The StuSie: Worst Joke Ever...

Montag, Februar 13, 2006

Worst Joke Ever...

We've all been totally bombarded with non-stop coverage of the now-infamous Danish Muhammad cartoons. I've given it a solid ten days now, and the story just won't go away, so I'm going to throw in my two cents. In fairness, I haven't personally seen these cartoons, but by all accounts they are in bad taste. Anyone in their right mind understands that tension is high between the Muslim world and the West. This should not be news, it has been that way for at least half a decade. Publishing these cartoons was a bad idea. But that was last September. Republishing them since then in six or more newspapers around the world was a monfuckingstrosity of a bad idea. The latest republishing occurring, of

course, in France, a country with a sizeable Muslim population, and as recently as February 1. It boggles the mind to imagine what the editors of these publications were thinking.

Having said all that, THEY'RE CARTOONS. Scandinavians everywhere have managed to avoid shitting themselves with anger and indignation through 20 years of Haggar the Horrible (and he is horrible, in fact most of the cartoons in your average amerikanische Zeitung are pretty damn insulting - I'm looking in your direction Family Circus). For crying out loud, talk about not being able to take a joke, this is off the charts. Demonstrations, protests, rallies, riots, flag burning, embassy burning, trampling, police-clashes, tear gas, death. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of the people involved in these cultural uprisings all over the Muslim world have never seen these cartoons either. A relatively small group has seized this opportunity to incite hatred among populations that are ripe for rebellion. The scale of what has ensued bears no relation to the supposedly triggering event.