The Devil makes work for idle Cartoonists

Tolerence, a sorely undervalued concept - well in some places, at least.

Freedom of the press? Well, yes, but within limits.
Al Jazeera - the 'fury' of Muslims across the world after two different European publications printed a bunch of not-especially-good cartoons; Firstly was the Danish publication Jyllands-Posten, who are now receiving bomb threats, death threats and more besides. Now, in a wonderfully 'fuck you' kind of stylee, France Soir has decided to reprint the cartoons under the winner of a headline 'Yes, we have the right to caricature God'.
Serge Faubert, the editor, seems to need to brush up on his diplomatic skills, bless him - "Enough lessons from these reactionary bigots! There is nothing in these incriminated cartoons that intends to be racist or denigrate any community as such, some are funny, others less so. That's it. That is why we have decided to publish them."

So far, Saudi Arabia, that bastion of free-speech and human rights (but that doesn't matter, because Dubya likes the royals there) has gotten the right hump about the matter, withdrawing their ambassador from Denmark, and doubtless France is going to be next, as well as threatening all kinds of retaliation.

And, just in case you don't have access to today France Soir, here's a choice selection of these cartoon gems*









*They're not all that good, but this just rather goes to prove the point.



Other Top Stories this hour:

On Dec. 2, 3,000 Muslims gathered at the Jamia Mosque in Sangia Hill and called for the elimination of Christians and the public hanging of a Christian accused of blasphemy.

Last year, on Oct. 29th, a group of unidentified machete-wielding assailants attacked a group of girls, on their way to class at a private Christian high school in Indonesia, beheading three of them and seriously wounding a fourth, police said.


Well, I don't necessarily have a bacon sandwich every morning, but this seems a bit strong.


** Update: The Danish Embassy in Syria had to be evacuated due to a bomb threat. Reuters

*** Another Update: Die Welt Online have finally got some of the images up on t' web. As well as a good comment piece. The German's NUJ bloke didn't seem to keen on the idea of the reprint, though.