the architech

now, I don't really pay attention to the news cause it just depresses me, but my poli sci roomates just informed me of all this crazyness going on in the Middle East. This is all I know from what my roommate told me so I don't know exactly how true it all is, but it sounds pretty intense:

someone in Europe (I think he said Denmark) published a political cartoon depicting Mohamed, Mohamed was big on never being depicted falsely or idolized. so the Muslims are freaking out and meanwhile newspapers all over Europe continue printing the cartoons against the wishes of their respective governments because, hey, it's freedom of press. the Middle East is now boycotting economic transactions with a bunch of countries. several embasies have been burned. apparently the president of Iran is holding a conference on how the Holocaust never happened.

sounds likesome crazy shit is going on. like, brink of WW3 kind of shit. I'm pretty surprised that nobody on any of the forums I post on is talking about this. it's a weird situation, like I'm cool with feedom of press, but for reasons of international peace why the fuck would you continue printing this cartoon?

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Radical Reconstruction

No Typical Raver

iranian papers are planning retaliations via cartoons about the holocaust. now thats just fucked up

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King of the Hullaboard as voted by my peers.

itsgigglegirl

Hamas joins call for calm in cartoon row

1 hour, 15 minutes ago

DOHA (AFP) - The radical Palestinian group Hamas joined voices for calm in the international furore sparked by cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, as a Taliban commander in
Afghanistan said 100 suicide bombers were lined up on the side of further violence.
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Hamas "is prepared to play a role in calming the situation between the Islamic world and Western countries on condition that these countries commit themselves to putting an end to attacks against the feelings of Muslims," the organisation's leader Khaled Meshaal told a news conference.

His conciliatory tone came a day after he warned the Western press was "playing with fire" by publishing the cartoons which have led to riots around the world.

As Muslim protests over the cartoons subsided on Thursday a Taliban commander in Afghanistan warned that 100 militants have enlisted as suicide bombers and Denmark said it feared for the safety of its troops in
Iraq.

Mullah Dadullah, one of the Taliban's most senior military commanders, said his Islamic extremist group had also offered a reward of 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of gold to anyone who killed people responsible for the drawings.

Meanwhile Afghan authorities arrested more than 40 Pakistani workers for inciting violence during a protest on Wednesday against the cartoons in which four people were killed.

The deaths in Qalat took to 11 the toll from five days of protests in Afghanistan against the cartoons. One person has also died in protests in Somalia and one in Lebanon.

The cartoons, including one showing the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, were first published in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in September, but have since been widely reprinted.

Demonstrations and sometimes fatal riots have taken place around the Muslim world in reaction, with several Danish diplomatic missions attacked.

Danish military officials said the country's troops deployed in Iraq were keeping a low profile amid fears of an escalation of violence during the Shiite Muslim ceremony of Ashura.

They said some 500 Danish troops stationed under British command in Basra, in southern Iraq, were staying close to camp to avoid any clashes with Shiites.

However the violence was increasingly replaced on Thursday by the calls for calm.

A senior figure at Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, said it was time to move on from high emotion to constructive dialogue in the row.

"Quiet debate and dialogue, without passion" is the way forward, Ali al-Samman, who heads an interconfessional dialogue committee at the prestigious seat of learning in the Egyptian capital said.

Visiting Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Thursday called for cool.

"The situation should be brought under control as soon as possible,"Putin said.

In Brussels EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini called for an urgent "relaunch of dialogue" with the Islamic world in response to the wave of protests.

Nearly 3,000 Danes had by Thursday afternoon signed an open letter calling for "peace with the Muslim world".

In Paris close to 100 Arab and European academics, political and religious figures also issued a joint appeal for "moderation and wisdom" in the row.

However in Lebanon, the head of the country's Shiite movement Hezbollah insisted on an apology over the cartoons, as hundreds of thousands of Shiites gathered in southern Beirut to mark the Ashura ceremony.

"There will be no compromise before we receive an apology," Hassan Nasrallah told the crowds at the Shiite gathering.

Up to 15,000 South African Muslims also took to the streets in Cape Town, and handed over a petition to the Danish consulate.

The protestors sang Arabic songs and carried banners stating "Cartooning our prophet will earn you no profit" and "We will sacrifice our lives for our prophet."

The United States on Thursday also warned of potential violence during protests planned this week in Kenya's capital.

Kenyan Muslims have called for demonstrations, including a possible march on the Danish embassy in Nairobi.

Egyptian writer and Nobel literature prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz said a boycott of Danish products was "the only option" for Muslims to retaliate.

"The world only understands the language of force," he told the English-language Al-Ahram Weekly.

A boycott of Danish goods in Muslim countries in reaction to the cartoons has been gaining ground, with the
European Union threatening retaliatory action against countries involved.

