The Danish newspaper that first published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, infuriating Muslims worldwide, previously turned down cartoons of Jesus as too offensive.
The five colored cartoons reportedly "portrayed Jesus jumping out of holes in floors and walls during his resurrection. In one, gnomes rated Jesus for style, another entitled "Saviour-cam" showed Jesus with a camera on his head staring at his feet." Here's the link to the Reuters report.
The cartoonist says the cartoons were rejected because the editor thought they would be too offensive to readers.
Jens Kaiser, the former editor of Jyllands-Posten's Sunday edition who turned down the cartoons three years ago, said he had done so because they were no good. "My fault is that I didn't tell him what I really meant: The cartoons were bad."
Based on the editor's statement that "I didn't tell him [the cartoonist} what I really meant," I deduce that the cartoonist was told at the time that his Jesus cartoons were rejected as offensive, as the cartoonist reports, whether that was the whole reason or not.
So, as far as I can tell, we have a situation here in which the same newspaper rejected not-very-good cartoons of Jesus and published not-very-good cartoons of Mohammed.
The difference is that Christians generally have no religious objection to portrayals of the image of Christ, as long as it's in reasonably good taste. Muslims generally object on religious grounds to all portrayals of Allah or Mohammed, for reasons of avoiding idolatry. The diligent blogosphere has found a few exceptions here and there, particularly for tasteful portrayals of Mohammed. (I'm not surprised that there are some images of Mohammed in the world. After all, it has to be hard to start teaching a small child about about "Allah" or "Mohammed" without a single image to point to.)
So where does that leave us with the Mohammed cartoons?
Should all of us in the Western world call for Jyllands-Posten to publish the cartoons of Jesus?
Or, since the cartoons previously submitted aren't very good, should we call for them to have a contest and publish the "best" offensive Jesus caricatures?
Here's where I stand: Mocking religion is pointless and counterproductive. I've explained why in these posts:
- Republishing Multiple Mohammed Cartoons and Insulting Images: Is This Really Necessary?
- To Our Muslim Allies: Here's What We Think of Your Prophet
More to come.
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