The story of a Cartoon

Consider this. A half-witted editor of a Danish newspaper publishes a series of cartoons depicting Islam’s intolerant nature by drawing Prophet Mohammad. The cartoons itself were in a bad taste. These cartoons were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten on September 30th last year. The drawings, including a depiction of Muhammad with a bomb inside or under his turban, were accompanied by an article on self-censorship and freedom of speech. The outrage has been caused by the fact that drawing or depicting a physical image of the Prophet is against Islamic law.

There was not much which was said and written about when the article was published. If you do a google search on this topic you would find that all the ruckus was started by Saudi Arabia sometime in January (a clear few months after the incident). If one looks closely one would notice that this outburst by the Islamic governments in the middle east against the Danish newspaper coincided with the report of another stampede in the Haj where around 345 people were killed.

Syria and Egypt also reacted sharply after the Saudi outburst. Syrian and Egyptian governments are considered to be the most secular in the region. But in recent times there have been an increasing pressure on the respective governments. Many in these countries were looking for a more Islamic centered alternative.

Also another important point is the Hamas victory in Palestine. Hamas is considered as a radical Islamic outfit by many including many of the governments in the Middle East. Parties like Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are increasingly taking advantage of the failures of such governments.

So the governments found an excellent excuse to divert the attention of it’s people and also the world to a supposedly “serious offense”. Arab governments seem to have taken the cartoons so seriously because they were afraid of being outflanked by groups like Hamas among others.

What followed was the boycotting of Danish goods, withdrawing of ambassadors, burning of the Danish flag, unconditional apologies, sacking of the editors, articles after articles deploring the cartoons etc

The effect of this astounding reaction was so immense that everybody has forgotten about the stampede in Haj, which has the potential to really cast a shadow on the efficacy of the Saudi Government to manage Haj.

The cartoons became a tool to make a political point and also to divert attention till the time another blasphemous act is carried out by the Infidels of the world.

Till then enjoy the drama!