The picture that makes thousands speak (or shout?)

What do you see in the pictures above? Random people may only see pictures of random guy who looks and dresses funny, but these pictures have actually sparked more than controversy when it was first published in 2005. Denmark's embassy in Damascus had been torched the day before. Effigies of the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, were burned in Turkey, and demonstrations quickly spread from the Middle East to other countries across the Muslim world, including Indonesia, Afghanistan, Somalia, India and Pakistan. Many protests degenerated into riots, and in the resulting clashes with security forces around 450 people were killed, some 800 were injured.( source: ABC). This is actually a compilation of the works of 12 different cartoonists on how they view Mohammed, the Muslim savior. As we can see, most of them are not actually depicting Mohammed at all. There is,however, one picture in particular, that caused the uproar:



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This image touched subjects which are so sensitive, even people would not discuss them in public. The view of the Christian cartoonist towards the Muslim religion, which sadly is how most people prejudiced them, and the depiction of bombs indicating the suicide bombings actions all over the world are may be just too much too handle. There is only one thing that newspapers had not been able to explain, the 5 months gap between the actual publish date and the starting period of the demonstration and legal actions. Is it too much to think that may be, just may be, someone or some groups were behind the incidents, provoking rages and angers to the short-tempered and controlled them like puppets, while staying behind in the shadows.

The cartoonist had even received death threats and said to experienced an actual terrorist attack in his own house. In my opinion though, if Muslim people really want to prove that these people’s depiction of their savior (and them) is wrong, they should not turn right into the violence way. Just a suggestion of an innocent bystander though. :)

 

References:

1. DISSENT: The Cartoon Controversy: A Critique of Islamism, March 2006, viewed on 15 June 2010 at http://www.siliconeer.com/past_issues/2006/march2006.html

2. Flap, 2010, Danish Cartoonist Kurt Westergaards Attacked by Somali Linked to Radical Islamic al-Shabah Militia, viewed on 15 June 2010 at http://flapsblog.com/?s=mohammedcartoons

3. Mares, P 2009. The Cartoons that Shook The World, ABC.net.au