Cartoon protests

Submitted by Gabriel Grosso (Italy), Feb 14, 2006 at 11:17

Like I have said before, if those twelve Danish cartoons had been about Jesus Christ, nothing would have happened. If the Bible had been mocked, nothing would have happened. If the objects of ridicule had been Catholics, Jews or Protestants, nothing would have happened. I have said these things nicely in my previous messages and made sure I didn't offend anyone. Now, the longer this cartoon-controversy, the more people are likely to get frustrated about it.

European authorities have issued their most sincere apologies and that was not enough. Considering that the Middle-East is not economically self-sufficient, the threat of an economic boycott against European goods is not realistic. In any case, newspapers in some Middle-Eastern countries often make fun of other religions, especially Jews.

I am not going to change the way I relate to Middle-Easterns and will always treat everybody the same. But I suspect that the Europeans are getting tired of this non-issue. If a mistake was made, then we should apologize. But these protests have been going on for too long. If people in the Middle East want to boycott Coca-Cola, that is their choice. If they want to boycott the Barbie doll, that is also their choice. I am not a conservative, I am not right-wing and I am not Islamophobic. And yet, even I feel frustrated about this. Can you imagine how the average European feels?

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