Yes:
Newspapers across Europe have reprinted caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to show support for a Danish paper whose cartoons have sparked Muslim outrage.
Seven publications in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain all carried some of the drawings.
Their publication in Denmark led Arab nations to protest. Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet.
The cartoons have sparked diplomatic sanctions and death threats in some Arab nations, while media watchdogs have defended publication of the images in the name of press freedom.
Reporters Without Borders said the reaction in the Arab world "betrays a lack of understanding" of press freedom as "an essential accomplishment of democracy."
France Soir and Germany's Die Welt were among the leading papers to reprint the cartoons, which first appeared in Denmark last September.
Other papers stood by their publication. In Berlin, Die Welt argued there was a right to blaspheme in the West, and asked whether Islam was capable of coping with satire.
"The protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they were less hypocritical," it wrote in an editorial.
La Stampa in Italy, El Periodico in Spain and Dutch paper Volkskrant also carried some of the drawings.
European Muslims spoke out against the pictures.
In Germany, the vice-chairman of the central council of Muslims said Muslims would be deeply offended.
"It was done not to defend freedom of the press, but to spite the Muslims," Mohammad Aman Hobohm said.
Sanctions
No Mohammed, it WAS done to defend freedom. And, we'll even defend your right to be an idiot.
2 comments:
Dutch politician Geert Wilders' site crashed due to increased traffic when he posted the cartoons there!!
Check it out! My Dutch partner posted about it at our blog.
LGF is down.. Traffic overload!
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