So, have you seen any interesting cartoons lately? The lower of the two cartoons on the opposite page is an illustrative comment about the controversy surrounding cartoons, initially published in Denmark, that depicted the prophet Mohammed.
Twelve in all, the cartoons first appeared in September. Some, but not all, depicted the prophet in unflattering light, in one case with a bomb in his turban. Besides the inflammatory nature of this terrorist characterization, it is against the tenets of Islam to depict the prophet in any way, shape or form.
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Riots and death threats have since been orchestrated in Europe and parts of Asia by Muslim extremists, so now these cartoons are big news. Few Western newspapers and broadcasters have published them.
When the cartoons were first e-mailed to the Producer a few weeks ago, news about the Muslim objections and protests had barely reached the national media. We were embroiled in the news of agriculture, not Islam, so I didn’t initially recognize the cartoons for what they were. I saw caricatures of men wearing turbans. One simply showed a man leading a donkey under a blazing sun. There was no context. I hit “delete.”
By now, the cartoons are fairly easy to find on the internet, if one is inclined to seek them. It may be hard to understand the outrage of extremists without seeing the cartoons, but for those of us unschooled in Muslim beliefs, it’s equally as difficult to understand after seeing them.
Certainly cartoons have their own power to amuse, to enrage, to satirize. I’m reminded of the time the Producer published a cartoon depicting the plight of starving children in Africa.
“Do you people actually find that funny?” asked an irate reader, repeatedly. Of course we don’t, I said, repeatedly. As we talked, it became clear the reader viewed editorial cartoons as comics with the sole intent to amuse, rather than as satirical depictions of situations that educate by giving us different perspectives, amusing or otherwise.
There has been great political fallout resulting from the Mohammed cartoons, and part of it is debate over freedom of expression. Should Western media publish this material? It is a thorny question that requires the weighing of press freedom against self-censorship against the possibility of inciting bigotry against the public right to know against, yes, the question of extremists’ reprisals.
In the Producer, we’ll stick to our mandate by giving priority to cartoons that depict agricultural and Canadian issues. So you won’t see the Danish cartoons here. Is that good sense or merely justifiable avoidance? Food for thought, at the very least.