However in Berlin Liberal Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali said the European press had been right to publish the cartoons .

Ali, a close friend of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was killed by a Muslim extremist in 2004, said media who "lacked the courage to show their readers the caricatures" should be ashamed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2006020...HNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

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it sounds like it could get ugly...a bunch of muslims stormed an american army base the other day because of this...when a reporter pointed out that the americans had nothing to do with it, a protester responded that america is the "leader of europe" and pretty much the root of all things evil...we didn't have anything (directly) to do with this, and we're getting slack for it...not good at all...

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No Typical Raver

the koran says america will be obsolete and cease to exist in 2007

heatheraloo

thats disturbing

kandeegirl2

fun fun for me not!

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anabolic frolic

It's kind of sad that some opportunists are taking advantage of the situation to work the crowds into a tizzy.

I'm sure the Danish people are shocked. It would be like if Canada was on these hitlists everywhere, we'd be all "wtf?"

itsgigglegirl

there was another article on yahoo (i can't find it now) that said exactly that, the danes can't believe this has caused such a big to do...if it had been ossama bin laden with the bomb in lieu of a turban on his head, it wouldn't be such a big deal, but they had to pick on their prophet and now it's mass hysteria...

No Typical Raver

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer 45 minutes ago

PARIS - Extra! Extra! Read all about it! That street corner cry of yesteryear is resonating at some European publications that have enjoyed a boom in sales and Web traffic after printing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have stoked outrage across the Islamic world.
ADVERTISEMENT

Denmark's biggest-circulation broadsheet, Jyllands-Posten, triggered the controversy in September by publishing 12 cartoons of the prophet, including one showing his turban as a bomb. Its weekday circulation of about 154,000 hasn't moved much.

But for newspapers in France and Norway that reprinted the drawings with much international ado, sometimes in defense of free speech, the caricatures have become a profile boost and tonic for lackluster sales.

If there's a lesson, it's an old one: Controversy sells.

Mohamed Bechari, a vice president at the French Council of the Muslim Faith, France's largest Islamic organization, said he thinks French readers are buying up the newspapers out of "curiosity" — not anti-Arab or anti-Muslim feeling.

"Here's some advice to those newspapers today facing ruin, bankruptcy or collapse: All you need do is insult Muslims and Islam, and sales will get hot as blazes," he told The Associated Press at a Paris conference Thursday on promoting dialogue between the West and the Muslim world, convened in response to the furor over the drawings.

Demonstrators in
Syria, Lebanon and
Iran have attacked Western embassies. Protests and boycotts of Danish goods erupted in numerous Arab and Islamic countries. Three days of riots across
Afghanistan left 11 people dead.

France Soir's Feb. 1 issue with the drawings sold 40 percent more than the usual daily circulation, and executives are tantalized that the newspaper's souped-up profile could translate into long-term gains.

"Over time, it could change the brand image of France Soir ... it shows we're capable of running scoops — and leading a battle for freedom of the press," circulation director Philippe Soing told the AP.

Satirical French weekly Charlie-Hebdo reprinted the drawings Wednesday, behind a cover page showing Muhammad with his head in his hands, crying and saying: "It's hard to be loved by idiots."

The paper quickly sold out all 160,000 copies of the issue — 60,000 more than the typical weekly run — and was printing another 160,000, spokeswoman Liliane Roudiere said.

Print sales at Norway's Magazinet, an Evangelical Christian newspaper, have been flat since it ran the drawings Jan. 10. But daily hits on its Web site have more than tripled, to about 800,000, said Vegard Kobberdal, a consultant for the thrice-weekly paper.

Spanish daily El Mundo, which posted some of the images on its Web site, said it was impossible to determine which news item was affecting sales.

The rise of the Internet, rising competition for advertising money and the advent of free dailies across Europe have meant tough times for many newspapers.

France Soir, a legendary daily whose circulation hovered around a million a day in the late 1960s, is now in financial straits, and the paper is up for sale.

"If we wanted to use this to save France Soir, we'd need a story like this every day, and I dare hope that there won't be," editor-in-chief Arnaud Levy, with a bodyguard in tow, told the AP at the conference.

___

Associated Press Writers Harold Heckle in Madrid, Doug Mellgren in Oslo and Paul Duke in Paris contributed to this report.

DJLeash

I like danish.
I'm particularly fond of bearclaws as well.

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happy 2 tha hard 2 tha mother f*ckin core!
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No Typical Raver

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP
DAMMIT SHUT THE FUCK UP!
I MEAN CHRIST, HOW ABOUT CONTRIBUTING SOMETHING USEFUL OTHER THAN POSTING STUPID BULLSHIT IN EVERY GODDAMN THREAD!!!!!!

what kind of danish do you like?

the architech

maybe I should reconsider that trip to Copenhagen I've been planning

it's crazy the the US is getting flack for this seeing as we had absolutely nothing to do with it. I've heard the response has been primarily directed towards Denmark, Norway, and France, I should look into their stance towards Italy and see how worried I should be.

