WARNING: BEFORE READING THIS POST: IT CONTAINS CARTOONS WITH RIDICULE OF THE HOLOCAUST AND HOLOCAUST-DENIAL, SOME VERY GRAPHIC. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
HOWEVER, IT CONTAIN NO CARTOONS TO INSULT THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD, AS TO NOT INSULT ANY POTENTIAL MUSLIM READER, BUT ONLY HISTORICAL PICTURES MADE BY MUSLIMS.
Early Islamic artwork with Prophet Muhammad, covered with a veil to hide the face (to prevent idolatry) on the night journey.
This personal denial of my freedom to speech (to not show pictures of Muhammad-cartoons), I have done simply to not “pour gasoline” at an conflict that is already so vicious that it cause the death of humans every day in such as gruesome way, that we have to go back to the Middle-Ages to even begin to compare it. I want this blog to remain as neutral and objective as possible, not taking sides, but presenting facts as best I can.
I have also chosen to do this deliberately and perhaps provocative, to show the contradiction in the deep conflict of morals and cultural values, where it is considered by most Muslims to be an indescribable and blasphemous wrongdoing to draw mocking depictions of Muhammad, while mass-murdering civilians as a revenge is considered completely legitimate, by Muslim Terrorists.
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Iran chose to arrange a cartoon competition about the Holocaust, as a answer to the Western insistence that news and satire in whatever form is considered part of the freedom of speech, and a cornerstone of Democracy, something that can’t be bargained with. This was done to test the boundaries of the west and free speech.
The choice of the Holocaust however, as an answer to an alleged insult against Muhammad, didn’t seem to make much sense. Why not a cartoon contest against Democracy, Christianity or something else that might seem bigoted when compared to the west and free speech. There would be plenty to find.Most recently “Operation Iraqi Freedom” with the US coming with “democracy and liberty”, but really just had their own interests in mind and made a chaos that perhaps will last generations, as a result.
Here are just some examples of the cartoons of International Holocaust Cartoon Contest
(Click pictures to enlarge)
From the top to bottom, many classic anti-Semitic concept, such as Jews wanting to take over the world, is controlling money, media. That Europe gave Palestine to the Jews because of the Holocaust, that the Holocaust didn’t happen, and the Jews are using this Holocaust-hoax and anti-Semitic complaints to get away with everything and the whole world is being tricked by them. Elaborate conspiracy theories where Jews are behind horrible things in the world, even taking part in the ISIS massacre in Paris. All of it is also very similar to Neo-Nazi and Nazi propaganda. Those that want to see more of this can click the link above the pictures.
The winner of the contest were Abdellah Derkaoui:
Here the point seem to be Israel using this Holocaust(-hoax) as an for the infamous wall (that is mostly fence), and now not just defending borders, but threatening the Dome of the Rock. It’s a common belief that the Jews will tear down the Dome on the Rock and the Al-Aqusa Mosque and build a temple (conspiracies also say there were never any templettttttttttttttttt
Also the western world didn’t have any reaction comparable to Muslims at all, but it rather angered Jews in Israel, specially those that had been part of the Holocaust themselves, after 6 million Jews, where 1 million were children, had perished barely a generation ago, in the hand of the Nazi-Regime of Germany, and Iran and several many in Middle-Eastern countries denies that the Holocaust ever happened, despite overwhelming historic data, in both written form, alive Nazi-members and Jewish holocaust survivors, in pictures and on film. However the Jews, like the rest of the Democratic culture in the West didn’t react as the Muslims did.
This is an obvious clash of civilizations, between the Judaeo-Christian West and the Muslim East.
It began however with an innocent and respectful wish for an Danish Author to write a children’s book, explaining the Muslim faith to children of the multi-cultural society in Denmark, called “Koranen og profeten Muhammeds liv” (The Qur’an and the Life of Prophet Muhammad).
