Everybody Draw Mohammad Day aftermath

Comments ¹⁷

1. dan reynolds

   This is, or should be, all ado about nothing, but when people keep propping it up and “drawing” attention to it, it fans the spark of interest in this issue and inflames some, causing recurrent brush fires.

   Let it die. In my opinion, cartoonists who keep it going are all about “drawing” attention to THEMSELVES by USING this issue for self-promotion. What other reason is there to keep it going? There’s an old saying, if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it. That goes for what you say by drawing as well.

2. Tom Wood

   The Danish cartoons put cartoons at the leading edge of THE clash of civilizations of our age. A site called ‘The Daily Cartoonist’ that is dedicated to cartoon news is supposed to ignore this story? Why?

   Cartoonists have been handed the opportunity to be in the forefront of challenging one of the most repressive social-political systems on the planet. And you say we should be quiet because being critical is not saying anything ‘good’? Why isn’t that cowardice?

   EDMD is now being billed as an annual event. If you want to draw pabulum go ahead, but don’t clutch your pearls and ‘tsk tsk’ at others who want to actually say something about world events. You’re just ‘drawing’ attention to your own dramatics.

3. dan reynolds

   I’m not saying to ignore it. DC did what it should, IMO, to detail it. They did, but at some point beating a dead camel is, well, beating a dead camel.

   That’s reminds me of being in the back seat of the car as a kid…”He touched me first, no, he touched me first.” That’s the kind of rebuttal you use when you don’t really have a compelling and defensible response.

   I believe those cartoonists are grandstanding.

   Your trying to use my own opinion about the motives of these cartoonists as the reason I’m even talking about this is, well, MUCH more amusing than any drawings they’re making of Mohammad.

   Having said all that, God Bless America, that DC can write about these things, even to the annoyance of people like me. And God Bless America that people like you can tell me how wrong I am.

4. Alan Gardner  (admin)

   I?m not saying to ignore it. DC did what it should, IMO, to detail it. They did, but at some point beating a dead camel is, well, beating a dead camel.

   As acronyms go, I much prefer TDC to DC so as not to confuse this blog with the nation’s capital city – because when it happens, it’s, well, embarrassing. The exception, of course, is when you’re listing me alphabetically with other comic blogs. Then I’d rather be listed as “Daily Cartoonist” so as to list higher than other blogs such as “THE Comics Curmudgeon” and “THE Comics Reporter.” 🙂

   While I’m nitpicking, there is no “they” here. Just me. Beating dead camels. Or horses. I have no bias toward clichés.

5. Pat Crowley

   “The Danish cartoons put cartoons at the leading edge of THE clash of civilizations of our age. A site called ?The Daily Cartoonist? that is dedicated to cartoon news is supposed to ignore this story? Why?

   Cartoonists have been handed the opportunity to be in the forefront of challenging one of the most repressive social-political systems on the planet. And you say we should be quiet because being critical is not saying anything ?good?? Why isn?t that cowardice?

   EDMD is now being billed as an annual event. If you want to draw pabulum go ahead, but don?t clutch your pearls and ?tsk tsk? at others who want to actually say something about world events. You?re just ?drawing? attention to your own dramatics.”

   Mighty tough talk for someone who’s never drawn for legitimate (i.e. print) media.

   Glorified “Veggie Tales” style talking heads on a blog don’t count. A Muslim has to actually SEE a cartoon before he can get offended.

   Blogging is to journalism what ham radio is to broadcasting.

6. Shane Davis

   “Blogging is to journalism what ham radio is to broadcasting.”

   Ha!

7. Mike Peterson

   “Cartoonists have been handed the opportunity to be in the forefront of challenging one of the most repressive social-political systems on the planet.”

   Thanks — the weather and pollen have been rough on my sinuses and this is the first thing that’s produced a snort big enough to clear them out.

   There has been much in the Mideast conflict that has reminded me of the early 1980s in Northern Ireland — and in this case, the cartoonists who think they are striking a blow against Muslim extremists are playing the part of the pot-bellied American buffoons in their bawneen sweaters, singing IRA songs in safe Boston bars while real Irish were dying for their amusement.

   “Mighty tough talk for someone who?s never drawn for legitimate (i.e. print) media.”

   No, no, please stop — my sinuses are fine now. I don’t need a nosebleed.

8. Art Dawson

   Although I didn’t support “Draw Mohammad Day” If I were commissioned to do so, I would draw Mohammad as a one eyed monkey, with a receding hair line and a wooden foot. And dare someone to say something about it! Sorry guys but this is still America!

9. Jim Lavery

   ?Blogging is to journalism what ham radio is to broadcasting.?

   Me-OW!

10. Jim Lavery

    Maybe we should enact “Everybody Draw Moe Howard Day”.

    Maybe that would have been funnier a week ago.

11. bielie

    @ Dan Reynolds

    Zapiro is the most revered and respected political sitarist is South Africa.

    Believe me, he does not need to draw “attention on himself”

12. Gar Molloy

    Someone on the Webcomics Community forum suggested a Draw Abraham on the Toilet Day to try and get a bit more fun out of this through the power of mass sarcasm.

