Abortion Timeline

TheFaceofHate

The series of photographs displayed below are real. They were taken on February 3, 2006 during a protest staged in London by Muslims angry over the publication of a series of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. The cartoons were originally published by the Danish newspaper Jyllends-Posten approximately four months earlier. Clearly the sketches were intended to incite controversy. For example: one illustration depicts Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. A second one shows him telling dead suicide bombers that he has run out of virgins with which to reward them. Not only were the cartoons insulting to one of the worlds major religions, but according to Islam any portrayal of Muhammad is blasphemous because it has the potential for encouraging idolatry.

In October [2005] when the illustrations were originally published, ambassadors from ten Muslim countries complained to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, who refused to interfere with the press’s freedom.

However, the February protest was fuled after the cartoons appeared a month earlier in Magazinet, a Christian newspaper in Norway, as well as on a website of the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.

With respect to the London demonstration, an estimated 500 to 700 protestors marched from Regent's Park Mosque to the Danish embassy in Knightsbridge. The messages displayed on many of their signs reflected more than outrage. They were a declaration of unadulterated HATE. David Davis, a local official, condemned them as an "incitement to murder":

"Clearly, some of these placards are an incitement to violence, and indeed incitement to murder — an extremely serious offence, which the police must deal with and deal with quickly."

David Winnick, a member of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, called for the prosecution and deportation of some of the demonstrators: Mr. Winnick said:

"The cartoons were deeply offensive to hundreds of millions of Muslims. But it is totally unacceptable that, on British soil, there should be thugs demonstrating for people to be beheaded and actually glorifying the atrocities of July 7. It is to be hoped that prosecutions will follow very quickly indeed."

Mr. Winnick also suggested that those responsible who were temporarily in Britain should be deported, even if it meant stripping them of permission previously given to remain in the country.

According to police reports no arrests were made due to the danger posed by the size and nature of the crowd and the fear of a potential riot. As one senior Scotland Yard officer said:

"We have to take the overall nature of the protesters into account. If they are overheated and emotional we don't go in. It's like a risk assessment; you have to look at the crowd you are dealing with. If we went in to arrest one person with a banner the crowd would turn on us and people would get hurt."

Although the protest was triggered by what was alleged to be offensive images of Muhammad, the sentiments reflected on the many signs and placards suggest that something far greater was the source of this public demonstration of hate. The total contempt these people have for the west in general and England and the United States in particular has grown to a point to where there is actually a sense of pride in expressing it. In the opinion of Blow the Trumpet, this march was less about cartoons and more about the violence they long for. The messages carried on their signs celebrated horrible acts of savagery and declared that this was only the first step. In short, there is more to come and it may involve more than just words.

A Final Thought

It is interesting that these images never found their way to the American press although the media is more than willing to broadcast the sins of a few US soldiers in Iraq. The real question that should arise out of these pictures is: Is it even possible to peacefully coexist with people who are totally committed to destroying you? That is the question Israel is struggling with today. And as distasteful as it may be, it is one that the United States and Britain will have to face very soon.