No Typical Raver

Vow comes as Pakistan arrests 125, including radical Islamic leader

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 9:04 a.m. ET Feb. 17, 2006
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A Pakistani Muslim cleric said Friday that he and supporters were offering rewards of more than $1 million for killing Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Maulana Yousef Qureshi, a cleric in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said during Friday prayers that he personally had offered to pay a bounty of 500,000 rupees ($8,400), while a jewelers association was putting up $1 million, and others were offering $17,000 plus a car.

Qureshi repeated the offer at rally later in the city to protest against the cartoons.

"If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden ... we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy prophet," Qureshi told Reuters, referring to the $25 million U.S. bounty on the al-Qaida leader's head.

He apparently did not realize that 12 cartoonists, not one, drew the drawings that have led to protests across the Muslim world

Earlier this month a Taliban commander in Afghanistan was reported as offering a bounty of 220 pounds of gold to anyone who killed a cartoonist who drew the pictures.

The commander, Mullah Dadullah, also offered 12 pounds of gold to anyone who killed a Danish, Norwegian or German soldier.

Protests over the cartoons have turned violent in several Pakistani cities this week and at least five people have died.

125 arrested
Also on Friday, police detained 125 protesters for violating a ban on rallies in eastern Pakistan and put a radical Islamist leader under house arrest, amid fears of more deadly demonstrations.

Police were ordered to restrict the movement of all religious leaders who might address any rallies and round up religious activists “who could be any threat to law and order,” a senior police official said in the main eastern city of Lahore.

In Multan, another city in Punjab province, about 300 police swooped down on 125 protesters who had gathered Friday morning at a traffic circle, calling themselves “slaves of the prophet” and trampling on a Danish flag, said Sharif Zafar, a police official.


Protesters shouted “Death to Musharraf!” as they were bundled into two police buses, referring to Pakistan’s leader, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Zafar said they were being taken to a police station because they were violating a ban on rallies in Punjab — imposed after deadly riots in Lahore on Tuesday.

In Karachi, police fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse about 2,000 protesters, many wielding sticks, who blocked the main highway into the southern city, said Alim Jafari, a Karachi police official. The road was cleared and some 30 protesters were detained, he said.

Protests in Pakistan against the cartoons have turned violent this week. Five people have died in riots, and Western businesses have been vandalized and burned.

Wide protests
Demonstrations broke out in Muslim countries after newspapers in several European countries reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were first published in Denmark in September. Islamic tradition frowns on any depiction of Muhammad, and the satiric nature of some of the Danish cartoons — such as one showing Muhammad’s turban as a bomb — further inflamed some Muslims.

In Hong Kong, thousands of Muslims, mostly Pakistanis, Indians, Indonesians and Sri Lankans living in the territory, angrily chanted slogans as they marched from a downtown mosque to the local office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

“Don’t play with our religion,” read a placard held up by a protester. “No double standards. We want justice!” read another.

Ghulam Mustafa, one of the organizers, said more than 3,000 people participated in the protest. Police put the figure at about 2,000.

The crowds dispersed peacefully after march leaders presented a U.N. representative with a petition condemning the cartoons as sacrilegious.


In Bangladesh, about 500 protesters marched through streets outside Dhaka’s main mosque, chanting “Down with Islam’s enemies.”

In Lahore, a spokesman for the radical group Jamaat al-Dawat said a heavy contingent of police arrived at the home of its leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, on Friday morning and told him he could not go outside. He was due to make a speech in Faisalabad, about 75 miles away, said the spokesman, Yahya Mujahid.

Lahore police chief Khawaja Khalid Farooq said 12,000 police and an unspecified number of paramilitary troops were guarding government and foreign installations, mosques and other public places like shopping centers, restaurants and cinemas.

Supporters of the radical Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan’s largest Islamic group, also planned to hold rallies in Karachi after midday prayers Friday, said Sarfaraz Ahmed, a spokesman for the anti-U.S. group.

More anti-cartoon protests were expected Friday in other Pakistani cities, including Rawalpindi, Quetta and Peshawar — the northwestern city ravaged by riots on Wednesday. Police were guarding multinational businesses and government buildings, witnesses said.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11383819/

theres a link on that page to the cartoon that started it all. WARNING: May be offensive.

DJLeash

its so ridiculus.

zzdrawkcab

i love cheese danish =oD SO YUMMY

Weaver

the muslims gotta chill out and not take everything so seriously.

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the architech

I think that can be said for most of the world, not just the Muslims