Cartoon protests? Cartoon violence? Anyone else annoyed by terminology?

[prolesunited]

I keep hearing these phrases repeated again and again.

Who here believes these demonstrations are really about cartoons?

Do you think the use of this terminology is deliberate to downplay actual grievances?

I am in no way condoning the violence that has occurred, but it did not arise in a vacuum. It was a tipping point.

And, who is continuing to stir the pot? The radical Muslim leaders or the West, who can use it to gain support for the "war on terror" (in oil-rich countries not doing our bidding)?

[htuttle]

1. I can't stop thinking about Roger Rabbit everytime I hear it

The residents of Toon Town are up in arms!

Yes, of course it's about more than cartoons. They were just the spark.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. No, the terminology doesn't annoy me at all

Because the protesters keep mentioning the cartoons themselves. It's accurate. I don't see much stirring of the pot by Western governments - Bush and Blair both said it wasn't a good idea to publish them. However, Middle Eastern governments did recall their ambassadors from Denmark, and the demonstration in Damascus that burnt the Danish embassy was almost certainly government-condoned, if not organised.

[Dutch]

5. Exactly

The protesters are by and large pretty clear that it's the cartoons that they are principally protesting. Unfortunately patronising, ethnocentric western apologists still can't accept this and continue to insist that these protests are "really" about what most western leftists (rightly) think people in the middle east should be protesting about, rather than what the people involved actually say they are protesting about.

[Skip Intro]

3. I don't for a minute believe this is about cartoons. n/t

[Webster Green]

4. The protests are a response to the cartoons & the chimp's "Crusades"

These people feel like a war has been declared on them, which is true.