Cultural Terrorism, Not Freedom of Expression

Submitted by Malik Basharat(MBA) Pakistan (Pakistan), Feb 14, 2006 at 06:09

It was outrageous and completely unethical to publish these cartoons. Because it's cultural terrorism, not freedom of expression. The repercussions of such irresponsible acts will have adverse impact on international relations.

If someone insults your family then that is something you take very seriously, but this is worse than that - this is the Prophet, who is higher than all of us. Shops here are removing Danish products from their shelves. We're right to boycott - it's the only peaceful way we can retaliate.

Arabs and Muslims also are calling for a boycott of Danish foods, including popular cream cheese, butter and cookie brands. Arla said the boycott of its products in the Middle East was almost total.

"Sales have come to a standstill in almost all markets," said Jens Refslund, the foods production division manager. Arla Foods has $430 million in annual sales in the Middle East and about 1,000 employees in the region.

One of Iran's popular daily newspapers has started the international competition asking people to submit cartoons about the Holocaust, the Nazi genocide against the Jews in World War II.

Iranian newspaper Hamshahri says it wants to test the limits of Western freedom of speech. According to Hamshahri, they have already received several cartoons, including one from Mr. Leunig. The terms of the competition are that anyone can email or post up to three cartoons each before May 5 on the theme of the Holocaust.

The title of the contest is "The Boundaries of Western Freedom of Speech," and the Hamshahri newspaper hopes that those European papers that printed cartoons insulting the Prophet Mohammed will also publish the winning cartoons about the Holocaust.
Already a Danish and a French paper have expressed interest in doing this.

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