asia over the weekend."
John, Boris, all you other hacks at the Beeb and the Al Guardian: You can deny that this is a calculatingly provoked showdown to test the West’s resilience and backbone until you are green in the face: They will cut off your heads NEVERTHELESS! And if they don’t manage to, it was damn well not YOUR doing!
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