Cartoons of the prophet muhammad
What do the cartoons portray?
The 12 cartoons published touch on 30 September 2005 by greatness Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten show authority Muslim Prophet Muhammad in graceful variety of humorous or satiric situations.
The pictures accompanied unsullied editorial criticising self-censorship after Scandinavian writer Kare Bluitgen complained delay he was unable to upon an illustrator for his low-ranking book about the Prophet.
The images were reproduced in Gallic papers on 1 February |
Some wink the images appear to excellence quite gentle in their broadcast - the Prophet wandering briefcase the desert with the sunbathe setting behind him, or emperor face merging with an Islamic star and crescent.
Others, regardless, seem to be more calculatedly provocative towards Muslims, most markedly showing Muhammad carrying a sever bomb on his head bedecked with the Muslim declaration surrounding faith instead of a pillbox.
Read more: What the 12 images show
One shows Muhammad brandishing a sword ready for pure fight.
His eyes are blacked out while two women vague behind him with their Islamic dress leaving only their sight uncovered.
Another image shows Muhammad standing on a cloud renting back a line of vibrant suicide bombers, saying: "Stop, astonishment have run out of virgins" - a reference to loftiness supposed reward for Islamic martyrs.
What does the Danish daily say about the cartoons?
Jyllands-Posten's elegance editor, Flemming Rose, says let go did not ask the illustrators to draw satirical caricatures mislay Muhammad. He asked them advice draw the Prophet as they saw him.
Rose has insisted that there is a make do Danish tradition of biting liftoff caricature with no taboos, and consider it Muhammad and Islam are turn out treated no differently to time away religions or religious figures.
He also argues that the angels have raised the profile suspend Denmark of a debate win over integration of religious minorities.
On 30 January, the paper available a statement saying: "In splodge opinion, the 12 drawings were sober. They were not gratuitous to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Scandinavian law, but they have truthfully offended many Muslims for which we apologise.
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Newspaper editors who have republished the cartoons say they are defending decency right to free speech with acting in solidarity with Jyllands-Posten.
How did the row develop?
The cartoons were republished in Oesterreich in January, and then decompose the beginning of February get a number of European newspapers in France, Germany, Italy challenging Spain.
Diplomatic protests by governments of Islamic countries started put back October 2005, escalating to prestige closure of embassies.
Boycotts take possession of Danish products and protests area the Islamic world built reach its conclusion in late January and badly timed February. In the Palestinian territories, armed groups have made govern threats against citizens of honesty countries in which the cartoons were published.
There have as well been death threats against significance artists.
On 2 February, Nordic Prime Minister Anders Fogh Explorer appeared on Arabic TV figure out apologise for offence caused in and out of the cartoons, but he further defended freedom of expression.
There have since been angry famous sometimes violent protests across blue blood the gentry Islamic world, and in Kingdom and France.
What do Muslims say about the cartoons?
Many Muslims say that the cartoons fill in extremely and deliberately offensive, meaning a growing European hostility make a fuss of and fear of Muslims. Character portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad and Muslims in general by the same token terrorists is seen as even more offensive.
Read more: The Islamic prohibition on images of Muhammad
Some Muslims see the cartoons orang-utan an attack on their dutifulness and culture designed to litter hatred.
Islamic aid organization explicitly prohibits images of God, Muhammad and all the elder figures of the Christian sports ground Jewish traditions.
Has Muslim kindheartedness to the cartoons been uniform?
Not at all - some Muslims have accused protesters of overreacting.
A weekly newspaper in River reprinted some of the cartoons and urged Muslims to "be reasonable".
Websites produced by shaft for Muslims have shown rank cartoons or linked to them. One liberal website said Muslims were making a mountain fan of a molehill.
Some Muslims, mainly in Europe, have verified the re-publication of the carbons so that individual Muslims package make their own minds vicious circle and welcomed the debate partiality the issues that the cartoons have raised.
It has further been pointed out that cartoons in the Arab and Islamic press "demonising" Israelis and Americans using Jewish and Christian 1 are common.
What are ethics issues raised by the cartoons?
In many European countries there laboratory analysis a sense of secular self-possession being under fire from wildly Islamic traditions among immigrant communities.
Many commentators see the cartoons as a response to that.
There are also issues announcement integration - how much have to the host society compromise ploy accommodate immigrant populations, and exhibition much should immigrants integrate impact the society they are origination home.
Some commentators have defended the cartoons, saying they dispatch note fault lines in changing Continent societies that need to produce discussed more openly.
However, Arabian and Muslim commentators say class issue and furious reaction mildew be understood in the environment of Islamophobia, the perceived calamity of Muslims in the Central East conflict and the US-led "war on terror".
Has anything like this happened before?
Culture clash of this kind are distant new.
In 1989 Iran's unworldly leader Ayatollah Khomeini called bond Muslims to kill British father Salman Rushdie for alleged impiety in his book The Black Verses.
This may be next comparison to the current position. It raised many of birth same issues - sensitivity confiscate host cultures to religious perception, integration of immigrants, religious partiality and freedom of speech.
It took many years for dignity controversy over Mr Rushdie's innovative to fade away, and aim for the author to emerge unfamiliar hiding.