Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: xrtoronto on February 11, 2006, 04:51:37 PM
-
Joe Woodard, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, February 11, 2006
Two Calgary-based publications will be among the first in Canada to print controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have sparked riots across the Islamic world and protests in the West.
The Jewish Free Press, going to 2,000 Calgary homes, will be the first, running them in its Feb. 9 issue.
And the Calgary-based Western Standard magazine, with a circulation of 40,000 across Canada, will follow suit in its issue hitting the newsstands late next week.
The Jewish Free Press has the front page headline, "First they came for the cartoonists. . ." together with portraits of Muhammad printed over the last 200 years (including an icon now on sale on the streets of Tehran, Iran).
On page two, the Jewish Free Press has a selection of the Danish cartoons, including the "Muhammad in a bomb-turban" print, now being marketed on T-shirts by the American manufacturer MetroSpy.
"I'm not trying to flaunt the cartoons'' to anger Muslims, said Jewish Free Press publisher Richard Bronstein.
"But, hey folks, surely we have a right to see what this is all about. It's not anti-Muslim or pro-Muslim. We have a duty to be informed, so we can decide whether the cartoons justify all the rampaging around the world."
The Jewish Free Press includes a selection of anti-Semitic cartoons printed in Muslim countries -- like a cartoon of hook-nosed, diabolical Jew tunnelling under Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
Muslims Against Terrorism founder Syed Soharwardy said the Danish cartoons are "completely unacceptable."
Soharwardy said Muslims don't expect the right to stop portraits of Muhammad in western publications, because they are non-Muslim and not under Sharia law.
But these cartoons of the Prophet are deliberately hateful, Soharwardy said, and "insulting faith is not acceptable.
He added: "If I make fun of the Holocaust, is that freedom of speech?"
The Danish cartoons are widely available on the Internet. But when the University of Prince Edward Island student paper tried to print them this week, university security guards seized all their copies.
The Calgary Herald has decided not to publish the drawings.
Late Friday, the president of the Calgary Jewish Community Council released a statement dissociating the council from the independent Jewish Free Press. Nelson Halpern said the council wouldn't have published the cartoons since "they are offensive to Muslims," and the Jewish community itself has so often been "offended by anti-Semitic cartoons which have appeared in Western and Middle Eastern media."
Western Standard publisher Ezra Levant said the mainstream media have refrained from publishing the cartoons "not out of respect for Islam, but out of fear."
"The mainstream media has never shown any respect for religion until now," Levant said.
"They mock Christians and Jews, and they're not afraid of offending them, because they know Christians and Jews won't cut off their heads."
Levant said the cartoons were "the biggest story of the week, and it would be a failure of reporting to do a story about the cartoons without printing them." Second, the cartoons themselves are "relatively innocuous," compared to the mockery Christians and Jews routinely experience from a free press, he said.
link (http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=01953606-1ea7-4db9-933e-3969e6f3dcae&k=22850)
-
the genie isn't going back in the bottle... I wonder where it will all end.
-
Wow, I woner if the world is having a contest to see which country can piss off the most people.
Looks like fun. I wonder if the US will do it next. o.O
-
I think that the Canadians are only doing this because the "official" and repeatedly stated opinion of the US President is that the cartoons were offensive and should not have been printed.
It's ironic that this is the opinion of a fairly small minority of people in the US, but I honestly suspect that President Bush is trying to show some level of mature responsibility on a sensitive issue. But it throws him wide open to charges of hypocrisy and any country who wants to show up the US in even a small way may feel tempted to print the cartoons just to show that they're more "free" than the US under President Bush.
I personally think that radical muslims need to "get over it", but I think they prefer their "right" to kill people whenever they feel offended.
-
t-shirts with "I kill for Cartoons" would sell good this days in muslim countrys.
-
Originally posted by eagl
I think that the Canadians are only doing this because the "official" and repeatedly stated opinion of the US President is that the cartoons were offensive and should not have been printed.
...read the article and/or look at the paper's website...it's ultra right wing and very pro American (much akin to our new Federal Gov.)
Editor said he was printing them because it's the biggest story for a long time and most people haven't even seen what the controversy is even about. He also said that people who don't post them is not out of respect for Islam but simply out of fear. The cartoons to him were 'not that bad'.
(I saw the editor interviewed tonight, and I think he said he was a Muslim himself)
-
Originally posted by Gunthr
the genie isn't going back in the bottle... I wonder where it will all end.
And some of us are wondering when we will see the pictures.
-
Toronto,
You sort of proved my point... The guy said that the real reason people don't want to show the cartoons is fear, not respect. That would mean the US Govt position is based on fear, not respect.
Anyhow, I agree with the dude anyhow. Islamofascists need to get a life that doesn't involve telling others what they can and can not do.
dmf, Here is one source from a google search a couple days after the story broke:
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/sarticle.php?id=12146
There are other sources.
-
Originally posted by eagl
That would mean the US Govt position is based on fear, not respect.
