Flemming Rose, the "cultural editor" of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten decided to publish 12 provocative and inflammatory cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad - including one in which the Prophet is shown wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, the International Herald Tribune reported on December 31, 2005.
The Danish newspaper was unprepared for the global furor which was provoked by the cartoons. The offensive cartoons resulted in demonstrations in Kashmir, death threats against the artists, condemnation and rebukes from 11 Muslim countries and the United Nations.
"The cartoons did nothing that transcends the cultural norms of secular Denmark, and this was not a provocation to insult Muslims," Flemming Rose, cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's largest newspaper, said, rather disingenuously.
Rose and the paper have refused to apologize for publishing the drawings.
"But if we talk of freedom of speech, even if it was a provocation, that does not make our right to do it any less legitimate before the law," Rose said in an interview from Miami, where he has fled to escape the publicity after living under police protection in Denmark.
But Rose acknowledges that even his liberalism has its limits. He said he would not publish a cartoon of Israel's Ariel Sharon strangling a Palestinian baby, since that could be construed as "racist." He would, however, publish a cartoon poking fun at Moses or one of Jesus drinking a pint of beer.
Now why would Rose refuse to publish a cartoon depicting Ariel Sharon, a known war-criminal and genocidaire, strangling a Palestinian baby?
Why would such a cartoon, correct and accurate in its depiction, be considered "racist" by Flemming Rose? Sharon has certainly been responsible for the murder of thousands of Palestinians during his time on this planet. He is a well-known war criminal. So, why would an Israeli war criminal be protected by Mr. Rose?
Are we likely to see cartoons in Jyllands-Posten calling into question the force-fed Zionist myth of the Holocaust, which has become the new "Holy Cause" of Europe?
Why should the criminal history of a Zionist leader or outstanding questions about the the Second World War be more protected than the worshipped prophet of one of the world's major religions?
Take a good look at the non-Danish "cultural" czar of Jyllands-Posten and ask yourself.
Photo: Flemming Rose, the Zionist gatekeeper and cultural czar of Jyllands-Posten, sitting in the "chairman's" seat during a trip to Estonia. Photo by Lone Jurgensen of Jyllands-Posten.
