Let's Play Connect the Dots With the Cartoon Controversy

[JCMach1]

-Provocative Danish cartoons published in September...
-Small outcry from a few clerics in the ME (dies down quickly)
-Bush's poll ratings in the toilet after the Gulf Hurricanes, et al
-U.S. begins to ratchet-up pressure Iran...
-Saudi clerics (something that makes you go hmmmmmm., most of these guys are in the pocket of the Gov.) re-out the story and start disseminating it around the world...


Saudi Arabia's top cleric has called on Denmark to punish a newspaper that ran cartoons portraying Prophet Mohammad, weighing into a row that has been raging across the Middle East for months.

Denmark's largest newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, ran 12 cartoons last September, including one in which Mohammad seems to be carrying a bomb in his turban. Islam considers images of prophets disrespectful and caricatures blasphemous.

"I call on officials in the Danish government to call to account the paper that published these cartoons and force it to apologise for its ugly crime," Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh said in a statement published on Wednesday.

"It should impose a penalty as a deterrent on those who took part in provoking this subject. That's the least Muslims demand," it said... http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L25728869.htm


THIS IS CONCERNING THE MUFTI AL-SHEIKH WHO RE-IGNITED THE CONTROVERSY

On November 14, 2001, Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah ibn Abd Al-'Aziz called for a meeting of the kingdom's leading clerics to brief them on talks he had in recent months with U.S. President George W. Bush. Attending the meeting were Prince Sultan ibn Abd Al-'Aziz, who serves as second deputy prime minister, defense and flight minister, and inspector-general; the Saudi mufti Sheikh Abd Al-'Aziz bin Abdallah Aal Al-Sheikh, Supreme Judicial Council Chairman Saleh ibn Muhammad Al-Lheidan, Justice Minister Dr. Abdallah ibn Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh, Islamic Affairs Minister Sheikh Saleh ibn Abd Al-'Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, and high-ranking religious and judicial officials. During the meeting, the Crown Prince instructed the clerics to make efforts to curtail inflammatory preaching and sermons in the mosques. The following are the main points raised by the Crown Prince, the mufti, and others, as reported by the Saudi government daily Al-Watan... The Saudi mufti, Sheikh Al-'Aziz bin Abdallah Aal Al-Sheikh, concurred with the prince that "handling problems with deliberation and moderation is good for us all." His words reflected the moderate position he has held for some time, even before the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. In an interview published in the Saudi government paper Al-Riyadh, <2> Sheikh Abdallah Aal Al-Sheikh warned against calls to kill non-Muslims in Islamic countries, telling his followers to "beware of listening to calls that give rise to civil strife and riots, which accomplish nothing." Months earlier, in an April 2001 interview with the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily, <3> the mufti had issued a controversial religious ruling against suicide bombings and airplane hijackings. In that interview, he had said, "I am not aware of any aspect of religious law concerning killing oneself in the heart of the the enemy, or what is known as suicide. This is not part of Jihad, and I fear that it is killing oneself . Indeed, the Koran requires killing the enemy, even demands it, but this should be done in ways that do not violate Shari'a.... http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=countries&Area=saudiarabia&ID=SP30401
SEEMS A LITTLE OUT OF CHARACTER???

audi Arabia's grand mufti told more than 2 million hajj pilgrims yesterday that some of Islam's own sons have been "lured by the devil" to conduct violent attacks and are harming Islam.

"The greatest affliction to strike the nation of Islam came from some of its own sons, who were lured by the devil. They have called the nation infidel, they have shed protected blood and they have spread vice on Earth, with explosions and destruction and killing of innocents," al-Sheikh said.

Al-Sheikh pointedly asked of Muslim youth: "How would you meet God? With innocent blood you shed or helped shed?"

The fact that Saudi Arabia's top cleric delivered the sermon during the climax of the annual hajj pilgrimage -- which is attended by Muslims from some 70 countries -- is seen as adding to its significance...http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticleprint/2005/01/707263e5-cdd7-4a7a-85dd-8e5a849e9744.html

-Cartoon provovation takes on a life of its own in the Muslim world...
-Embassies burned... murdered Christians... ad nauseum...
-Surely 'they' can't be allowed to have a bomb... Need any further evidence to start your crusade...?

Or, at least the appearance of a war through the US mid-term elections... (The last part is CLASSIC Karl Rove)...

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Remember the Bush family are like royalty to the Saudis

This is important to know and consider. Nothing comes out of there that isn't cleared with the Bush family.

[FreedomAngel82]

2. And didn't a person

involved with the cartoons have neocon ties?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. and that 4 of the cartoons were added later....

NOT part of the original published series...