I think he was probably referring to other Canadian papers...none of whom have published any of the cartoons.
As far as the American position: I think it is the best position you could have chosen, given all the circumstances. We will all have to wait and see if any of the US news outlets decide to show them as well. If they do, it would still be against the "official" position, which should clear W, but they would blame the US government anyway.
-
Originally posted by eagl
I think that the Canadians are only doing this because the "official" and repeatedly stated opinion of the US President is that the cartoons were offensive and should not have been printed.
It's ironic that this is the opinion of a fairly small minority of people in the US, but I honestly suspect that President Bush is trying to show some level of mature responsibility on a sensitive issue. But it throws him wide open to charges of hypocrisy and any country who wants to show up the US in even a small way may feel tempted to print the cartoons just to show that they're more "free" than the US under President Bush.
I personally think that radical muslims need to "get over it", but I think they prefer their "right" to kill people whenever they feel offended.
The only thing that i find immensely offensive is the fact that by a wave of his finger our executive has convinced about 2,000 print media venues to decline to show the cartoons. I believe that to date only 6 american papers.. all small independents (the last 6 free papers in america?).. have printed any of 'em.
Odd that papers that have the reputation to print anything to sell papers haven't printed the cartoons.
Scary odd.
-
It's ironic that this is the opinion of a fairly small minority of people in the US, but I honestly suspect that President Bush is trying to show some level of mature responsibility on a sensitive issue. But it throws him wide open to charges of hypocrisy and any country who wants to show up the US in even a small way may feel tempted to print the cartoons just to show that they're more "free" than the US under President Bush.
Like I have said before, and probably been ignored by you, there is no other country in the world that has more people in direct contact with Muslims then the United States.
Currently we have pissed off many many muslims in the middle east for freeing the people and giving them choice. Imagine how pissed off they would be if ***WE*** insulted their prophet. That is not a road we will walk down no matter what while we are bringing freedom to the middle east.
-
Originally posted by Hangtime
The only thing that i find immensely offensive is the fact that by a wave of his finger our executive has convinced about 2,000 print media venues to decline to show the cartoons. I believe that to date only 6 american papers.. all small independents (the last 6 free papers in america?).. have printed any of 'em.
Odd that papers that have the reputation to print anything to sell papers haven't printed the cartoons.
Scary odd.
I was gonna post Hang, but you pretty much covered it.
-
The world is getting more stupid every day.
-
i like the one where the bomber is told "stop, we're out of virgins"
-
Yep hang.... I'm with you. This is scary odd or.. If you are a cynic... you would believe that the press is a bunch of lying buffoons that only pront stories with an agenda.
lazs
-
Originally posted by Hangtime
The only thing that i find immensely offensive is the fact that by a wave of his finger our executive has convinced about 2,000 print media venues to decline to show the cartoons. ...
Its as though he said "5- Flamebaiting, trolling, or posting to incite or annoy is not allowed." although in his case it is a non-binding suggestion.
-
They have printed them today:
Western Canadian magazine publishes Muhammad cartoons
Last Updated Mon, 13 Feb 2006 12:00:28 EST
CBC News
The publisher of an Alberta-based political magazine is defending his decision to publish controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, saying Western media have been cowed into fear.
Ezra Levant of the Western Standard told CBC Newsworld that he published the dozen cartoons in Monday's edition because they are "the central fact in the largest news story of the month.
"I'm doing something completely normal. I'm publishing the centre of a controversy. That's what news magazines do."
The cartoons, published in September in Denmark and reprinted in other European papers in recent weeks, have outraged the Muslim world, setting off protests and boycotts of Danish products in several countries.
Islamic tradition prohibits any depiction of the Prophet, even a respectful one, on the grounds that it could promote idolatry.
The caricatures include a drawing of Muhammad wearing a headdress shaped like a bomb. Another shows him saying that paradise was running short of virgins for suicide bombers.
Most media in Canada and the United States have refused to publish the cartoons. But Levant dismissed the notion that the decision is based on respect for Islam, saying the real reason is "out of fear."
He said news organizations are more than willing to publish items that Christians find offensive because Christians only react by writing a letter to the editor.
"They don't bomb embassies and behead journalists," Levant said.
"Don't tell me the CBC respects religion. It's afraid of one religion."
The Western Standard has a circulation of 40,000 and publishes every two weeks.
Levant, who described the cartoons as "innocuous," said he would run cartoons about the Holocaust if Jews were burning embassies in response.
"We're not publishing them for their editorial merits. They're boring cartoons, they're bland. We're not running them because we share their views.
"We're running them because they're the central fact that caused radical Muslims around the world to riot."
Mohamed Elmasry, leader of the Canadian Islamic Congress, told the Globe and Mail that his organization will seek to have charges laid against the magazine under Canada's laws against distributing hate literature.
"It's unfortunate," said Elmasry, who had urged Levant not to republish the images. "I think he really goes against the will and the values of Canadians by this provocative action."
source (http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/02/13/cartoons060213.html)