The Cartoon Wars A New(?) View

The Cartoon Wars, A New (?) View.

I was reading the AP Newsvine this afternoon and found some interesting information.
(Posted by the Middle East Media Research Institute)
According to Qatari University lecturer Ali Muhi Al-Din Al-Qardaghi, The Muhammed Cartoons are a Jewish attempt to divert European hatred from the Jews to Muslims.

(From an address by Al-Qardaghi on Al-Jazeera TV on Feb. 3, 2006)
“Honorable brothers, a survey conducted some time ago in Europe showed that 67% of the Europeans hate the Jews. The Jewish leaders convened to decide what to do. They wanted to divert this hatred to the Muslims. This is a Crusader Zionist campaign which is led by the extremist pro-zionist right, headed by George Bush in America. I am sad to say this. This campaign is an attempt to arouse religious Crusader fanaticism among the European peoples, because the were not responsive to the extremist right. They want to do so by provoking the Muslims, and perhaps some inappropriate deeds.”

Al-Qardaghi concludes his address stating that:

“Brothers, the person who lit the fuse was a Jew from Denmark. He wrote a book called The Koran and the Life of Muhammed in which he claimed that Prophet Mohammed was the first Nazi and that he carried out the first Jewish holocaust. He said that the killing of the Jews in Al-Madina was a holocaust. They distorted everything. Then he asked a hundred artists to illustrate it, but they refused, so he approached this pro-Zionist newspaper, which agreed.

The Zionists, Jews and Crusaders are behind this issue.”

According to this view everything the Muslim rioters are doing is the fault of George Bush, the religious right, and the Jews. His is not the only view from that area. From the same source, we find a speech by Iranian leader (Mullah, if I remember right) Ali Khamenei in a speech on Iranian TV on Feb.7, 2006 which states that" Zionist Paid Denmark Cartoonist to Draw Muhanned Cartoon."

This speech spends much of its time criticizing the hypocrisy of so-called free speech in Europe which (according to him) will not tolerate the speech of the many scientists, researchers, historians and journalists which, if allowed free speech would spread doubt about the existence of the Nazi holocaust, (because anyone who does so is “punished, imprisoned, persecuted and deprived of his rights”; but offending what is “holy to one and a half billion Muslims for no reason” is classified as freedom of speech.)

But he does get to the point of his speech which is that a
“profound Zionist plot is at the core of the matter. They are setting the Muslims and the Christians against one another. This is very important for the Zionists – to set the great Muslim community around the world against the Christians, and to set the Christians against the Muslims.”

According to him, the whole flap is the handiwork of the Zionists.
He does find a few moments to attack Bush’s reaction to 9/11 for being a Crusade against the Muslim people, but ultimately it is less the work of George Bush and the religious right and mainly the Zionists who are at fault.

He mentions the Hamas victory in the polls among the Palestinians, and states that wherever free elections are conducted in the Islamic world the result will be the same.
“The victory will go to the people who oppose America."

For a third, and different, but because of the source, a little nerve wracking, point of view: according to an Associated Press release, dated today Sat. Feb. 11, at 2:14 EST, Sheik Abdul Rahman al-Seedes, the Imam of the Grand Mosques in Mecca, and Saudi Arabia’s top cleric has “Called on the world’s Muslims to reject apologies for the ‘slanderous’ caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed and demanded that the authors and publishers of the cartoons be tried and Punished.”

Further he states “Where in the world with all its agencies and organizations ? (sic) Is there only freedom of expression when it involves insults to Muslims? With one voice. . . we will reject the apology and demand a trial.”

The AP article which includes this message also follows the variety of demonstrations around the world citing the deaths of 12 people relating to the protests. It also mentions that Flemming Rose, who was the culture editor of the Danish paper that initially published the drawings has gone on indefinite leave, though the paper denied that he was ordered to leave because he suggested reprinting Holocaust drawings solicited by an Iranian newspaper. (another interesting development).

The sad thing is that I suspect that all of these speakers and leaders are sincere, and believe that they are telling the truth. The most difficult task in finding some peace, not only in the middle east, but in all areas where Muslims and non-Muslims interact is finding some way to reach a universal perception of fact. (not truth, that would be too much to ask.)