I have been following the issue of cartoon censorship for quite some time, including the persecution of “Mo-toon” cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

Too many governments and media organizations that should have stood on principle have instead taken the cowardly way out of dhimmitude; in other words, throwing free speech and the truth under the bus for the sake of appeasement of, and capitulation to, Islam.

Thus far, too few people in the public sphere have stood up for Kurt Westergaard and his fellow cartoonists. I am pleased to acknowledge that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has realized that it is her duty as head of state to take a stand for freedom of speech and of the press.

Jihad Watch: Germany: Merkel to speak at event honoring Motoonist Kurt Westergaard

Predictably, “Aiman Mazyek of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany said in a statement: ‘Merkel is honoring the cartoonist who in our view trampled on our Prophet and trampled on all Muslims’.”

Are your prophet and religion really so fragile that one man’s drawing can “trample” them? No, the real issue is a wounded sense of entitlement to be above criticism, ridicule, and satire, all of which are non-negotiable in the Western tradition of free speech. [emphasis mine]

“Merkel to honor Mohammed cartoonist at press award,” by Stephen Brown and Knut Engelmann for Reuters, September 8 (thanks to JG):

(Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel risked angering Muslims by speaking at an awards ceremony on Wednesday for a Dane whose cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed provoked sometimes violent protests by Muslims five years ago.

The 75-year-old cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose drawings of Mohammed that offended Muslims worldwide first appeared in Danish paper Jyllands-Posten in 2005, was due to receive a prize Wednesday evening at a conference on freedom of the press…

Read the rest.

****sep 11 ‘where were you when it happened’ thread is saturday morning 0800-1200, we will collect and share some memories…write your story for everyone****

please return to your regularly scheduled thread.

Tags: Angela Merkel, Cartoon Jihad, kurt westergaard, mohammed cartoons

This entry was posted on Friday, September 10th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Dhimmitude, Free Speech, Germany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.