Not the article I was looking for, but a good one nonetheless.

Cartoon Anger a Misrepresentation

So, Global's got a new logo. While some people liken it to a "drunken checkmark", I think they may be infringing on this website's mindbogglingly successful logo. They're on notice.

"I'm going to be Stephen Harper's worst enemy," he warned. "We're going to stir the pot and you better believe we are going to make a heck of a lot of noise."

- David Emerson after handily winning his seat in Vancouver-Kingsway on Jan. 23 (from here)

I'm glad to see I still get to be cynical with the new government.

yeah Jesse, Leo, that fuckin' sucks dudes.

There was an excellent editorial article on the BBC's website about the Muhammad cartoon debate, but it seems to have gone missing...

Basically what it was trying to get across is that this is the result of total cultural misunderstandings on both sides. If you look at where most of the outrage is centred, it is mainly in the Arab nations near Israel, where Arab nationalism and Muslim extremism go hand-in-hand. In Turkey, Iran and even Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, there have been far more muted responses.

Meanwhile in the West, journalists (among others) fail to comprehend the importance of Islam in the day-to-day lives of Middle Easterners, however politicized a version it may be. Also, journalistic practices and ideals such as freedom of the press and free speech are still very much in their infancy when they are present at all. All of this taken together makes for a very delicate scenario, which would allow certain groups on both sides to take advantage of this.

I think the writer of that article definitely got it, where it is just another case of both sides being either unwilling and/or unable to understand the other. Ultimately, I just hope that this remains just that, a misunderstanding, and not the beginning of Samuel Huntington's 'clash of civilizations'.

The issue has certainly been stirred up recently. I’m not sure if it's because of various reprintings, if it just took a bit of time to build, or if it just takes time for the cartoons to filter down to people who would use the situation.

I remember when the cartoons were first making news in the fall… there certainly wasn't the reaction we're getting now.

In any event, the wikipedia link that Par posted is a good synopsis.

And who says you need facts? You just need to be considered acceptable as mainstream comedy. Maybe the Danish cartoons needed to be funny. Example.

rolldeep homies. roll deep

Well, well, perhaps I should hit the refresh button more often.

The Crusade?

true enough... and you're right. It would appear as though I've been showing a biased side of the news, here's an attempt to fix that.

"Now it has become more than a case about the drawings, now there are forces that want a confrontation between our cultures," said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller. "It is in no one's interest, neither them or us."

There were clerics in the streets, trying to quell the riots (who were pelted with rocks and beaten, but still, they were trying)

Canada.com had this to say:

Lebanon's Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani denounced the violence and appealed for calm, accusing infiltrators of sowing the dissent to "harm the stability of Lebanon." Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud denounced the violence, saying: "National unity should remain protected and consolidated." He warned against attempts to destabilize the country, and his government called for an emergency cabinet meeting later Sunday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed anger over the cartoons but said Danish troops and other citizens should feel safe in his country. "It's not the responsibility of Danish troops, it's not the responsibility of Danish government, it's the free media. ... We must not hold the troops who are serving in Afghanistan responsible for this," he said Sunday on CNN's Late Edition.

so... some more moderate responses... and then we have these too: Another 1,000 supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied in Amarah, denouncing Denmark, Israel and the United States and demanding that Danish and Norwegian diplomats be expelled. ...connecting dots I didn't think were related... but then again, that's me.

In the end, I think it comes down to how we all define freedom of speech. I'd always seen it as this: that you're free to say whatever you want, so long as you're then willing to back it up. You know, having an argument and having the facts to back up your statements, putting a face to what you're saying, none of this behind someone else's back, or masking your identity...