Almost all of these images have at one time or another been used on my diary. They are not my own creations.

They relate to the anti-freedom-of-speech violence and incitement to violence whipped up by Jihadis in early 2006, supposedly excused by the publication of twelve Mohammed depicting cartoons in a Danish newspaper (jyllands-posten) in September 2005.

The Twelve Cartoons

These are the original twelve cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten. Apparently someone at the newspaper heard that a writer was having trouble finding artists willing to do non-anonymous illustrations for a book on the life of Mohammed. The newspaper solicited cartoons and published them on the front page along with an explanatory defence of free speech.

France Soir Cartoon

One of the first major newspapers to republish the cartoons was the France Soir. They also created a new cartoon of their own. The following is a translated version created by the staff at abelard.org:

Mohammed Photoshop Competition

A Dutch blog held a competition for people to photoshop images of Mohammed in amusing ways. Most entries are not up to the standards of the three i have chosen to show here:

Note that the picture of Mohammed used in the two images at the top is one openly bought on the streets of an Iranian city in 1991 [apparently it is actually a picture of Mohammed's brother Ali, and has been very widely misattributed, including, if i understand correctly, by the original salesman]. The other image is adapted from a Muslim drawn Persian (read Iranian) or Central Asian illustration from the middle ages. Most of the base images used in the competition come from this page of depictitions of Mohammed through the ages, both in the West and the Muslim world, both respectful and not.

Jihadis Incite Violence in London

The unflattering images are clearly aimed at Jihadis, rather than sane Muslims. The Jihadis responsed in London by marching through town openly inciting violence. One of their charming chants was "UK USA, 9/11 on its way". The police stood idly by, refusing to arrest any of the criminals, but instead arresting two counter protesters carrying copies of some of the cartoons "to avoid a breach of the peace".

[One of many signs inciting violence during a march in London in early February 2006]

[A wider view of the same 'protest' in London, showing the police not preforming their duty to arrest those inciting violence.]

[Another image showing the British police shirking their duty.]

[This image show the somewhat different behaviour of the British police at an earlier peaceful march by those protesting the anti-fox hunting bill.]

Support Demark

A number of banners have appeared around the internet to support the Danish and their newspaper's stand for freedom of speech, the best of which can be found here:

Jihadi Vandalism and Violence

Other jihadi 'responses' to the exercise of free speech in Europe include burning down embassies in Syria and Lebannon, storming EU offices in Palestine and burning flags across most of the Islamic world (Indonesia is a notable exception). There have also been fatwas, kidnapping and death threats against Danish and other tourists and workers and trade embargos against Denmark and others. You can see a short video presentation of photographs related to this behaviour here.