However, unlike other children’s books about religion or other topics, it’s normal to use drawings and pictures to illustrate the book and make it more interesting for the children, like Jesus in bible stories for Children. This proved to be a challenge, so the newspaper Jyllands Posten picked up on the story and had a contest to see if anyone dared to make illustrations of Muhammad, and several cartoonists did submit cartoons that were posted in Jyllands Posten.
HERE’S THE ORIGINAL 1-PAGE IN THE NEWSPAPER (WARNING TO MUSLIMS THAT DON’T WANT TO SEE IT)
Among many peaceful imagines, and some silly mocking the leader of the magazine, the most inflammatory image was probably the drawing by Kurt Westergaard with a bearded man with an bomb in his turban, with “There’s no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet” written on the bomb.
Westergaard have to live in protection until today.
When this news began to spread in the Middle-East, there were also added a picture that was completely unrelated to the news-page in Jyllands Posten, something used by by two imams living in Denmark enraged by the news, and spread it in visits to the Middle-East as “evidence” that people in Denmark were an extremely anti-Islamic people, and helped spread the unrest and often violent demonstrations.
The picture were in reality from France, during the La Pourcailhade (Festival of the Pig),a pig festival held each year in August in the town of Trie-sur-Baïse, in south-western France. It was first held in 1975 and is organised by La Confrérie du Cochon or the Brotherhood of the Pig. The festival involves displays, pig races, eating contests and other competitions.
The forgery spread to the Islamic world had written “Her er det rigtige billede af Muhammed” (This is the picture of Muhammad). Obviously it must have been made by the two imams themselves, thus calling the Prophet of Islam a pig, to draw attention to the far less inflammatory pictures in the news. It doesn’t look much like an news article to me.
From “the festival of the pig”, held each year in France, with a person taking part in the “pig squealing contest”, to try to sound like young and old pigs.
This can perhaps be compared to the massacre in Deir Yassin, by Israeli forces, that were reported on the Arab news as far more horrible then it was. The witnesses, some alive today saw homes where the soldiers threw in grenades at men shooting from windows, and several men were shot outside the village, before being stopped by other, religious Jews. But on the Radio they said things like children being slaughtered and pregnant women raped, something that scared the Arabs that it caused the exodus of almost half of Palestinians, that never was allowed to return.
In the same way, this extra “Danish” insult, most certainly made the protests become more violent by Imams telling in mosques about the Frenchman with the plastic pig nose, as something the Danes had done as a clear insult.
“Danebrog”, the Danish Flag being burnt in Muslim demonstration.
The comparison with Deir Yassin is that since the demonstrations went so out of control, instead of the political debate it had started with, because ordinary Danish didn’t know much about Islam. Then, because the demonstrations seemed widely out of proportions and totally non-understandable Europe. So Arabs in general was more seen at as dangerous extremists, and in order for the democratic culture with it’s free speech to overcome this religious fanaticism, the amount of cartoons mocking Islam virtually exploded.
This started a circle, like a wheel, that have been going on until today, with increasing intensity. There’s been burning of Korans, wars with bombing of mosques, and now the top republican leader in the election for the new President of America is saying the country and mosques will be closed if he become president, after the Paris massacre, followed by another massacre against the cartoon-magazine Charlie Hebdo, then the California massacre.
“Those that scream loudest get heard” we say in my country, meaning that attention is given to the most extreme, because of those that have fanned the steadily growing conflict. For example attention given to Islamist Extremist, instead of the 99.99% probably sitting at home, and Politicians that promise the most Machiavellian measures against the extremists. So groups like ISIS is rampant in the Middle-East by now, because of this turning wheel, and most countries from the West is providing Jet-planes and bombs. Muslims have also been divided in violent attacks against each other.
And all this started because of a friendly Danish author that wanted his children and because of the Muslims in his children’s school-class, wanted to make a book that explained Islam better.
Image of and unveiled Prophet Muhammad sold on the streets of Iran in the 1990’s.
The Clash of Civilizations 