I Must Not Draw Mohammed
Check out this cartoon—mentioned on NPR this AM, all over the web, up on AndrewSullivan.com…
The hand of a cartoonist—at least I presume the hand represents the cartoonist—is writing “I must not draw Mohammed” over and over again. And he’s creating an image of Mohammed with those words, all under the watchful eye of a cleric who has taken up residence in his pencil. It’s brilliant.
The political cartoon was published on the front page of Le Monde, a lefty daily in France. As Sullivan says…
This is the perfect response, it seems to me, to the intimidation of the press in Europe.It describes what Islamism is trying to do: threaten those who want to discuss and debate the intersection of fundamentalism and politics, the clash between freedom and faith. That the leftist paper, Le Monde, would publish this could be a sign that Europe is beginning to stand up again for the principles for which the West stands: tolerance, sure; faith, yes; freedom of speech: non-negotiable.
More death threats are, no doubt, on their way.
UPDATE: Gotta love this quote in the NYT piece about the controversy…
“We are angry — very, very, very angry,” said the legislator, Jamila al-Shanty. “No one can say a bad word about our prophet.”
To which I say: Fuck Mohammed. And Jesus too—fuck him. And while we’re fucking, let’s fuck L. Ron Hubbard and Joseph Smith and David Koresh and the Rev. Moon and Bhudda. Fuck ‘em all.
Dan,
Great writing! I totally agree! I have a cot waiting for you in my bunker at the, "undisclosed" location in Birmingham. Hurry, we just got a preview DVD of "Memoirs of a Geisha," and I want to watch it tonight!
Salman