It's a Cycle of Cartoons
AFP has discovered anti-Semitic cartoons in the Muslim world - turns out they're retaliation for the the Danish cartoons:
Iran's top-selling daily, Hamshahri, is also running a contest for cartoons of the Holocaust in a tit-for-tat move over European newspaper publications of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that have angered Muslims worldwide.
First of all, it'd be nice if someone could point out that Jews didn't actually have anything to with the publication of the cartoons. That someone would, ideally, go on to point out that if the Muslim reaction to offense is always to denigrate Jews then there might just be something else going on. But hey, we're reasonable, so we're not asking for that.
What we are asking for is for reporters to stop acting as if anti-Semitic cartoons or Holocaust denying cartoons are some new phenomenon in the Arab and Muslim world. As if they weren't part of mundane, daily life throughout the Middle East. Now, it's true that the Iranians (and the Egyptians, and the Syrians) are suddenly claiming that their anti-Semitic cartoons are a reaction to the Danish cartoons. So it's true that this particular contest is indeed kind of a tit-for-tat move (the AFP is not exactly lying, as such). But does anyone believe that Hamshahri hasn't published virulently anti-Semitic cartoons before? Of course they have. In other words, like the other Iranian (and Egyptian, and Syrian) newspapers now claiming the right to incite violence against Jews because of badly drawn cartoons in Christian newspapers - and unlike their "well, technically we're not lying" AFP colleagues - Hamshahri is basically lying. They aren't publishing odious depictions of Jews because of the Muhammad cartoons - they're denigrating Jews because that's what they've always done. The only difference is that now they think they have a good excuse.
The AFP - and every other outlet that mindlessly repeats the pretexts of these Arab and Muslim anti-Semitic propaganda outlets - are basically asserting a "cycle of cartoons". Everything is a cycle for Islamist apologists. But as always with such "cycles", it seems to have been set going by overwhelmingly more severe Islamist actions. Think of this in terms of the classic, terrorist-defending "cycle of violence": Hamas murders scores of innocent Israeli civilians, Israel retaliates by assassinating the Hamas leaders who ordered the atrocity, and suddenly Hamas says that they're going to "retaliate" by murdering scores more of innocent Israeli civilians. Same dynamic in the cycle of cartoons: for decades, Arab and Muslim newspapers have been publishing the most disgusting depictions of Jews that their seething haters could create. Then some Danish newspaper put out some admittedly crude and mildly offensive depictions of Muslims. Suddenly, Arab and Muslim newspapers feel the need to... publish the most disgusting depictions of Jews that their seething haters can create. It's a cycle of cartoons. Obviously.
Iran's top-selling daily, Hamshahri, is also running a contest for cartoons of the Holocaust in a tit-for-tat move over European newspaper publications of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that have angered Muslims worldwide.
First of all, it'd be nice if someone could point out that Jews didn't actually have anything to with the publication of the cartoons. That someone would, ideally, go on to point out that if the Muslim reaction to offense is always to denigrate Jews then there might just be something else going on. But hey, we're reasonable, so we're not asking for that.
What we are asking for is for reporters to stop acting as if anti-Semitic cartoons or Holocaust denying cartoons are some new phenomenon in the Arab and Muslim world. As if they weren't part of mundane, daily life throughout the Middle East. Now, it's true that the Iranians (and the Egyptians, and the Syrians) are suddenly claiming that their anti-Semitic cartoons are a reaction to the Danish cartoons. So it's true that this particular contest is indeed kind of a tit-for-tat move (the AFP is not exactly lying, as such). But does anyone believe that Hamshahri hasn't published virulently anti-Semitic cartoons before? Of course they have. In other words, like the other Iranian (and Egyptian, and Syrian) newspapers now claiming the right to incite violence against Jews because of badly drawn cartoons in Christian newspapers - and unlike their "well, technically we're not lying" AFP colleagues - Hamshahri is basically lying. They aren't publishing odious depictions of Jews because of the Muhammad cartoons - they're denigrating Jews because that's what they've always done. The only difference is that now they think they have a good excuse.
The AFP - and every other outlet that mindlessly repeats the pretexts of these Arab and Muslim anti-Semitic propaganda outlets - are basically asserting a "cycle of cartoons". Everything is a cycle for Islamist apologists. But as always with such "cycles", it seems to have been set going by overwhelmingly more severe Islamist actions. Think of this in terms of the classic, terrorist-defending "cycle of violence": Hamas murders scores of innocent Israeli civilians, Israel retaliates by assassinating the Hamas leaders who ordered the atrocity, and suddenly Hamas says that they're going to "retaliate" by murdering scores more of innocent Israeli civilians. Same dynamic in the cycle of cartoons: for decades, Arab and Muslim newspapers have been publishing the most disgusting depictions of Jews that their seething haters could create. Then some Danish newspaper put out some admittedly crude and mildly offensive depictions of Muslims. Suddenly, Arab and Muslim newspapers feel the need to... publish the most disgusting depictions of Jews that their seething haters can create. It's a cycle of cartoons. Obviously.
