Editorial cartooning

Islamic group: MacKinnon cartoon is hate crime

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Alan Gardner May 9, 2008 1 minute 3 comments

A Nova Scotia Islamic group is claiming that an editorial cartoon by Chronicle Herald cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon is a hate crime. The cartoon that was published on April 18 depicts a woman in a burka holding a sign that reads, “I want millions” while saying, “I can put it towards my husband’s next training camp.” The cartoon is in response to the arrest of Qayyum Abdul Jamal in an anti-terrorism raid in 1996 and was recently released after the charges against him were stayed. The woman depicted in the cartoon is his wife, Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal who is threatening to sue the Canadian government for millions of dollars.

Zia Khan, the director of the Centre for Islamic Development in Halifax, says that the cartoon is libelous.

“You would not put a native American Indian with feathers and say I need money in order to cull white people’s heads. You wouldn’t do that.”