Danish cartoons

The story of Muhammed being depicted in cartoon form in a Danish newspaper (and later reprinted in European newspapers the past few weeks) has dominated the news. Muslims are rioting, protesting, burning Danish flags, boycotting Danish products, and burning the Danish embassy in some countries.

Out of curiosity I wanted to see the cartoons to see what the controversy was over. No major American newspapers have re-published them -- not the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, neither Chicago paper, USA Today etc. Even the BBC has refused to publish them. Wikipedia is the only mainstream website I could find with the actual cartoons themselves. That site has a great summary of the whole situation, back to the Sept 2005 when the controvery originated over the original publication of the cartoons.

Pesonally I think the cartoons are pretty mild. Then again we're conditioned to understand that this is just expression, and we don't consider this blasphemous like some Muslims do. It is amazing though how something seemingly innocent as a drawing in a newspaper can incite this kind of violent reaction across the globe. This one I saw summed it up pretty well.