Sunday, November 22, 2015

Cartoon Riots: Lule Ch. 7

Lule, Ch. 7 – Media and Cultural Globalization: Cartoon Riots and Dismantled McDonald’s 

Discusses the riots over Denmark cartoon depictions of the Profit Muhammad in 2005-6. 

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (Jutland Post) published twelve editorial cartoons attacking self-censorship and depicting the profit Muhammad, which is forbidden in Islamic tradition. This caused immense outrage among the Islamic community worldwide and sparked violent riots throughout the country. This incident shows a clear division between "us" and the "other". In free democratic nations in which state and church are separate, such as the United States and Denmark, free speech is held in high esteem and we take pride in that privilege. We can't imagine that simple cartoons of a religious figure could lead to such a response. That is a problem.When you have cartoons of Muhammad with a bomb as a turban that automatically creates a western stereotype of all Islam. It also shows a blatant disrespect for Islam and their traditions. It is no wonder that Islams responded so aggressively to this act. Unfortunately, rioting only hurts them because then live television is showing Islamic people acting violently and burning flags and such. This only furthers the western representation of the Arab as prone to violence and anti-western. 


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