Comic Relief

I sure could use some, couldn't you?

Let's round out the picture before we call it a day on this - shall we?

From Rantings of a Sandmonkey:

Freedom For Egyptians reminded me why the cartoons looked so familiar to me: they were actually printed in the Egyptian Newspaper Al Fagr back in October 2005. I repeat, October 2005, during Ramadan, for all the egyptian muslim population to see, and not a single squeak of outrage was present. Al Fagr isn't a small newspaper either: it has respectable circulation in Egypt, since it's helmed by known Journalist Adel Hamoudah...

You can see a scanned copy of the actual Al Fagr front page there as well - check it out.

And in keeping with the Pay No Attention To the Man Behind the Turban theme, Sandmonkey adds this:

Now while the arab islamic population was going crazy over the outrage created by their government's media over these cartoons, their governments was benifitting from its people's distraction. The Saudi royal Family used it to distract its people from the outrage over the Hajj stampede. The Jordanian government used it to distract its people from their new minimum wage law demanded by their labor unions. The Syrian Government used it to create secterian division in Lebanon and change the focus on the Harriri murder. And, finally, the Egyptian government is using it to distract us while it passes through the new Judiciary reforms and Social Security Bill- which will cut over $300 million dollars in benefits to some of Egypt's poorest families. But, see, the people were not paying attention, because they were too busy defending the prophet by sending out millions of e-mails and SMS-messages, boycotting cheese and Lego and burning Butter and the danish Flag.

The BBC finally cops to the fact that the Danish Imams took liberties with the Jylands-Posten cartoons, although you have to scroll WAY down in the article to find it.

Twelve cartoons were originally published by Jyllands-Posten. None showed the Prophet with the face of a pig. Yet such a portrayal has circulated in the Middle East (The BBC was caught out and for a time showed film of this in Gaza without realizing it was not one of the 12).

This picture, a fuzzy grey photocopy, can now be traced back (suspicion having been confirmed by an admission) to a delegation of Danish Muslim leaders who went to the Middle East in November to publicise the cartoons. The visit was organised by Abu Laban, a leading Muslim figure in Denmark.


According to the Danish paper Ekstra Bladet, the delegation took along a pamphlet showing the 12 drawings. But the delegation also showed a number of other pictures, including the "pig" one. The delegation claimed they were the sort of insults that Muslims in Denmark had to endure. These also got into circulation.

The NY Press decides not to show the cartoons and staffmembers walk the plank.

A college professor in Dubai gets the ax (oops I mean fired - bad choice of words)for showing the cartoons.

Unfunny. Four killed in Afghanistan due to funnies

Pieces of Hate: This from Reuters:

A Taliban commander was reported on Wednesday as offering a bounty of 100 kg of gold to anyone who killed one of the cartoonists who drew the controversial pictures.

The commander, Mullah Dadullah, also offered 5 kg of gold to anyone who killed a Danish, Norwegian or German soldier in Afghanistan, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported.

And in other outrage news:

Koran found in Pakistani Sewer; Riots Ensue.

American Citizen in Cahoots with Zarqawi.

The NY Times deigns to delve into the Mecca confab (Mohammedpalooza)that orchestrated the Arab Street outrage. At last.