For you who don't know, here's what happened.
- The 30th september 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten posted 12 caricatures of the prophet Mohammed along with an article about self-censorship and freedom of speech.
- January 10, 2005, some of the images are reprinted in the Norweigan christian newspaper Magazinet.
- The 26th of january, people in Saudi-Arabia start boycotting Danish products. The Saudi government recalls their ambassador from Denmark.
- January the 29th, Libya closes its embassy in Denmark. The Flag of Denmark is burned in Nablus and Hebron in Palestine. Bahrain and Syria condemns the images. Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement gives Danes, Norwegians and Swedes 48 hours to leave the Gaza Strip.
- 30 January, the Egyptian parliament encourages consumers to boycott Danish products while the Prime Minister of Denmark says that he personally distances himself from the drawings, but reiterates that the government cannot intervene in what the media writes.
- 31 January, the foreign ministers of seventeen Islamic nations renew demands for the Danish government to punish the authors of the cartoons and to "ensure that it doesn't happen again." A bomb threat against Jyllands-Posten leads to evacuation of two offices in Aarhus and Copenhagen.
I'll just sum the rest up:
French, Dutch, German, Spanish, American, Belgian, Swiss, Portugeese, Jordanian and Italian newspaper publish the images shortly after.
Syria recalls it's ambassador from Denmark, alot of protests are held in alot of countries. Flags are burned, situations are worsened, threats are issued.
Timeline from WikiPedia.
My views:/
I think it isn't only because the caricatures ridicule their religion that some muslims (note: Not all muslims do. Most accept this and a majority of them probably doesn't give a crap) react so powerfully to this. You could just say "oh well it happens to christians all the time, look at us", but it isn't really the same.
I believe the Islamic society feel themself to be in something of an inferior position - their religion is under a lot of pressure and ridiculation from all over the world, all the time. The publication of these caricatures add to that feeling of inferiority. Fundamentalists get something more to hate the west for.
But, that said, I don't think they're right to issue boycotts against the publishing nations. It's just stupid, and hurts more than it helps. Also, all this attention from the middle east only helps increase the prejudices against islam and the middleeast.
The danish newspaper might not have been right in publishing these images, but they should be able too - free printing is a foundation in democracy. Dictatorships like Saudi Arabia really shouldn't whine about it.
I'm not sure what to think anymore.
What're your views? Lets try to keep it flamefree please.