It all started with a Danish paper publishing what was suppose to be humour (theirs) depicting the Prophet Mohammad (I hope I spelt it correctly) as a suicide bomber. There were apparently several cartoons published.
This caused protests from the muslim community from different parts of the world which include Beirut, Syria, etc...A few days ago, 2 NZ papers (Dominion Post and The Press) and 2 TV channels (TV One and TV3) published/shown the cartoons as part of a news story. This caused protests on Sunday on Queen Street. Hundreds of local Muslims marched down Queen Street to protest against it's publication in NZ.
Personally I do not think there is anything wrong with this if the cartoons were shown as part of a news story telling people what happened overseas. Kinda like this..."This is what is happening overseas and it is caused by this cartoon... ". Now what is wrong with that? The media here in NZ did not have any malicious intent of blasphemy or insulting the local Muslim community. I think the local community over-reacted by claiming so.
The publishing of the cartoon was no different to the publishing of the Virgin Mary in a Condom a while back. Now that caused some protests from the local Catholic community but they did not protest against the media but against the artist who created it. Why can't the local Muslim community see it the same way? I do not know...
The arguments are that the media have the right to free speech - which is what it is all about in NZ. Free speech does not mean you can insult or defame people - this is true and it is certainly not the case here.
Overseas, the Muslim community have burnt Danish flags and even their embassies - to be honest, in doing so they are not helping themselves. They claim that Islam is peaceful - sure. Most religions claim they are peaceful. But if they are to go around protesting with placards with words "beheading..." or go on and burning other people's properties, that is hardly peaceful at all. At least the protest here in NZ is not voilent. That seems to be in keeping with the said peaceful Islam teachings.
Here is the latest (today's news) on the cartoon issue in NZ. Muslim countries are now threatening to cancel trade with NZ just because the media is doing their job. Very childish and misled I think they are.
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From Godzilla's email post:
NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday described the cartoons' publication as "gratuitous".
"New Zealand press is free and politicians don't say what the press can print and what it can't. It is a question of judgement and I don't think myself either the publication, nor the reaction to it, do anything to bring communities and faiths together here or around the world."
Encouraging violence as well as cancelling economic contracts are too far but would you really expect western countries to just apologise to muslims if such protests did not happen? It's bad enough for muslims worldwide to get picked on at present, insulting them with 'offensive' cartoons is like adding salt to the wound. So I totally agree with Helen Clark.
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