[mogster]

11. In Norway, for sure

It has close ties to the Norwegian neocons, the Progress party. Selbekk, the editor of the neo-Christian mag Magazinet has been exposed as having very close ties to this movement. Also, I think there are ties between the political editors of the newspaper Dagbladet and the Progress party.

But I don't need to know any of this, I just watch who is siding with this issue and how they do the debate at home. Before and after this episode.
They for sure have information aversion, the Progressers (called Frpere for short - small world...), and try to suppress any info about the real situation in the US, by deletion, group pressure and ridicule. I know, because I've tried to publish this info for two years at home.

[EFerrari]

12. Yes, the editor. n/t

[orwell]

3. But remember...

..."conspiracy theories" are verboten. They demean the high level of political discourse that we strive for on the "internets."

:sarcasm:

[havocmom]

4. Lost in the shuffle: Joint Chiefs attacking US cartoonist Toles

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/01/AR2006020102465.html

Where's the outrage at military brass attempting to squealch free speech in America? Lost in this provoked response abroad? What else got lost while we watched the latest dog and pony show?

[PsychoDad]

5. Very Insightful.

The timing does seem most suspicious.

Thank you for the post, it is something to consider.
Would you mind reposting a copy of this in the Islamic Forum?

Peace

[Dunvegan]

15. PsychoDad...could you please point me to the Islamic Forum?

Thank you. Appreciated.

[PsychoDad]

19. Here's the Islamic Group Forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=359

Hope to see you there soon :)

Peace

[Dunvegan]

20. Thank you much.

Appreciated. See you there.

[sandnsea]

7. The entire timeline

Between the printings, various Muslims had meetings with the Danish and the UN to resolve this. 17 Muslim countries condemned these cartoons, along with Bill Clinton,. If an apology had been issued and Danish law followed, and other newspapers had had the good sense to stop publishing this trash, all of this could have been avoided.

Sept 30
The cartoons of Islamic prophet Muhammad are printed in the Danish daily newspaper, Jyllands-Posten.
Oct 14
Protest in Copenhagen
Oct 17
Egyptian Newspaper El Fagr publishes six of the cartoons during Ramadan with no apparent adverse reaction
Oct 28
Danish police contacted, it’s against Danish law to ridicule or insult dogmas of worship..
In November, another Danish newspaper, WeekendAvisen, published an additional ten satirical cartoons of Muhammad.
Nov 3
The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung publishes one of the cartoons.
Jan 31
The Icelandic newspaper DV publishes six of the twelve cartoons.
The German newspaper Die Tageszeitung publishes two of the cartoons.
Feb 1
The French newspaper France Soir publishes the cartoons, adding one of their own.
German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch newspapers print the cartoons.
Feb 2
Other newspapers around the world begin printing the cartoons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy

[azurnoir]

8. Yes and it just

happens that most of these riots took place in the next two countries on * list. Then they are marketed in such a way as to lower any sympathy for the people (as shown earlier this week on some threads here). I posted earlier this week I thought this was just too coincidental lets paint them as crazed and blood thirsty right before we might be killing lots of them.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Karenina]

10. It's the PERFECT wedge!

"Freedom" of "speech" vs "Fanatical Barbarians!" Just in time to drop a nuke on Iran. Can't let that Bourse get rolling, now can we?

[farmbo]

13. It took Condi about 15 minutes to blame the whole mess on "Iran & Syria"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060208/ts_nm/religion_cartoons_dc

Even though:

1)The crisis was fomented by Saudi Arabia (as set out in the OP);

2) The major rioting took place in Afghanistan (our 51st state) and Lebanon...where the embassies were burned;

3) Nothing is as it appears in a Rove-controlled administration...he actually scoffs at the "reality-based community" since he is now capable of creating stroylines at will which the MSM will run, no-questions-asked.

JCMACK1 is dead-on on this one.

(Dude...you might want to be a little careful what you say on your phone lines from here on out)

[PassingThrough]

14. BBC has good article and timeline showing why events appeared to unfold

slowly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4699716.stm

[newyawker99]

17. Hi PassingThrough!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[mogster]

16. The Norwegian publisher and Norwegian muslims together

The Norwegian editor of Magazinet and the chairman of Islamic Mission in Norway, Mohammad Hamdam, agree:

"- Selbekk has children the same age as my own. I wish my children and his children grows up together, live together in peace and becomes friends, says Mohammad Hamdam."

Selbekk said he was sorry for offending the feelings of the Norwegian Muslim community, who on it's part has been taking a cool approach to this whole thing since the beginning.

[Wordie]

18. Another DU poster has uncovered a NEOCON link to all this!

It's Daniel Pipes, this time...
"A lot of folks aren't paying attention and are getting neo-conned again"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x374233

[RazzleDazzle]

21. The biggest, most important dot of all