This entry was posted on
Wednesday, February 8th, 2006 at
11:34 am and is filed
under Tolerance.

Finally, we see some common sense making it to print here in the UK (see scan to your right or click here for the article (requires payment/subscription)).

Here’s what most of the mainstream media folk have been missing/ignoring…

Gateway Pundit – Islamic Society of Denmark Used Fake Cartoons to Create Story!: The organisation Islamic Society in Denmark toured the Middle-East to create awareness about the cartoons, bringing 3 additional images, which HAD NEVER been published in any media source. Evidently, the originals were not offensive enough for the trip so they had to add these three: The first of the three additional pictures, which are of poor quality, shows Muhammad as a pedophile demon. The second shows Muhammed with a pig snout. The third depicts a praying Muslim being raped by a dog. BBC World also aired a story showing one of the three non-published images, on 2006-01-30, and wrongly claimed it had been published in Jyllands-Posten. On the tour, the group claimed to represent 21 different Muslim organisations in Denmark, although many of these groups have disclaimed any connection.

(Latter link includes links to these images.)

And now we have this (hat-tip to Media Watch Watch)…

NeanderNews – Danish Imams Busted!: Do these two photos look similiar? They should because they are the same! No, not a satire of Mohammed nor any other sacred Islamic figure but a photo of Jacques Barrot, a pig squealing contestant at the French Pig-Squealing Championships in Trie-sur-Baise’s annual festival. NeanderNews discovered this photo, taken by Bob Edme of AP, posted on an August 15, 2005 AP story seen here on MSNBC’s website. As Gateway Pundit, Counter Terrorism Blog and others have reported Danish Imam Ahmad Abu Ladan, leader of The Islamic Society of Denmark, toured the middle east to create awareness of supposed anti-Islamic cartoons and included the above black and white photo as well as two other undocumented examples. Akhmad Akkari, spokesman of the tour, explained that the three drawings had been added to “give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims.” Akkari claimed he does not know the origin of the three pictures. He said they had been sent anonymously to Danish Muslims. However, when Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet asked if it could talk to these Muslims, Akkari refused to reveal their identity. BBC World aired a story on 1-30-2006 showing the three non-published images and claimed they had been published in Denmarks Jyllands-Posten, these images however had never been published in Jyllands-Posten.

The Brussels Journal – The Cartoon Hoax: Indeed, the three cartoons breaching the paper’s ethical limits have been made by fanatical Muslim clerics themselves in order to set the world ablaze and provoke a religious war with the West. Even under Western law the Danish radical imams belong in jail. Their hate crime must be punished. The imams are the hate preachers who are responsible for the destruction and the fatalities that resulted from their lies and their blasphemy.

OK, take a breath. Relax. Here’s Akhmad Akkari’s version of events (sent in by Psychic Paul as I was writing this post)…

globeandmail.com – “It is not what I want to happen”: Flipping through the book yesterday, he explained that these images had been items of hate mail sent to his colleagues by right-wing extremists who disapproved of their activism. These images, he insistently demonstrated, were separated from the newspaper cartoons by several pages of letters. “How could anyone mistake these for the newspaper images?” he asked. “It cannot be that anyone would make this mistake.”

The final word (for now) I leave to sorrynorwaydenmark.com: The problem with media representation of such issues tends to be that the media only picks up the loudest voices, ignoring the rational ones that do not generate as much noise. Voices that seek tolerance, dialogue and understanding are always drowned out by the more sensationalist loud calls, giving viewers the impression that these views are representative of all the Arab public’s view. This website is a modest attempt at redressing this wrong. We would appreciate it if you could forward the word to as many of your friends as possible.

UPDATE – Wikipedia now has a page featuring scans of the Akkari dossier.

UPDATE – (Puts head in hands. Weeps.)