13. bielie

    “There has been much in the Mideast conflict that has reminded me of the early 1980s in Northern Ireland ? and in this case, the cartoonists who think they are striking a blow against Muslim extremists are playing the part of the pot-bellied American buffoons in their bawneen sweaters, singing IRA songs in safe Boston bars while real Irish were dying for their amusement.”

    @ Mike Peterson

    Yeah, tell that to Theo van Gogh. He was in a safe town in Holland.

14. Tom Wood

    @Pat – Thanks! You are so right. How stupid of me to take advantage of blogging software as a content management system. How reckless of me to just put experimental work out there on the web where anyone can come across it without any editorial controls at all. Pity the children.

15. darryl ayo brathwaite

    What is this, some kind of personal beef? Are you guys nerds or what? You should stick to comics and stick that print-comics-versus-internet-comics in your ear.

    >:(

    (Keep up the good work, Alan)

16. Mike Peterson

    “Yeah, tell that to Theo van Gogh. He was in a safe town in Holland.”

    Airey Neave died in a safe town. So did Mountbatten. So did the Irish radicals murdered in Gibraltar.

    That doesn’t make the potbellied poseur buffoons any braver and it doesn’t change the fact that they were trying to live vicariously through other people’s danger.

    However, the other thing I learned from that era was that there’s no point in arguing with True Believers. I’m just glad the Symbionese Army didn’t threaten cartoonists or we’d be hip-deep in drawings of watermelon and banjos, together with self-righteous explanations of why the cartoons aren’t offensive.

17. j.p.christiansen

    The Old Man And The Cartoon.

    Once upon a time,
    in a country small, up north,
    near close to sea and fjord,
    so peaceful and pleasantly agreeable,
    there lived an innocent and friendly old man
    who loved to draw cartoons to express his thought.

    He looked out upon the great, wide, wonderful world,
    and to his amazement found religious strife and killings
    practiced by people called Muslims.

    Living, as he did, among fellow, open-minded citizens
    who valued human life and human values above all else,
    he decided to draw the prophet of Islam in a cartoon.

    The image which appeared, like magic, on his paper,
    was of the prophet?s head wrapped in a turban,
    and in the turban rested a round, black, lit bomb.

    People first thought the prophet was about to commit suicide,
    but, after contemplating the drawing for awhile,
    it became apparent some other meaning might be hidden.

    Some of the believers of the religion called Islam,
    lived in the small country, up north,
    and when they saw the cartoon of their beloved prophet
    depicted in such a blasphemous manner,
    thought it might be a good idea to show the cartoon
    to other followers of their beloved, peaceful religion.

    They set upon a journey to countries far away in the big world,
    where they soon found other adherents of their religion.
    Together they decided the cartoon might be of use
    to incite hatred of the heathens, up north,
    and so it came to pass,
    dear children,
    that masses of Muslims went out to burn and kill.

    They wanted to show the small, peaceful country,
    up north,
    that people, of different faiths and opinions on life,
    had better temper their freedom to think, talk, and act,
    ?cause if they didn?t,
    the prophet?s holy men and warriors would come after them.

    The religious leaders of Islam pronounced that the old man
    should die for having drawn their prophet in unflattering light,
    and he had to go into hiding from the theistic thugs hot on his trail.

    The old man survived for several years,
    and one day he got an invitation to travel to a big country
    on the other side of the ocean.

    It appeared that certain folks, over there, in America,
    wished to hear the tale of the old man and his cartoon.
    He learned that in America many different people and religions
    co-existed mostly in peace,
    and that America might be a safe place to show himself.

    When he arrived,
    he learned that many people were afraid of him and his cartoon,
    and that only a very few newspapers and television-stations
    had dared show the cartoon to their viewers.

    He realized that many inhabitants of America
    were somewhat immature in their intellectual convictions,
    and had to be protected from their own mental habits
    by not being exposed to certain images and words.

    The old man thought it humorous that editors of print and image
    would tow the line of a mentally unstable person and his believers;
    after all, weren?t these moderns atheists, Christians, Jews, or Other?

    He went on to be interviewed by reporters and T.V. personalities,
    and soon found out that the believers of Christianity and Judaism,
    in particular, showed support for the old man and his cartoon,
    some even calling him a hero and fighter for freedom of expression.

    Being an old and wise man, he knew they supported him
    because various religions tend to dislike each other,
    and by praising the old man, could gain support for their own religion.

    This type of behavior of conversion, dear children,
    has been playing-out for many, many centuries…
    ever since the so-called prophets of religion
    suffered their psychotic episodes of hallucinations and visions
    to be imposed on the rest of the world.

    Once upon a time,
    in a country small, up north,
    near close to sea and fjord,
    an old man drew a cartoon of a prophet?s head with a lit bomb in his turban,
    and guess what, children,
    nobody knew that beneath the big, black, lit bomb,
    there nested many little bomblets waiting to go out in the big, wide world
    to spread the good words and news about Islam.

    Good night, children, and sleep well.