I usually don't cover political issues on this blog unless they deal with chocolate cities, but this whole business with the Mohammed Cartoon War has struck a chord with me, because dammit, I'm a cartoonist.
Naturally I wanted to see what all the rhubarb was about, so I went to Google image search and typed in 'mohammed caricature.' Instead of yielding the said caricature, the search brought up a bunch of photos of angry people, including this guy:
Though it may be a little funny, this is not a caricature, as least not the one I was looking for. So I specified a little more, and eventually found the offending cartoon. Can I run this here? Aw, hell with it:
That's it? This is what people are dying over? It isn't even funny. And it's not like anyone actually uses those big, round, Looney-Toon bombs anymore. But this is what bugs me about political/editorial cartoons. There is a golden rule that goes like this: if you want to piss someone off, draw a diety and then throw in something offensive, like, say, drugs or prostitutes or bombs. So this guy does it, and then gets a whole shitload of joke-validation from the people he set out to offend. "How dare you show a bomb in the hat of our lord!! We will...uh...bomb you!!"
But it's not just the bomb that dropped this proverbial...uh, bomb. The word of the day is iconoclasm, kids, such as what went down in the Byzantine days. It's written in stone somewhere (and I think it actually is) that the Prophet Mohammed's "lifeless image" cannot be depicted anywhere, be it in paintings, statues, or crappy cartoons. So what happens if a non-Muslim scribbles out a drawing of the prophet (sporting a bomb) and gets the drawing published in several newspapers? Well, this:
Is this how religions are supposed to work? At times like this I remember when I went to see the Dalai Llama in Portland, and he was all "Peace and compassion. Let's all just tolerate and celebrate. Love your brothas and sistas. Aaaww yeeeeaah." Then he ate some candy. Really.
....So anyway, to get back at the offenders, an Iranian newspaper is taking entries for their 12 best holocaust cartoons contest. You see the reasoning here; if free speech means they can offend us, then we can offend them, hee hee, ha ha, taste of your own medicine, how do you like it, let's all get pissed at each other, you got SERVED, take that, etc etc...
I guess I can see their point, but the holocaust? Are they comparing Mohammed to atrocities commited by the Nazis? Let me see if I have their equation right:
the Prophet Mohammed + looney toon bomb + publishing = pissed off us
so
atrocities commited by the Nazis - looney toon bomb + publishing = pissed off you guys
And just for fun...
+ 
= 
So about the cartoon contest, I can see how it would yield instant offense, but I think I would have approached it differently. Why not just have a Jesus cartoon contest? I mean, diety = diety kind of makes more sense than diety = dead people. Hell, you could probably come up with some pretty poignant cartoons, too. I've got one: President Bush and Tony Blair are loading a massive rail gun, and Jesus is behind Bush handing him a huge bullet that has "Texas brand righteousness" written on the side. There - I just succeeded in offending the west. And I didn't have to shoot anybody.
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