Mystery Surrounds the Cartoons

Hamida Ghafour
Globe and Mail, Canada
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London (UK):
There is an element of mystery surrounding the cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed that evoked violent protests from Muslims worldwide. The drawings were first published last September in Jyllands-Posten, a major Danish newspaper. The respected German broadsheet Der Spiegel reported that a delegation of Danish Muslims, angry that their protests were not taken seriously by the Danish paper, showed a dossier to religious leaders in Egypt in January.
They included three obscene images that were never published, including one of Mohammed as a pedophile and another as a pig. That may have caused far more damage than the original images, the paper said.
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See Also:
Punishing Denmark: Taking on the Wrong Enemy
Cartoon conflict divides West
It began with a cartoon. Must it end with the thought-police?
Danish consulate in Beirut torched
Lebanese minister resigns after riots in Beirut
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Yousif Al-Khoei, a director of the Al-Khoei Foundation, said the Internet is playing a large role in whipping up hysteria by spreading the news and playing to the fears of an audience that is suspicious that their religion and identity are under attack by the West.
"The whole concept of clash of civilizations . . . I fear the foundations have been laid and people are mentally prepared for it. There is a siege mentality and in the Middle East, conspiracy theories are always rife," Mr. Al-Khoei said.