Funny Pages
By Jan Larson (02/06/06)
With plenty of controversial opinion and hard news presented in the pages of the world’s newspapers, the last place one would expect controversy is in the funny pages.
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed a number of political cartoons in September that depicted the Muslim prophet Muhammad in, shall we say, less than a flattering light. This controversy, unsurprisingly, has grown to monumental proportions after a number of other European papers, plus one Jordanian paper, also ran one or more of the cartoons.
Washington Post political cartoonist, Tom Toles, joined the not-so-funny funny parade with his depiction of a horribly disfigured soldier being examined by “doctor” Donald Rumsfeld. [1]
With respect to Toles’ “work of art,” the knee-jerk reaction is that it is highly disrespectful to all of those in the armed forces that have sacrificed for their country. In my view, it is certainly not respectful, but is instead simply reflective of Toles’ apparent insensitivity to those that have fought for the freedom that gives him the opportunity to publish tasteless cartoons.
That said, if Toles’ cartoon is examined without the emotion that it evokes, it is clear that Toles is not consciously attempting to be disrespectful to members of the military. His criticism is with Rumsfeld and the administration. This is legitimate criticism.
While Toles may have overlooked the effect on those that identify with the soldier in his cartoon, the fact remains that the purpose of political commentary and political cartoons is to do the very thing that Toles’ cartoon does – evoke an emotional response from the reader/viewer and more importantly, inspire the reader or viewer to think. While Toles obviously has a point of view, agreement with that view is not a requirement for his cartoon to be effective.
On the other hand, the Danish cartoons had absolutely no effect on thought in the Muslim world. There is no thought in the Muslim world, only selective, reactionary rage. Were the cartoons offensive? Offense is in the eye of the beholder of course, but while most of these cartoons would likely be deemed offensive to Muslims, analysis of the offending item is not a prerequisite for many in the Middle East to take to the streets.
It is ironic that Jihad al-Momani, the editor-in-chief of the independent Jordanian newspaper Al-Shihan, explained that he ran the cartoons, “so people know what they are protesting about … People are attacking drawings that they have not even seen.”
This is typical of the reaction to anything even remotely deemed offensive to Muslims in the Middle East. The non-thinking reactionaries cry and stomp their feet like two-year olds with an empty bottle and a dirty diaper.
Are they outraged when their brethren videotape the beheading of innocent people? Are they outraged when suicide bombers kill dozens of civilians? Are they outraged when fellow Muslims fly airplanes into buildings?
Obviously there is a vast gulf between Western culture and the culture of people who take to the streets in protest because they can’t take a joke. Ironically while the Muslim protesters demand that they and their religion be “respected” they show zero respect for anyone and anything else. Palestinian protesters in Ramallah, for instance, chanted, “Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up.” Nice. Don’t like a cartoon? Blow up a country.
This “cartoon caper” is indicative of much more than the fact that the “Muslim street” doesn’t have a sense of humor. It reinforces the reality that there are a lot of people in the Middle East that will never be tolerant or accepting of anything that isn’t consistent with their single-minded, non-thinking, warped view of the world.
While there were plenty of people offending by Toles’ cartoon, I don’t believe one stone was thrown, one flag burned and no country threatened with annihilation. The respective reactions to these cartoons highlight the vast differences between Western culture and those of the Middle East and are instructive in revealing how radical Islamic terrorists view Western ideals of tolerance and the respect for other viewpoints, as if further instruction was actually necessary.
[1] http://tinyurl.com/7ze8c
Copyright ©2006 Jan A. Larson All rights reserved.
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