Danish Cartoon Outragegate Explained
I've been unsatisfied with the standard explanation for the Danish cartoon brouhaha. "Muslims won't tolerate drawings of Mohammed" vs "Muslims have been drawing Mohammed for centuries" seemed ridiculous and missing some large crucial point. I finally got what might be it - if not "the straight story" - at least a plausiable, sufficiently explanatory story that puts the whole thing into better perspective.
mrvetinari lays one explanation out here. dailykos has another explanation which seems to supplement rather than contradict the first. In late 2005 Danish imams Ahmed Abu Laban and Ahmed Akkari compiled a 43 page dossier which included not only the 12 Danish cartoons but several pages of blatant forgeries. I've been able to reconstruct the entire document here. About a month ago the religious officials in Saudi Arabia were looking very bad after a trampling at the Hajj as a result of poor planning by the Saudi government. 350 pilgrims dying this year is more outrageous when 251 died in 2004 in the same place at the same time for the same reason. DailyKos claims that Saudi muslims grabbed this story and astroturfed a big public protest (remember the protest signs written in the same handwriting?) that gave the Muslim world an external enemy while thrusting two formerly obscure Danish imams into the world spotlight and leaving the 350-pilgrim trampling story conveniently forgotten.
"Muslims just going Apeshit again" is not the real story here. Muslims worldwide are being misled, by a fabrication, intentionally spread by one delegation, that is doing everything in its power to keep this fire burning.
There's an interview with Abu Laban on NPR this morning. He seems pretty pleased with how this has turned out, delicately sidestepping the question of the forgeries he's been pushing.
Danish comics: http://monkeydyne.com/photos/?d=danish_comics
The complete Akkari/Laban dossier: http://monkeydyne.com/photos/?d=akkari_dossier
mrvetinari lays one explanation out here. dailykos has another explanation which seems to supplement rather than contradict the first. In late 2005 Danish imams Ahmed Abu Laban and Ahmed Akkari compiled a 43 page dossier which included not only the 12 Danish cartoons but several pages of blatant forgeries. I've been able to reconstruct the entire document here. About a month ago the religious officials in Saudi Arabia were looking very bad after a trampling at the Hajj as a result of poor planning by the Saudi government. 350 pilgrims dying this year is more outrageous when 251 died in 2004 in the same place at the same time for the same reason. DailyKos claims that Saudi muslims grabbed this story and astroturfed a big public protest (remember the protest signs written in the same handwriting?) that gave the Muslim world an external enemy while thrusting two formerly obscure Danish imams into the world spotlight and leaving the 350-pilgrim trampling story conveniently forgotten.
"Muslims just going Apeshit again" is not the real story here. Muslims worldwide are being misled, by a fabrication, intentionally spread by one delegation, that is doing everything in its power to keep this fire burning.
There's an interview with Abu Laban on NPR this morning. He seems pretty pleased with how this has turned out, delicately sidestepping the question of the forgeries he's been pushing.
Danish comics: http://monkeydyne.com/photos/?d=danish_comics
The complete Akkari/Laban dossier: http://monkeydyne.com/photos/?d=akkari_dossier