Re: Marcus' Cartoon Riots

Given the blind eye of the American media on this one, I'm afraid editors like those at the Chicago Trib would shrug at the omission of any mention of the inflamatory mocked-up caricatures, and say, "fake but accurate."

The BBA is the only place I have read this story.

Labeling the caricatures a stunt may be accurate, but in the Trib's use it was also pejorative. I'm not ready to concede that they're juvenile considering that they are on par for political lampoonery, and the purpose was to show illustrators that they shouldn't be afraid to take work that the imams won't approve of (which is logical and necessary, considering how tight that noose is set to become).

Though we didn't hear about it until the mullahs had fired up the hordes, I consider this a legitimate news story from its inception.

The Islamic leaders are trying to put pressure on Europe, but the tide is turning against them, especially Syria:

On January 19, Jacques Chirac warned that his military would use its nuclear forces to target states that sponsored terrorism against France—El Cid braggadocio that made George Bush’s past Wild West lingo like ‘smoke ‘em out’ and ‘dead or alive’ seem Pollyannaish by comparison. Not long after, it was disclosed that the French and the Americans have coordinated their efforts to keep Syria out of Lebanon and to isolate Bashar Assad’s shaky Syrian regime. And in a recent news conference Donald Rumsfeld and the new German defense minister Franz Josef Jung sounded as if they were once more the old allies of the past, fighting shoulder to shoulder against terrorists who would like to do to Berlin what they did to New York.

[...]

The Dutch suddenly agreed to deploy up to 1,400 troops in the more dangerous regions of southern Afghanistan. That show of fortitude prompted NATO to boast that its European and American forces may soon go on the offensive against many of the most recalcitrant Taliban strongholds.

When a Danish paper was threatened for printing cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, neither the government of Demark nor the usually politically-correct European Union tried to impose censorship in the face of Arab boycotts, rioting, and not-so-veiled threats to make life difficult for Scandinavians. Instead, newspapers all over Europe reprinted the cartoons, ignored Arab threats—only to witness the United States State Department of all governments offer limp-wristed palliatives about cultural sensitivity rather than principled support of the surprising European defense of free expression and speech.